Michael Forest, a prolific and longtime character actor who appeared in the B movies of Roger Corman, lent his voice to numerous anime projects and guest starred in scores of TV series from The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, The Twilight Zone and The Dick Van Dyke Show to Silk Stalkings, daytime soaps and a memorably outsized role on Star Trek, died October 14. He was 97.
Sparks most recently resided at an assisted living facility in Sparks, Nevada. His death was announced on Facebook by his friend James A. Brown.
Among the actor’s numerous TV roles was a favorite among Star Trek fans: Forest played the giant Greek god Apollo in the memorable 1967 episode “Who Mourns for Adonais?”
Other notable TV roles include a former boyfriend of The Dick Van Dyke Show‘s Laura Petrie (Mary Tyler Moore) who gets set up for a date with Rose Marie’s ever-single Sally Rogers (Laura doesn’t know he has become a priest. That same year – 1964 – Forest played a member of an alien biker gangs in The Twilight Zone episode “Black Leather Jackets.”
Just a sampling of his many other TV credits in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s includes appearances on episodes of Zorro, Have Gun – Will Travel, Maverick, Ben Casey, The Outer Limits, Gunsmoke, Gomer Pyle: USMC, I Spy, Mission: Impossible, Gilligan’s Island, Get Smart, The Rookies and Who’s The Boss.
Forest also was a busy voice and dubbing actor, appearing in hundreds of animated films lending his skills to hundreds of The 1990s and 2000s saw Forest largely pivoting to voice work and dubbing for animated series and video games including entries in the Power Rangers and Dynasty Warriors franchises, World of Warcraft and various anime projects.
On the big screen, Forest appeared in such drive-in notables as 1959’s Beast From Haunted Cave and Roger Corman’s The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent (1958), Ski Troop Attack (1960) and sword-and-sandal adventure Atlas (1961). Decades later he played a pilot in the Tom Hanks 2000 film Cast Away, among other late career appearances.
Over the years he appeared in the soaps As The World Turns, Days of Our Lives and The Young and the Restless.
In 2013, Forest reprised his Apollo role for the fan-made web series Star Trek Continues.
Born Gerald Michael Charlebois on April 17, 1929, in Harvey, North Dakota, Forest moved to Los Angeles in 1955 and met director Corman through an acting class, leading to their collaborations that began in the late 1950s.
Forest was preceded in death by his wife, the actress Diana Hale, who passed away in 2022. Complete information on survivors was not immediately available.