Actor Michael Forest, whose more than 200 credits included a memorable role in the “Star Trek” franchise, has died at 97.
Forest died Wednesday, his friend James A. Brown said. Brown announced the news Friday in a post on Facebook.
“It is with great sadness that I report that we have lost Michael Forest,” Brown wrote. “I knew him as an actor and loved him as a friend. I’m sure others will share, but that’s all I’m capable of right now.”
Brown accompanied the announcement with a photo of himself and Forest, who was born Gerald Michael Charlebois, along with an image of the nameplate outside the actor’s room. The plate read “Jerry Charlebois.” According to Deadline, Forest had recently been living at MorningStar Senior Living in Sparks, Nevada.
Forest was perhaps best known for portraying the Greek god Apollo in “Who Mourns for Adonais?,” an episode of the original “Star Trek” series that aired in 1967.
He returned to the role decades later in “Star Trek Continues,” a fan-produced web series, in 2013.
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In a 2012 interview with StarTrek.com, Forest recalled that he auditioned for the part three times before winning the role.
“They had me take my shirt off to see if I had the muscles they were looking for,” Forest said. “Then they wanted me to do it in a British accent. I said, ‘That, for me, won’t work out. I can give you Mid-Atlantic theater speech, which I think will work for this character.’”
“So I read it in that vernacular and they said, ‘Yes,’ and came to the conclusion that I was the one to play the role.”
Forest also said in the interview that he considered much of his work before and after “Star Trek” to be “as good, if not better” than the episode itself. Still, he acknowledged that playing Apollo had “really given [him his] 15 minutes of fame.”
Forest was one of 40 “Star Trek” actors featured in Snoop Dogg’s 2020 science-fiction parody film “Unbelievable!!!!!”
His career extended well beyond “Star Trek.” Forest worked as a voice actor, appeared in B movies produced by Roger Corman and took roles in television shows such as “Zorro,” “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” “The Twilight Zone” and “Gilligan’s Island.” He also appeared in the 2000 film “Cast Away.”