Perhaps best known for his role in Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, Forster had a long and distinguished career.
Robert Forster has died of brain cancer at the age of 78, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
A prolific and acclaimed performer, Forster had over 180 acting credits to his name, and is perhaps best known for his turn as charming bail bondsman Max Cherry in Quentin Tarantino’s superb Jackie Brown, which led to an Oscar nomination and a career resurgence.
Tarantino previously had Forster in mind for the role that went to Lawrence Tierney in Reservoir Dogs, ultimately writing the character of Cherry specifically for him a few years later.
In an interview from last year, Forster recalled bumping into Tarantino in a coffee shop and having idle conversation.
Six months later, Tarantino would present him the script for Jackie Brown in the very same establishment.
“When I read it I could hardly believe that he had me in mind for Max Cherry, except that nothing else made any sense,” he said.
“So when I asked him about it, he said, ‘Yes, it’s Max Cherry that I wrote for you.’ That’s when I said to him, ‘I’m sure they’re not going to let you hire me.’
“He said, ‘I hire anybody I want.’ And that’s when I realised I was going to get another shot at a career.”
Forster was most recently seen in Netflix’s Breaking Bad epilogue El Camino, reprising a small but pivotal role that he played in the show towards its end in 2013.
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