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Saturday, April 3, 2010

A Tribute To John Forsythe

In 1976 a voice poured out of a speaker and spoke three words that will forever be a Hollywood legacy.  "Good Morning, Angels," spoken from a voice that we never saw attached to a person for the entire run of Charlie's Angels.  John Forsythe was the man behind the voice and although Charlie's Angels only ran for five seasons, it made Forsythe the highest paid actor on television at the time.  The identity of the man behind the voice of Charlie was supposed to be a secret.

"Well, it proved as big a secret as Pearl Harbor," John Forsythe once recalled.

Forsythe was no stranger to popularity at the time.  Although he began his acting career in 1943, he didn't become a household name until 1957 with his role on a comedy titled Bachelor Father, playing the lead character Bentley Gregg.  That series was canceled in 1962 and fourteen years later he began playing the infamous Charlie Townsend.  And of course after Charlie's Angels cancellation, we all know that he THE Blake Carrington on Dynasty.  He was the only actor to have appeared in all 220 episodes.

In 1989 after nine seasons, Forsythe took a break from Hollywood until 1992 when he returned with a political comedy titled The Powers That Be from Norman Lear.  It starred a young Joseph Gordon Levitt, but the show only lasted one season before being canceled.  The father of one son and two daughters, he didn't officially retire from acting until after his appearances in the reboot of Charlie's Angels and the sequel, Charlies Angels: Full Throttle.

Sadly, John died Thursday of pneumonia amid a yearlong battle with cancer, his family said today. He was 92.
"I don't think I'm a soaring Marlon Brando, Laurence Olivier, or George C. Scott," Forsythe told Parade in 1984, "but I do think I'm a better actor than I've been given credit for."

3 comments:

Hokey said...

He was a class act. I'm sure his family will miss him. At least his fans will have his work to remember him by. RIP

Cap said...

Rent "... And Justice for All" and watch Forsythe be evil. He was unbelievably nasty in that movie. It's one of my favorite roles he played, although I did have a soft spot for Charlie.

Felix said...

As Hokey said a class act.