Forrest Tucker mini-bio: Forrest Tucker (February 12, 1919 - October 25, 1986) was an American actor in both movies and television from the 1940s to the 1980s. Tucker, who stood 6'5" and weighed 200 lbs. (91 kg), excelled as both hero and villain in nearly 100 action films throughout the 1940s and 1950s. In 1939 1939, Tucker took a vacation to California, and he soon began auditioning for movie roles. He was cast as Wade Harper in The Westerner (1940), which starred Gary Cooper. He stood out in a fight scene with Cooper and was signed to Columbia Pictures.
In 1941, he played his first lead in Emergency Landing, and the following year he co-starred in the classic Keeper of the Flame. From 1942 to 1945, Tucker served in World War II, reaching the rank of Second Lieutenant during his second stint in uniform. Tucker resumed his acting career after the war, appearing in the classic 1946 film The Yearling and stealing a few scenes from Errol Flynn in Never Say Goodbye the same year.
In 1948, Tucker left Columbia and signed with Republic Pictures. At Republic he made his breakthrough in Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), as Corporal Thomas, a Marine with a score to settle with John Wayne's Sergeant Stryker. Graduating to top billing, Tucker starred in numerous action films during the 1950s, including Rock Island Trail (1950), California Passage (1950), The Abominable Snowman (1957), and The Crawling Eye (1958). Also in 1958, he played Beauregard Burnside, Mame's first husband in Auntie Mame, which was the highest grossing U.S. film of the year. This film marked another turning point in Tucker's career, as he showed a flair for light comedy under the direction of Morton Da Costa.
Tucker returned to the big screen after an absence of several years in 1986, playing the hero, trucker Charlie Morrison, in Cannon's action film Thunder Run (1986). Unfortunately, Tucker's feature film comeback was short-lived, as he died from lung cancer on October 25, 1986, five months after the film's theatrical release. He was 67 years old.
