RIP, Max Cherry

In 1998, Gus Van Sant made a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's seminal shocker Psycho. One of the stars -- seen near the very end of the film -- was Robert Forster, playing the psychiatrist who explains Norman Bates. The role was played by Simon Oakland in the 1960 original.

Forster was actually one of the most important cast members in the Van Sant, because a year before -- in December of 1997 (Van Sant's Psycho opened in December 1998), Forster had been given the Oscar-nominated movie comeback of a lifetime when Quentin Tarantino gave him the role of Max Cherry, balding 50-something bail bondsman, in "Jackie Brown."

Ostensibly, the bigger comeback was Jackie Brown herself -- Pam Grier -- but when Oscar time came, only Forster got an Oscar nom...Best Supporting(he lost to Robin Williams for Good Will Hunting, as did Burt Reynolds for Boogie Nights.)

Key to Forster's performance in Jackie Brown -- I swear -- was his FACE. A gorgeous male beauty in his youth(Reflections in a Golden Eye; Medium Cool) Foster had aged into a kind of worried, sad handsomeness -- you liked him, and you felt a little sad for him but you knew(as a bail bondsman) Cherry could still kick ass if he had to.

I'll go further: in a 1980's movie about American commandos taking on Middle Eastern terrorists -- The Delta Force with Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin -- Forster played the head terrorist and I remember thinking: he looks too NICE to be a terrorist. As Norris methodically beat, tortured and killed this "evil man" I thought: "Oh, leave him alone, Chuck...he's kinda sad."

I've often wondered if QT saw that niceness because its sure there in Max Cherry. Jackie Brown sees it, too and the two become one of the great middle-aged love couples in movie history. And I like what one critic said about Max Cherry: "He's perfectly accepting to be the lieutenant to Jackie's leader in this criminal caper."

Max Cherry and Jackie Brown and that Oscar nomination were enough to make it a fairly big deal when Forster took on bombastic Simon Oakland's psychiatrist role from Psycho. Again...he was nice. And low key. And a bit boring actually. Oakland hit everything harder and Forster (with only half of Oakland's dialogue) proved why that was necessary.

Forster was saved for aging character stardom in the 20 plus years since Jackie Brown and Psycho - - I hear he was on Breaking Bad, for instance. And I remember him as a very interesting character in The Descendants -- the father of George Clooney's wife, now in a death coma, who loves his daughter and hates his son-in-law -- and never knows that his daughter was cheating ON that son in law. Moreover, Forster's aged wife has Alzheimer's and cannot comfort him: she doesn't even know what's going on. Its a painful side story in a very sad movie.

Trivia: QT "hung on" to the idea of Foster in a movie after initially interviewing him to play a pretty bad guy in Reservoir Dogs -- the aged gangleader played by growly bald guy Lawrence Tierney. Tierney was right for that role, and it took five years for QT to give Forster the RIGHT role.

RIP Max Cherry.

PS. I recall reading a "blurb" article in some 90's movie magazine(maybe Movieline) called "Celebrity Sightings" or some such. It was based on people reporting in when and where they saw movie stars and other celebrities around Hollywood.

Well, someone turned in this tidbit: they saw Robert Forster, sitting all alone, at the Village Theater in Westwood(near UCLA in West Los Angeles), watching Psycho. You can imagine Forster proud to be in another major movie, for another major director...albeit in a very short part. He had to watch the whole movie to see his truncated version of the psychiatrist scene, but I'm sure he enjoyed it.

And this: The Village Theater in Westwood can be seen in QT's new movie "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." Its the theater across the street from the theater where Sharon Tate watches herself in "The Wrecking Crew" at the Bruin Theater. The marquee for the Village has the 1969 George Peppard film Pendulum playing.

So: Robert Forster, in real life, did what Sharon Tate, in fiction does in OUATIH: Watch themselves at a Westwood Village theater in a movie, all alone.