- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJohn Lincoln Freund
- Height5′ 11″ (1.80 m)
- John Forysthe was born Jacob Lincoln Freund in Penns Grove, New Jersey, the son of Blanche Materson (Blohm) and Samuel Jeremiah Freund, a Wall Street businessman. He chose to pursue acting over the objections of his father. He did some work in radio soaps and on Broadway before signing a movie contract with Warner Bros. His early career was interrupted by World War II. During the war, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps appearing in the Air Corps show "Winged Victory". After the war, he helped found the Actors Studio. He has had the most success on television, with healthy runs on Bachelor Father (1957), Dynasty (1981) and as the unseen voice of Charlie Townsend on Charlie's Angels (1976). John Forsythe died at age 92 of complications from pneumonia on April 1, 2010 in Santa Ynez, California.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Gustaf Molin <[email protected]>
- John Forsyth was educated at the Abraham Lincoln High School where he was a shy skinny boy who was considered a bit of a mothers boy as he always told his mother where he'd be and never got into trouble or played truant and where fellow pupils included Mel Brooks,Arthur Miller, Neil Sedaka and Neil, Diamond, He changed his name at the start of WWII because his agent thought his actual,surname of Freud sounded too German, At the time there was a men's clothes shop on Madison Avenue in New York called John Forsythes Mens Clothing and liking the ring of the name he took it. From 2 marriages he had 2 daughters and a son. In 1979 he nearly died after a 6 hour open heart operation He plays tennis and swims to keep ,fit- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tonyman 5
- SpousesNicole Carter(July 25, 2002 - April 1, 2010) (his death)Julie Warren(December 18, 1943 - August 15, 1994) (her death, 2 children)Parker McCormick(June 19, 1939 - August 12, 1943) (divorced, 1 child)
- Children
- ParentsSamuel Jeremiah FreundBlanche Materson
- Often played handsomely father-figure roles
- Rich mellifluous voice with Brooklyn accent.
- Silver hair.
- The voice of the mysterious boss Charles Townsend on Charlie's Angels (1976).
- Was the only actor to appear in all 220 episodes of Dynasty (1981).
- Before he was a successful actor, he once worked as a waiter in the same restaurant with Kirk Douglas.
- At least nine actors named him as their favorite actor: Billy Dee Williams, Richard Hatch, Rock Hudson, John Saxon, Pat Crowley, Carole Cook, Barbara Stanwyck, Charlton Heston and Kerry Armstrong, all nine worked with him on Dynasty (1981).
- Forsythe's lines for an entire episode of Charlie's Angels (1976) would be recorded in a sound studio in a matter of minutes, after which he would have lunch in the network's commissary and then head for the track.
- As an acting teacher, he taught up-and-coming actors Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Julie Harris and Patricia Neal at the same school. He even taught his future Dynasty (1981) co-star Joan Collins acting when she was just a teenager.
- I am an amiable fellow with no mind of my own.
- I like to be what I am, a reasonably simple happy kind of fellow.
- [His father's reaction when John told him he wanted to be an actor] His idea of an actor was John Barrymore. He could never understand why I wanted to act. "You're a good boy, a fine boy", he told me. "But I don't see anything about you that could make an actor. No flamboyance.".
- [on his long-running marriage to second wife Julie Warren] And it turned out to be a marriage that lasted 50-some-odd years. Not bad!
- [In 1981 about being himself as an actor] When I was down in Atlanta, about 3 or 4 weeks ago, a little lady walked up to me and she circled me, 3 to 4 times, and she looked at me and she said, "Didn't you used to be John Forsythe?". And I freely confessed you used to be. But that meant, too, that not enough people really began to know me as an actor; they never know me as a voice and thought I'd do something about it.
- Dynasty (1981) - $50,000 per episode (season 5)
- Charlie's Angels (1976) - $40,000 (per episode)
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