‘Blue Duck’ of “Lonesome Dove” In Missoula – 1972
Lonesome Dove’s ‘Blue Duck’ In Missoula – 1972
Frederic Forrest – Actor in Missoula for film “When The Legends Die”
Actor Contends Role Fair to Indians
Tom Ellerhoff – Missoulian Staff Writer
Fredrick Forrest is an actor who thinks the film world’s conscience goes beyond box office sales.
Forrest was in Missoula Friday to promote his movie, “When the Legends Die,” but not in the stereo-typed Hollywood fashion.
There were no fat public relations men with cigars, thick PR packets or well rehearsed phrases, just an actor talking about his profession.
“I asked the studio if I could go out and talk about the film. It’s a kind of low key, yet is – I think – a very honest characterization of today’s American Indian,” he said.
Forrest plays a Ute Indian, Tom Black, who is taken from the wilderness as a child and thrown into the white man’s world. He is told to learn the “new ways” before going back to the “old ways.”
Black meets co-star Richard Widmark, a rodeo promoter, and learns to ride broncs. The story concludes with Black’s life going full circle, back to the wilderness.
A legitimate stage actor, Forrest found the Ute Reservation in southern Colorado radically different from the sidewalks of New York.
“You can read all the books written about the American Indian, but the only way to become aware of his plight is to see the life style he’s been forced to adopt,” Forrest said.
“He was never allowed to assimilate into society. At least the blacks were part of the economic structure as slaves.”
“Indians never had a chance to become part of our society – now there’s a movement to do so. The Utes are beginning to teach their native language in schools – a language which was virtually wiped out for more than 100 years,” he said.
The film has prompted comments from the Indian community.
“I was talking with one of the leaders of the American Indian Movement in Denver,” Forrest said. “He thought the film wasn’t strong enough, but admitted it was one of the best portrayals of the modern Indian. For example, how many pictures do you remember where the Indian gets the girl?”
The film studio was looking for a full-blooded Indian, but settled on Forrest, who is part Cherokee.
“I really felt sorry for a lot of the people who auditioned for the part. Many of them were taken from their towns to Hollywood for the tests – when they failed they thought there was something wrong with themselves,” he said.
“I had the advantage of having had acting experience,” he said. “I’m not a full-blooded Indian but I can’t change the color of my skin. The only way I can make my feelings known is through my art.”
When the film company set up on the Colorado reservation the Utes watched suspiciously.
“I think there was a certain amount of resentment when we first arrived, but after they watched us for a few days, they really got into it,” Forrest said.
“One day a man came up and said I had been accepted by the tribe and, well, it really felt wonderful.”
The above article appeared in The Sunday Missoulian on October 1, 1972.
https://www.newspapers.com/image/349770916
The soft-spoken actor was pictured aboard what appears to be a tough-bucking bronc for the above article.
Frederic Forrest, born in Texas in 1936, attended 3 different colleges and served in the U.S. Army before moving to N.Y., where he studied at Lee Strasberg’s acting studio. He had a long career as an actor that included nominations for Best Supporting Actor twice by the National Society of Film Critics – for his roles in ‘Apocalypse Now’ and ‘The Rose’. Working several times with director Francis Ford Coppola he starred in the movie, ‘One From The Heart’, in 1981, but was never cast in a lead role after that. He appeared in several T.V. movies and had roles in many T.V. series. He was married twice, the second time to actress, Marilu Henner.
One film critic, Vincent Canby, had this to say about the film:
“When Legends Die”, the first film to be directed by Stuart Millar, the producer (“Little Big Man,” “Paper Lion,” etc.), is an intelligent, gentle, almost reticent film about the education of Tom Black Bull to the point where he can decide for himself what is, after all, for his own good. It’s also about Indian pride and identity, but it doesn’t slug you over the head with these things in the manner of a movie like “Journey Through Rosebud.” In fact, “When Legends Die” may be too intelligent, too gentle and too reticent for its own good, especially in a market increasingly geared to the labeling of films as either hits or flops, which is more easily done when films deal in large, melodramatic gestures. “When Legends Die” does not. It deals in small betrayals, hurt feelings and interior resolutions, the sort of things more likely to send you out of the theater talking about good taste than feeling any particular elation . . .
Perhaps Forrest’s crowning role, at least from this Westerner’s perspective, came as he played “Blue Duck” in the Lonesome Dove T.V. mini-series. Though panned in some respects for the fact that he was not a full-blooded Indian, he nevertheless nailed the role in this viewer’s eyes.
Good luck, Frederic Forrest!
http://amprofile.blogspot.com/2014/07/frederic-forrest.html
https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/true-west/
http://articles.latimes.com/1989-01-31/entertainment/ca-1321_1_lonesome-dove