Michael Forest, Star Trek's Apollo and Corman regular, dies at 97

Michael Forest, the North Dakota-born actor who moved from Roger Corman films to memorable television roles including Apollo on Star Trek, died at age 97.

He died on a Wednesday while living in a facility for seniors in Sparks, Nevada, with the news announced by his friend James A. Brown, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He was 97.

Forest moved to Los Angeles and met Corman in an acting class. That connection shaped his early screen career and gave him steady work in low-budget features built for drive-ins and second bills.

He played Zarko in The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent in 1957. He followed that as local guide Gil Jackson in Beast From Haunted Cave in 1959. In 1960 he starred as an American soldier in the Corman-directed Ski Troop Attack and took the title role in Atlas, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

Television widened his audience. He played one of three alien brothers who arrive on motorcycles in the Twilight Zone episode “Black Leather Jackets,” which premiered on Jan. 22, 1964. He played Joe Coogan in The Dick Van Dyke Show episode “The Life and Love of Joe Coogan,” a former love interest of Laura who has become a priest. Then, in September 1967, he appeared as the Greek god Apollo in the Star Trek second-season episode “Who Mourns for Adonais?”

Forest specialised in working across borders. He made more than 20 films in Spain, France and England, including 100 Rifles in 1969. From 1968 to 1978 he lived in Rome, where he became fluent in Italian and dubbed more than 500 films, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

For viewers finding his work now, that range is the point. A Corman regular, a prime-time guest actor and a voice heard on hundreds of imported films all belonged to the same long career.