Michael Forest, Actor in Roger Corman Movies and ‘Star Trek,’ Dies at 97

Michael Forest, the strapping actor who starred in Beast From Haunted Cave and other B-pictures for Roger Corman and made memorable guest-star appearances on classic episodes of The Twilight Zone , The Dick Van Dyke Show and Star Trek , has died. He was 97.

Forest was living in a facility for seniors in Sparks, Nevada, and died Wednesday, his friend James A. Brown announced.

A native of North Dakota, Forest also made more than 20 movies in Spain, France and England — among them 100 Rifles (1969), starring Jim Brown and Raquel Welch — and was a very busy voice actor who was fluent in Italian, dubbing more than 500 films while living in Rome from 1968-78. Related Stories Music Mark Pucci, Longtime Music Publicist and Blues Advocate, Dies at 79 TV Bernie Orenstein, Writer-Producer on 'That Girl,' 'Sanford and Son' and 'What's Happening!!,' Dies at 95

Six-foot-3 and 215 pounds in his prime, Forest had recently moved to Los Angeles when he met Corman in an acting class and was hired to play the whip-cracking barbarian Zarko in The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent (1957), starring Richard Devon, Abby Dalton and Jonathan Haze .

That led him to snowy Deadwood, South Dakota, and a turn as local guide Gil Jackson in the horror heist movie Beast From Haunted Cave (1959), produced by Roger’s brother, Gene Corman , and featuring Chris Robinson as the monster. ( Monte Hellman , who lived in the same apartment building as Forest at the time, made his feature directing debut on the film.)

One day after finishing work on Beast From Haunted Cave , Forest was back at it, starring as an American soldier in the Roger Corman-directed war flick Ski Troop Attack (1960). And after that, he quickly headed to Athens to portray the title hero in Atlas (1960), with Corman seeking to horn in on the popular Hercules pictures that starred Steve Reeves.

Forest played one of the three motorcycle-riding brothers from another planet (Lee Kinsolving and Tom Gilleran were the others) sent to wipe out humans on Earth on the Twilight Zone episode “Black Leather Jackets,” which starred Shelley Fabares and premiered on Jan. 22, 1964.

Nine days later, he was on CBS again on The Dick Van Dyke Show as a former love interest of Laura ( Mary Tyler Moore ) who’s now a priest — getting set up with Rose Marie ’s Sally Rogers was great for a few laughs — on the episode “The Life and Love of Joe Coogan.”

And on the second-season Star Trek episode “Who Mourns for Adonais?” that first aired in September 1967, Forest portrayed the Greek god Apollo who demands that the crew of the Starship Enterprise worship him as he falls for Lt. Carolyn Palamas (fellow guest star Leslie Parrish ).

In 2013, he returned as Apollo on the fan-produced series Star Trek Continues to work alongside his late wife, Diana Hale, as Athena.

Gerald Michael Charlebois was born on April 17, 1929, in Harvey, North Dakota.