John Forsythe goes it alone
By Mary Murphy
The well-loved actor speaks for the first time about losing his wife of 50 years— and his future without her.
Many assume that John Forsythe - like Blake Carrington, the dashing, elegantly dressed, silver-haired tycoon he portrayed on Dynasty — must be the epitome of icy, unemotional cool.
Nothing could be further from the truth. None of the characters he's depicted on television has quite shown the actor's vulnerability and forthrightness, especially in this moment of crisis.
Sipping cappuccino in a small Sunset Strip coffee shop, Forsythe is neither smooth nor stately. Sure, he is dressed the part of the patrician in a blue cashmere jacket, rep tie, and gray slacks. But his lip trembles, and the tears in his hazel eyes betray his grief, as he talks publicly for the first time about his wife Julie's recent death.
"It has been such a difficult time," he says. "It is such a shock to lose somebody you have been with for 50 years. She was an exceptional woman. She knew very well how to boost me along, how to handle me."
For weeks after his wife's death in August, Forsythe existed in a neverland of shock, anger, and grief. Tabloid headlines proclaimed that he had lost his will to live.
That is not fair," says Forsythe. "They make up stories. I haven't had time to be hidden away, because all of Julie's friends and my friends and my children (Brooke, Page, and Dall) have been inviting me to lunch and dinner."
August 15 was an ordinary day in what the actor says had been the best year of his 50-year marriage. In the morning, Julie worked in the house and the garden of the couple's new 30-acre ranch overlooking California's pastoral Santa Ynez Valley— near Michael Jackson's estate—some 25 miles north of Santa Barbara.
After lunch, Julie said she was tired. "She felt a little cold," says Forsythe. "She asked me if I would go and get her some Robitussin. I went down to the drugstore, and when I came back she was reading a book. Then she dozed off."
Sometime later, while he was watching The MacNefl/Lehrer NewsHour, his daughter Brooke called to speak to her mother. Forsythe entered the bedroom, where Julie was lying on the bed. "She looked like she was asleep, in a very peaceful sleep," he says, "until I realized that there was something very wrong.
"I touched her—she wasn't stiff and she wasn't cold. She was warm. I quickly yelled to the housekeeper to get an ambulance and call the police." Too frantic to sit still, he ran back into the bedroom, where he gave Julie CPR. "I breathed. I pressed her chest," he says. "Nothing was happening."
The seconds crept by as Forsythe tried to revive his wife, hi the background, he could hear the wail of the siren as the ambulance made its way up the hills. Forsythe leans back, overwhelmed by his recollection. "They spent about a half hour trying to revive her," he recalls. "Then they took her to the hospital, where they had better equipment"
Julie was placed on life support. "Dr. Lou Netzer, who was our doctor, said that it didn't look like their efforts were going to work, and that if they did, she would do little more than vegetate for the rest of her life," Forsythe says. "I had to make a decision. What a terrible decision. But I told him that if he and the other doctors thought that (ending life support) was the best thing, then they should do it. It was a very bad time, very bad."
In the aftermath of Julie's death, friends such as Karl Maiden and Lloyd Bridges gathered tightly around. Former Dynasty pal Linda Evans moved into Forsythe's guest house for a couple of days. Joan Collins wrote from the south of France. Cheryl Ladd called from Hawaii. Aaron Spelling and Arnold Schwarzenegger called and sent flowers.
Forsythe, who is now learning to live alone after 50 years of marriage, has begun making plans and looking ahead. He plays tennis frequently and has signed up to participate in three celebrity tournaments—in Monaco, Amsterdam, and London— this year.
The actor also did a well-received guest spot on the just-canceled ABC series Blue Skies. And he is currently negotiating with CBS and Paramount to do a TV-movie remake of The Defenders, a courtroom drama series from the early 1960's that starred E.G. Marshall. If the project comes together, it could lead to a "wheel," a series of TV-movies.
Some friends, in an attempt to speed up Forsythe's recovery, have tried to arrange dates for him. The actor says he's far from ready. "It is pleasurable to have the company of an attractive, interesting woman," he says, "but not now. It's much too soon. Maybe down the line I will date. I will never get married again; marriage is for having children. But certainly a relationship with someone is not out of the question... or maybe five or six women!
"If I had been the first to go—I was convinced that I would be—I would have wanted Julie to continue her life. I think it is destructive to mourn excessively," says Forsythe. "It's unproductive. It can't help Julie." And at 76, Forsythe, who survived quadruple-bypass surgery in 1979, says he has learned "to live completely and to live with a passion."
The Forsythes' marriage had often been called one of Hollywood's best. In 1942, petite, striking Julie Warren, a contract player at RKO, met John Forsythe, who was then under contract to MGM. The daughter of two circuit theater actors (her father was a handsome matinee idol), Julie was an energetic brunette who exuded a zest for life and had a wry sense of humor. She set her sights on Forsythe as her leading man. "To marry him, Mother chased Father across the country," says daughter Page. Julie Forsythe continued acting (appearing most notably in "Kings Row," as Ronald Reagan's girlfriend) until after the birth of her children. "Of course, we had some difficult times," says Forsythe. "When you are married to an actor, you are bound to. But on the whole it was wonderful. She really understood the actor's life."
It was a life that included what many Hollywood wives dread—romantic scenes with beautiful actresses. "I remember one Friday night I called to tell Julie I would be home late," Forsythe recounts. "I was shooting a scene with Joan Collins that we finished around one in the morning. When I finally got home, I was exhausted, but Julie was waiting up for me. 'It was quite a night,' I told her, and hopped into bed. The next morning, I looked in the mirror and saw there was lipstick on my mouth. And on my shirt. Joan Collins used a lot of lipstick, a tremendous amount of lipstick. At breakfast, I asked Julie: 'Didn't you notice anything funny last night?'
" 'Funny? In what way?' she asked slyly. 'Just a little lipstick on your collar.'
" 'You want to know how I got it? Joan Collins.'
" 'Oh,' said Julie. 'Well, that's lovely. I'm pleased about that.'
"She was absolutely comfortable," he says, smiling for the first time since the conversation began.
"I have been a very lucky fella," Forsythe says, "because I never considered myself a Marlon Brando or a Laurence Olivier. I always said life consists of love and work. I tried to balance it 50-50. And, of course, now I'm so happy I did."