Forrest Tucker - Hollywood Career

Hollywood Career

When Lake's theatre closed for the summer in 1939, Tucker travelled to California and began auditioning for movie roles. He was cast as Wade Harper in The Westerner (1940), which starred Gary Cooper. He stood out in a fight scene with Cooper and was signed to Columbia Pictures.

In 1941, he played his first lead in PRC's Emergency Landing, and the following year he co-starred in the classic Keeper of the Flame.

Tucker enlisted again in the Army during World War II, earning a commission as a second lieutenant. He resumed his acting career at the war's end, appearing in the classic 1946 film The Yearling and stealing a few scenes from Errol Flynn in Never Say Goodbye the same year.

In 1948, Tucker left Columbia and signed with Republic Pictures. At Republic, he made his breakthrough in Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), as PFC Thomas, a Marine with a score to settle with John Wayne's Sergeant Stryker. Graduating to top billing, Tucker starred in numerous action films during the 1950s, including Rock Island Trail (1950), California Passage (1950), Rage at Dawn (1955, where he played Frank Reno), The Abominable Snowman (1957), The Quiet Gun (1957), and The Crawling Eye (1958).

The year 1958 brought another turning point in his career, when he won the role of Beauregard Burnside, Mame's first husband in Auntie Mame, the highest grossing U.S. film of the year. Tucker showed a flair for light comedy under the direction of Morton DaCosta that had largely been unexplored in his roles in westerns and science fiction films.