Denis Forest

Denis Forest (September 5, 1960 – March 18, 2002) was a Canadian character actor. He was known for portraying henchmen in Academy Award-nominated blockbusters The Mask and Cliffhanger. He was the lead villain in the second season of the War of the Worlds television series. A graduate of the Ryerson Theatre School, he was an early founding member of Richard Rose and Thom Sokoloski's Autumn Angel Repertory theatre company, who received a Dora Mavor Moore Award nomination for Best Original Play, General Theatre at the 1984 Dora Mavor Moore Awards for the collective play Mein. In 1986 Forest and Bruce Verine premiered Projekt Putz, a satirical send-up of avant-garde performance art, at the Toronto Free Theatre. He also had occasional film and television roles in this era, including the television miniseries Race for the Bomb and Champagne Charlie. After the 1989 film The Long Road Home, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue work in American film and television. Forest died suddenly following a massive stroke in Los Angeles on March 18, 2002, after having dinner in a Franklin Avenue restaurant in Hollywood with a few friends.