Author. Born in Los Angeles, California, to Carroll Wyman Cridland and William Schilling Ackerman. He attended the University of California at Berkeley, then went onto work as a movie projectionist and at odd jobs. In 1942 he enlisted into the Army where he rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant, held the position of editor of his base’s newspaper, and passed his entire time in service at Fort MacArthur, California. He met his wife Mathilda Wahrman in the 1950’s, in a book store he happened upon and she worked there. Forrest was fluent in the international language Esperanto.  His first public stance on any political issue was in opposition to the Vietnam War. He contributed to both of the first science fiction fanzines, The Time Traveller, and the Science Fiction Magazine, published and edited by Shuster & Siegel of Superman fame, in 1932, and by 1933 had 127 correspondents around the world. His name was used for the character of the reporter in the original Superman story “The Reign of the Superman” in issue 3 of Science Fiction magazine. He was one of the early members of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, and remained active in it for many decades. Forrest was legendary in science-fiction circles as the founding editor of the pulp magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland. He was also the owner of a huge private collection of science-fiction movie and literary memorabilia that for years filled every nook and cranny of a hillside mansion overlooking Los Angeles. His collection once included more than 50,000 books, thousands of science-fiction magazines and items like the Bela Lugosi’s cape from the 1931 film “Dracula.” He had been the one to discover Bradbury, author of the literary classics “Fahrenheit 451” and “The Martian Chronicles.”  Forrest claims the term “sci-fi” came to him in 1954 when he was listening to a car radio and heard an announcer mention the word “hi-fi.” Forrest has himself appeared in numerous films over the years. His credits include “Queen of Blood,” “Dracula vs. Frankenstein,” “Amazon Women on the Moon,” “Vampirella,” “Transylvania Twist,” “The Howling” and the Michael Jackson “Thriller” video. More recently, he appeared in 2007’s “The Dead Undead” and 2006’s “The Boneyard Collection.” Forrest had no children and died at the age of 92. (bio by: Shock)  Family links:  Spouse:  Wendayne Ackerman (1912 – 1990)Cause of death: Heart failure