Actor. Born Forrest Meredith Tucker, he is best remembered for his role of Sergeant Morgan O'Rourke on the television comedy series "F Troop" (1965-1967). At 6 foot 5 inches and 200 pounds, he was both a hero and a villain in numerous action films throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Born in Plainfield, Indiana, he graduated from Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, Virginia in 1938, and for a short time, he played semi-pro football there. During a vacation to California in 1940, he auditioned for a movie role, mostly as a lark, and was cast in "The Westerner" (1940), staring Gary Cooper, playing a heavy and was noticed for his fight scene with Cooper. He was quickly signed to Columbia Pictures, and played in "Emergency Landing" (1941) and "Keeper of the Flame" (1942). Joining the US Army during World War II, he served in the Cavalry from 1942 to 1945, returning to his acting career upon his release from military service. His next film was "The Yearling" (1946), and he made a breakthrough role as Lance Corporal Al Thomas, a Marine with a dislike for Sergeant Stryker (played by actor John Wayne) in "Sands of Iwo Jima" (1949). He then began to get better roles, including the films "Rock Island Trail" (1950) and "California Passage" (1950), but during the later part of the 1950s he made a number of forgettable horror flicks, including "The Abominable Snowman" (1957), "The Cosmic Monster" (1958), and "The Crawling Eye" (1958). When he was cast as Beauregard Burnside in "Auntie Mame" (1958), he showed a flair for comedy, and he was soon cast as Professor Harold Hill in the stage version of "The Music Man," playing that role for the next five years. In 1965, he was cast in perhaps his most famous role, that of enterprising capitalist cavalryman Sergeant O'Rourke in "F Troop" with Larry Storch as his flunky sidekick. Following the run of F Troop, he made a few more films, and appeared often on television, playing the regular role of the estranged father of character Flo on the sitcom "Alice" (1976-1985), and showing up on such television shows as "Gunsmoke," "Dusty's Trail," "Marcus Welby, MD," "Ironside," "Kojak," "SWAT," "Police Woman," "Fantasy Island" and "Love Boat." Married four times, he fathered three children (one by his first wife Sandra Jolley and two by his third wife Marilyn Fisk). Tucker died in Woodland Hills, California, of throat cancer at the age of 67.