Actor Kelly DeForest was born on January 20, 1920 in Atlanta. He did not dream of becoming an actor since childhood, thinking of devoting his life to medicine. But the years of Kelly’s youth fell during the Great American Depression, and there was no money to study at a prestigious medical institution. De Forset was brought up in a Baptist family, and from school years he sang in his father’s church choir. He had a beautiful voice and absolute hearing, which allowed him to perform on the local radio with solo parts, as well as sing accompanied by the Lew Forbes Orchestra at the Paramount Theatre.
At sixteen, after graduating from high school, Kelly went to visit his uncle in Long Beach, where he stayed for a year. There he decided to try himself in the acting field and informed his parents about it.
Since his father strongly did not support this idea, De Forset went to California for permanent residence, where he soon met director Ron Hawke and got his first role. During the day, Kelly worked as an elevator operator, and in the evenings he played in plays of the Long B troupe.
In 1942, in the play Poor Young Man, De Forest played the role of a tramp in a duet with actress Caroline Dowling. The stormy romance of young actors was interrupted by the war. Kelly was drafted into the Army Air Corps in New Mexico, where his lover visited several times. After the war, in 1945, the lovers finally got married.
After filming the Navy training film, Kelly was spotted by Paramount Pictures agents who offered him a formal contract. With this studio, the actor worked for two and a half years, starring in such films as “Horror in the Night” and “Different Girl”.
Then Kelly and his wife moved to New York, where the actor worked with the film company Warner Brothers. To this period belong works in the films “You are here”, “The last shootout in Corral County”, “The Offender”.
From New York, Kelly returned to California, where he was offered the role of “bad guys”. In this role, the audience remembered him in the films “Country of Weeping Trees”, “Wizard”. He did not like to play negative characters, and, wanting to escape their image, Kelly starred in the films Where Love Goed, 333 Montgomery, Police Story and, finally, in his star television series.
"Star Trek" .
where he played the role of Dr. Leonard McCoy, which brought him world fame.
After retirement, the actor lived a calm, measured life, caring for the garden, writing poems, reading books, being fond of painting. Kelly De Forset died on June 11, 1999, bequeathing himself to be burned in a crematorium and his ashes scattered over the ocean.