Preston S. Foster's first public appearance was in the church choir in his home town of Ocean City, New Jersey. Gifted with a robust singing voice and muscular physique, Foster was one of the most prominent members of Pittsburgh's Pennsylvania Grand Opera Company. After Broadway experience, Foster entered films in 1929, at first specializing in such unsympathetic roles as the rebellious death-row inmate in The Last Mile (1932). He offered strong, complex performances in roles like the Irish rebel leader in The Informer (1935), the blacksmith-turned-gladiator in Last Days of Pompeii (1935), and pompous sharpshooter Frank Butler in Annie Oakley (1935). He played the title character in 1943's Roger Touhy Gangster, which barely made it to the screen thanks to severe censorial cuts. From 1954 through 1955, Preston Foster starred as tugboat skipper/ adventurer/ family man Cap'n John Herrick on the popular syndicated TV series Waterfront.
by Hal Erickson
biography
