Robert Forster (born Robert Wallace Foster, Jr. (born July 13, 1941) is an American actor.

Forster was born in Rochester, New York to Grace Dorothy and Robert Wallace Foster, who worked as an elephant trainer for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and later as an executive for a baking supply company; the two divorced in 1949.

After smaller roles, such as Private Williams in Reflections in a Golden Eye, he starred in the critically acclaimed 1969 film Medium Cool, but thereafter played mostly supporting roles in action and horror films including Disney's The Black Hole (1979). Forster had lead roles in cult B-movies in 1980s like Alligator (1980), Vigilante (1983) and The Banker (1989). He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1997 for Jackie Brown, which he credits with reviving his career. A busy actor, he has since gone on to appear in Like Mike, Mulholland Drive, Me, Myself, & Irene and Firewall, to name a few. He recently appeared in the made for television movie The Hunt for the BTK Killer, as the detective intent on capturing serial killer Dennis Rader.