Kellam de Forest

November 11, 1926 - January 19, 2021 Kellam de Forest died in Santa Barbara on January 19 from complications of COVID-19. Son of landscape architects Lockwood and Elizabeth Kellam de Forest, Kellam attended Thacher School, and, after a year serving his country stateside during WWII, graduated from Yale University in 1949. He moved to Los Angeles in 1952 and established an independent business conducting legal and historic research for the nascent television industry. Over the next four decades, Kellam became known as "Hollywood's Answer Man," and his firm, de Forest Research, contributed to the verisimilitude of hundreds of motion pictures, from acclaimed classics (e.g., "Chinatown", "All the President's Men") to straight-to-video forgettables as well as thousands of television episodes, beginning with "The Untouchables" and "Profiles in Courage," and carrying on through several generations of Star Trek. A TV Guide profile once named him "Hollywood's Answer Man." To the entertainment industry, the "de Forest Report" set the standard for the legal clearance and errors/omissions work that are now part and parcel to virtually every script in production. After Kellam retired in 1992, he returned to Santa Barbara, where he devoted the rest of his long life as a tireless advocate for preserving his beloved hometown's distinctive beauty and cultural heritage. Kellam was known and loved for his sharp, inquisitive mind, his exceptional memory, and his dogged research skills, as well as for his gentle dignity. Pre-deceased by his loving wife of 60 years, Margaret (Peggy) MacCormick, he will be sadly missed by his three children, Ann, Carmaig, and Elizabeth de Forest, their spouses, and six grandchildren, along with a great-grandchild-to-be. The family requests donations be made in Kellam's name to the Pearl Chase Society, P.O. Box 92121, Santa Barbara, CA 93190 or The Cottage Hospital Foundation https://www.cottagehealth.org/donate/