James Sicking as Lt. Howard Hunter in “Hill Street Blues”
Courtesy of the Everett Collection
James B. Sicking Steven Bochco The popular actor who played the earnest Lieutenant Howard Hunter Hill Street Blues And a kind-hearted doctor father Doogie Howser, MD He passed away. He was 90 years old.
Sicking died Saturday at his Los Angeles home from complications from dementia, publicist Cynthia Snyder announced.
Though best known for his television appearances, Sicking also made a notable appearance on the big screen, playing a cynical hitman in John Boorman’s film. Point Blank (1967) as the uptight Captain Styles Leonard Nimoyof Star Trek III: The Search for Mr. Spock (1984) and Alan J. Pakula as the FBI Director. Pelican Brief (1993).
After spending the better part of two decades appearing on shows like The Outer Limits, Honey West, fugitive, Hogan’s Heroes and MannixSicking starred in NBC’s “SOS 2010” as a pipe-smoking hunter and leader of a SWAT-like emergency action team. Hill Street Blues.
Bochco, who created the series with Michael Kozoll, gave Sikking the opportunity to shape the character, and the actor based Hunter on a drill instructor he met during basic training at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
“The instructor had hair like steel and his uniform had a lot of starch on it. [stand] “When I took it off in the barracks, I was in the corner,” he said in a 2014 interview. Fresno Bee“So when I started playing Howard, I chose how he should be dressed. It had to be very military-style.”
Sicking appeared in 144 episodes over seven seasons (1981–1987) of the acclaimed drama, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1984.
Bochco turned to Sikkin again. Doogie Howserand he played Vietnam veteran and family physician David Hauser, husband to Belinda Montgomery’s Katherine and father to Dougie (Neil Patrick Harris) for all four seasons of the ABC show (1989-1993).
He then reprised his role as a police officer in Bochco. Brooklyn SouthIt aired for one season (1997-98) on CBS.
James Barry, one of five brothers Peter Pan Sicking was born in Los Angeles on March 5, 1934. His mother, Sue, thankfully founded Unity by the Sea Church in Santa Monica after recovering from a car accident that nearly took her life, and his father, Art, followed his wife into the ministry as pastor.
Sicking attended El Segundo High School and, after military service, graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1959 with a degree in drama. Perry Mason and Mission: Underwater Since 1961, it has also appeared in films. Carpetbagger (1964), Von Ryan’s Express (1965) and Like Flint (1967).
James B. Sicking and Belinda Montgomery played the proud parents of Neil Patrick Harris’ character on Doogie Howser.
Courtesy of the Everett Collection
Sickening was a 1971 NBC Name of the game Bochco served as story editor and later made a guest appearance on the CBS show. Delvecchio and Paris As a regular on NBC Reversal — All three of these were written by Bochco — Hill Street Blues.
“I’ve done a lot of crap,” he said. Said Participation Hill Street in 2006. “This was something special.”
(He later appeared as a hunter on the ill-fated ABC series Bokko. Cop Rock 1990.
From 1971 to 1976, Sicking played Jim Hobart, a surgeon with a drinking problem, on the ABC soap opera. general Hospitaland he was Jim Carrey’s distant father in the acclaimed 1992 Fox TV movie Serving his sentence at Maple Drive.
He was hired for a one-day job. The Search for Spock By offer from the producer Harvey Bennetta former UCLA classmate.
Also includes Sicking’s film biography New Centurions (1972), The Magnificent Seven Rides! (1972), Scorpion (1973), Capricorn 1 (1977), Electric Knight (1979), competition (1980), Ordinary People (1980), Outland (1981), Star Chamber (1983), Close margin (1990), Final Approach (1991), Frenzy Pitch (2005) and Fulfillment of Honor (2008).
He is on HBO Curb Your Enthusiasm 2004.
Mr. Sicking was a passionate fundraiser for Cystic Fibrosis and the Susan G. Corman Foundation, and was affectionately known as “Jim the Reader” after reading to third graders in public schools for 19 years through the SAG Book Pals program.
He is survived by his second wife, Florine, a writer whom he met at UCLA and married in September 1962, his children Emily and Andrew, and grandchildren Laura, Gemma, Hugh and Madeline.
