Actor James Sikking dies at 90 after dementia battle

LOS ANGELES — James Sikking, who starred as a hardened police lieutenant on “Hill Avenue Blues” and because the titular character’s kindhearted dad on “Doogie Howser, M.D.,” has died at 90.

Sikking died of issues from dementia, his publicist Cynthia Snyder mentioned in a press release Sunday night.

Born the youngest of 5 youngsters on March 5, 1934 in Los Angeles, his early performing ventures included an uncredited half in Roger Corman’s “5 Weapons West” and a bit function in an episode of “Perry Mason.” He additionally secured visitor spots in a litany of well-liked Nineteen Seventies tv sequence, from the action-packed “Mission: Unattainable,” “M.A.S.H.” “The F.B.I.,” “The Rockford Recordsdata,” “Hawaii 5-O” and “Charlie’s Angels” to “Eight is Sufficient” and “Little Home on the Prairie.”

“Hill Avenue Blues” would debut in 1981, a contemporary tackle the normal police procedural. Sikking performed Lt. Howard Hunter, a clean-cut Vietnam Battle veteran who headed the Emergency Motion Group of the Metropolitan Police Division in a never-named metropolis.

The acclaimed present was a drama, however Sikking’s character’s uptight nature and quirks have been usually used to comedian impact. Sikking based mostly his efficiency on a drill teacher he’d had at fundamental coaching when navy service reduce by way of his time on the College of California, Los Angeles, from which he graduated in 1959.

“The drill teacher regarded like he had metal for hair and his uniform had a lot starch in it, you knew it might sit within the nook when he took it off within the barracks,” he informed The Fresno Bee in 2014, when he did a sequence of interviews with varied publications marking the field set’s launch.

When it debuted on the heels of a Hollywood twin strike, the NBC present was met with low scores and little fanfare. However the struggling community stored it on the air: “Up popped this phrase ‘demographic,’” Sikking informed the Star Tribune in 2014. “We have been reaching folks with a sure schooling and (who) made a sure type of cash. They referred to as it the ‘Esquire viewers.’”

The present finally ran till 1987, though for a short second it wasn’t clear Sikking would make it that far. A December 1983 episode ended together with his character considering dying by suicide. The cliffhanger drew comparisons to the “Who shot J.R.?” thriller from “Dallas” not lengthy earlier than — though it was rapidly resolved when TV dietary supplements by chance ran a teaser abstract that made it clear Hunter had been saved.

“I keep in mind when Howard tried to kill himself. My brother referred to as and requested, ‘You continue to received a job?’ I mentioned, ‘Yeah,’ and he mentioned, ‘Oh good,’ after which hung up,” Sikking informed The Fresno Bee.

Sikking would earn an Emmy nomination for excellent supporting actor in a drama in 1984. The look and format of “Hill Avenue Blues” have been one thing new to Sikking — and plenty of within the viewers, from the dirty look of the set to the a number of storylines that usually stored actors working within the background, even after they did not have traces within the scene.

“It was plenty of laborious work, however everyone liked it and that reveals. When you’ve the people who find themselves concerned within the creation, manufacture — no matter you wish to name it — who’re actually into it and revel in doing it, you’re going to get product,” he informed Parade.com in 2014. “We all the time had three totally different tales working by way of (every episode), which suggests you needed to pay attention and also you had to concentrate as a result of every little thing was essential.”

Except for “Hill Avenue Blues,” Sikking performed Captain Types in 1984’s “Star Trek III: The Seek for Spock.” He wasn’t enthusiastic concerning the function, however had been lured by the concept that it might take only a day on set.

“It was not my cup of tea. I used to be not into that type of outer area enterprise. I had an boastful viewpoint in these days. I wished to do actual theater. I wished to do severe reveals, not one thing about anyone’s creativeness of what outer area was going to be like,” Sikking defined to startrek.com in 2014. “So I had a foolish prejudice in opposition to it, which is weird as a result of I’ve most likely and fortunately signed extra this, that or the opposite factor of ‘Star Trek’ than I’ve something of all the opposite work I’ve carried out.”

After the top of “Hill Avenue Blues,” he acted in almost 100 episodes of “Dougie Howser, M.D.,” reuniting with Steven Bochco, who co-created each “Hill Avenue Blues” and the Neil Patrick Harris-starring sitcom.

He married Florine Caplan, with whom he had two youngsters and 4 grandchildren.

Sikking had all however retired by the point the field set of “Hill Avenue Blues” got here out. He had fewer however memorable roles after the flip of the millennium, guest-starring on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and performing within the rom-com movies “Fever Pitch” and “Product of Honor.” His final roles have been as a visitor star on a 2012 episode of “The Nearer” and in a film that very same yr, “Simply an American.”

Sikking continued to do charity occasions. He was a longtime participant in movie star golf tournaments and even as soon as made it to the ribbon-cutting for a well being middle in an Iowa city of simply 7,200 folks. “Truly, I got here to get one thing from you — air I can’t see,” Sikking informed the group of 100 folks. “The place we’re from, if it isn’t brown, we don’t know breathe it, The Related Press reported in 1982.

“I most likely would do one thing if it received me going. Appearing is a license to do self-investigation. It’s an excellent ego journey to be an actor,” he informed startrek.com in 2014. “I have to say that, previously few years by which I haven’t labored, the obscurity has been fairly engaging.”

“The condiment of my life is sweet fortune,” he completed.