‘Hill Street Blues’ and ‘Doogie Howser’ actor was 90

James Sikking as Lt. Howard Hunter in “Hill Street Blues”

Courtesy of the Everett Collection

James B. Sikking, Steven Bochco’s favorite who played Lt. Howard Hunter, a pragmatic man in Hill Street Blues and the good father doctor on Dr. Doogie Howser, died. He was 90 years old.

Sikking died Saturday at his Los Angeles home from complications related to dementia, his publicist Cynthia Snyder said.

Although best known for his television work, Sikking had notable roles on the big screen as a mocking hitman in John Boorman’s film. Point blank (1967), as the stuffy Captain Styles in Leonard Nimoy’s film Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) and as FBI Director in Alan J. Pakula’s film The Pelican File (1993).

After spending the better part of two decades appearing on shows such as The outer limits, Western Honey, The fugitive, Hogan’s Heroes And MannixSikking was cast as Hunter, a pipe-smoking SWAT team leader, on the NBC show. Hill Street Blues.

Bochco, who created the series with Michael Kozoll, gave Sikking the opportunity to craft his character, and the actor based Hunter on a drill instructor he met during basic training at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

“The instructor looked like he had hair made of steel and his uniform had so much starch in it that you knew it would stick in a corner when he took it off in the barracks,” he said in an interview with The Fresno Bee“When I started playing Howard, I chose how he was going to be dressed. He had to have a very military look.”

Sikking appeared in 144 episodes over the acclaimed drama’s seven seasons (1981–87) and received an Emmy nomination in 1984.

Bochco has once again turned to Sikking for Doogie Howserand he played Vietnam veteran turned family physician David Howser, husband of Katherine (Belinda Montgomery) and father of Doogie (Neil Patrick Harris), in all four seasons (1989-1993) of the ABC series.

He then played a policeman again for Bochco in Brooklyn Southwhich ran for one season (1997-98) on CBS.

One of five children, James Barrie (named after the Peter Pan (author) Sikking was born in Los Angeles on March 5, 1934. His mother, Sue, founded Unity by the Sea Church in Santa Monica as a thank-you after recovering from a near-fatal car accident. His father, Art, followed his wife into the ministry.

Sikking attended El Segundo High School and, after his military service, graduated from UCLA in 1959 with a degree in theater. He later appeared in episodes of Perry Mason And Mission: Underwater in 1961 and later in films such as The Carpetbaggers (1964), Von Ryan’s Express (1965) and In like Flint (1967).

Sikking worked on a 1971 episode of the NBC television series Name of the game in which Bochco served as story editor and later guest starred on CBS shows Delvecchio And Paris and as a regular host of the NBC show Turnaround — these three were also written by Bochco — before launching Hill Street Blues.

“I did a ton of stupid things,” he said of joining. hill street in 2006. “It was special.”

(He later appeared as Hunter in Bochco’s ill-fated ABC series Police rock in 1990.)

From 1971 to 1976, Sikking played Jim Hobart, a surgeon with a drinking problem, on the ABC soap opera General Hospitaland he was Jim Carrey’s estranged father in Fox’s acclaimed 1992 TV movie Doing a sentence on Maple Drive.

He was hired for his one day gig on The Search for Spock thanks to an offer from producer Harve Bennett, his former classmate at UCLA.

Sikking’s film resume is also included The new centurions (1972), The Ride of the Magnificent Seven! (1972), Scorpio (1973), Capricorn 1 (1977), The Electric Rider (1979), The competition (1980), Ordinary people (1980), Outland (nineteen eighty one), The Star Room (1983), Narrow margin (1990), Final approach (1991), Overexcitement (2005) and A fact of honor (2008).

And he appeared twice on HBO Calm your enthusiasm in 2004.

Sikking dedicated himself to fundraising for cystic fibrosis and the Susan G. Koman Foundation, and through the SAG Book Pals program, he read to third-grade public school classes for 19 years and was affectionately known as “Jim the Reader.”

He is survived by his second wife, Florine, an author whom he met at UCLA and married in September 1962; his children Emily and Andrew; and his grandchildren Lola, Gemma, Hugh and Madeline.