Celebrity

James Sikking, Star Of ‘Hill Street Blues’ And ‘Doogie Howser, MD,’ Dies At 90

Published

4 months ago

2024-07-15

James Sikking | Hollywood Reporter Image

James Sikking, who played a harsh police officer on “Hill Street Blues” and the main character’s kindhearted father on “Doogie Howser, M.D.,” died at 90.

Sikking died of dementia complications, according to his spokeswoman, Cynthia Snyder, who released a statement Sunday evening.

Born the youngest of five children in Los Angeles on March 5, 1934, his early acting career included an uncredited performance in Roger Corman’s “Five Guns West” and a cameo appearance in an episode of “Perry Mason.” He also appeared in a slew of iconic 1970s television shows, including the action-packed “Mission: Impossible,” “M.A.S.H.,” “The F.B.I.,” “The Rockford Files,” “Hawaii Five-O,” and “Charlie’s Angels,” as well as “Eight is Enough” and “Little House on the Prairie.”

James Sikking, Star Of ‘Hill Street Blues’ And ‘Doogie Howser, MD,’ Dies At 90

In 1981, “Hill Street Blues” made its premiere as a novel spin on the classic police procedural. Sikking played Lieutenant Howard Hunter, a clean-cut Vietnam War veteran who led the Metropolitan Police Department’s Emergency Action Team in an unnamed city.

The famous show was a drama, but Sikking’s strict personality and eccentricities were frequently employed to hilarious effect. Sikking modeled his performance after a drill instructor he had at basic training when military service interrupted his studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, from which he graduated in 1959.

“The drill instructor looked like he had steel for hair, and his uniform had so much starch in it, you knew it would sit in the corner when he took it off in the barracks,” he told The Fresno Bee in 2014, as part of a series of interviews honoring the debut of the box set.

When it debuted on the heels of a Hollywood dual strike, the NBC show had dismal ratings and little attention. However, the struggling network kept it on the air. “Up popped this word ‘demographic,'” Sikking told the Star Tribune in 2014. “We were reaching out to folks with a specific education and income level. “They called it the ‘Esquire audience.'”

The show continued until 1987. However, it was unclear whether Sikking would make it that far. A December 1983 episode concluded with his character considering death. The cliffhanger prompted comparisons to the “Who shot J.R.?” mystery from “Dallas” not long ago — but it was immediately answered when TV supplements unintentionally printed a teaser description revealing Hunter’s survival.

“I remember when Howard attempted suicide. My brother called and inquired, ‘You still got a job?’ “I said, ‘Yeah,’ and he said, ‘Oh good,’ before hanging up,” Sikking told The Fresno Bee.

Sikking received an Emmy nomination for outstanding supporting actor in a drama in 1984. The style and format of “Hill Street Blues” were unfamiliar to Sikking and many in the audience, from the dirty look of the set to the various storylines that frequently kept performers working in the background even when they didn’t have lines in the scene.

“It was a lot of hard work, but everyone enjoyed it, and it shows. When you have people participating in the production, manufacturing, or whatever you want to call it, who are truly into it and enjoy doing it, you’re going to get a wonderful product,” he told Parade.com back in 2014. “We always had three different stories running through (each episode), which means you had to listen and you had to pay attention because everything was important.”

Aside from “Hill Street Blues,” Sikking portrayed Captain Styles in 1984’s “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.” He wasn’t excited about the position but was enticed by the prospect of spending only one day on set.

“It was not my cup of tea.” I was not interested in the outer space business. Back then, I had an arrogant attitude. I wanted to perform in a real theater. I wanted to develop real shows, not ones based on people’s imaginations of what outer space might be like,” Sikking told startrek.com in 2014. “So I had a silly prejudice against it, which is bizarre because I’ve probably and happily signed more this, that or the other thing of ‘Star Trek’ than I have anything of all the other work I’ve done.”

Following the conclusion of “Hill Street Blues,” he appeared in approximately 100 episodes of “Dougie Howser, M.D.,” reuniting with Steven Bochco, who co-created both “Hill Street Blues” and the sitcom starring Neil Patrick Harris.

He married Florine Caplan, and they had two children and four grandkids.

James Sikking, Star Of ‘Hill Street Blues’ And ‘Doogie Howser, MD,’ Dies At 90

Sikking had all but retired when the “Hill Street Blues” box set was released. He had fewer but notable parts after the millennium, guest-starring on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and appearing in the rom-com films “Fever Pitch” and “Made of Honor.” His final appearances were as a guest star on a 2012 episode of “The Closer” and in the film “Just an American.”

Sikking continued to host charitable activities. He frequently participated in celebrity golf tournaments and once attended the ribbon-cutting for a health center in an Iowa hamlet of only 7,200 inhabitants. “Actually, I came to get something from you—air I can’t see,” Sikking told the 100-person crowd. “Where we come from, if it isn’t brown, we don’t know how to breathe it,” The Associated Press reported in 1982.

“I’d probably do anything if it got me motivated. Acting is a license to conduct one’s investigation. “Being an actor is a great ego trip,” he told startrek.com in 2014. “I must say that, in the past few years in which I haven’t worked, the obscurity has been quite attractive.”

“The condiment of my life is good fortune,” he concluded.

SOURCE – (AP)

Celebrity

Jason Kelce Smashes Football Fan’s Phone

Published

3 weeks ago

2024-11-02

Geoff Brown

Jason Kelce Smashes College Football Fan's Phone

Retired Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce destroyed a Penn State football fan’s phone after the alleged heckler called his brother, Travis Kelce, a fag.

In now-viral footage published on X (previously Twitter) on Saturday, Nov. 2, the retired Philadelphia Eagles great was seen accompanied by football fans outside Beaver Stadium in State College, Pa., for the Penn State-Ohio State game.

As the individual capturing the tape lifted a fist to Jason, 36, and called his name for a fist bump, another man nearby hurled the homophobic slur at the retired Philadelphia Eagles star.

Hey, Kelce. How does it feel that your brother is a queer dating Taylor Swift?” the man questioned, referring to Travis, 34, who has been seeing Swift since 2023. Jason turned around seconds later, snatched the man’s phone, and crushed it to the ground.

“Looked like a Penn State student was getting in Kelce’s face for no reason,” the original X user who submitted the video remarked. “Wild scene in State College.”

“Kelce how does it feel that your brother is a f****t for dating Taylor Swift?”

Jason Kelce proceeded to slam this kids phone on the ground.

Looked like a Penn State student was getting in Kelce’s face for no reason. Wild scene in State College pic.twitter.com/3PEdZXWhSg

— Chives (@jarrett_daveler) November 2, 2024

Additional footage on X shows Jason smashing the phone on asphalt before picking it up and walking away. The phone’s owner, wearing a Penn State hoodie at the time of the incident, was shown in many videos strolling closely behind Jason and recording him before the conflict occurred.

Another footage published on X, which appears to have been filmed after Jason shattered the man’s phone, showed the hooded Penn State supporter trudging through a mob to pick up his phone off the ground.

“Give me my phone, bro,” he seemed to say to Jason.

The NFL alum seized the gadget first, then stood in front of the man and asked, “Who’s the fag now?” Others appeared to interfere.

The incident occurred while Jason was at Beaver Stadium for an appearance on ESPN’s College GameDay. The Ohio State Buckeyes won Saturday’s game 20-13 over the Penn State Nittany Lions.

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Celebrity

Shaun White’s Proposal To Nina Dobrev Was Romantic Gold

Published

3 weeks ago

2024-10-30

Kiara Grace

Shaun White, the Olympic snowboarding champion, already has an impressive medal tally, but his surprise proposal to Nina Dobrev deserves a gold medal.

On Wednesday, the couple announced their engagement on Instagram. Dobrev posted photographs of the two hugging under an arch of white roses and showing off her five-carat Lorraine Schwartz engagement ring.

“RIP boyfriend, hello fiancé,” Dobrev said in the caption.

However, the photographs only tell half the tale, as Shaun devised an elaborate plan to surprise Dobrev with his proposal.

Shaun White’s Proposal To Nina Dobrev Was Romantic Gold

According to a Vogue interview published Wednesday, Shaun said he assembled a team of people from the couple’s inner circle and Vogue personnel to trick Dobrev into thinking she had been invited to an intimate dinner party with Anna Wintour.

White claimed that his publicist emailed Dobrev a forged invitation to the event, which was scheduled to take place at the Golden Swan in New York City.

Dobrev accepted the invitation, joking that Shaun made it “look so legitimate.”

He even asked Dobrev’s stylist to outfit her in Chanel for the event.

Dobrev said she recognized what was happening when she entered the venue and saw White standing beneath the flowery arch.

Shaun’s Proposal To Nina Dobrev Was Romantic Gold

“I went into shock,” Dobrev admitted, later adding that White “said all the right things” before she agreed.

According to the publication, after Shaun proposed, the couple partied into the early morning hours with close friends and relatives.

“Best night of my life,” Shaun captioned his Instagram story on Wednesday.

The duo first became romantically involved in 2020, and they have since publicly recorded their relationship, globe vacations, and White’s Olympic farewell on social media.

SOURCE | CNN

Celebrity

Hollywood Actress Teri Garr Passes Away at 79

Published

3 weeks ago

2024-10-30

Geoff Brown

Hollywood Actress Teri Garr Passes Away at 79

Teri Garr, known for her roles in classics like "Young Frankenstein" and "Tootsie," has passed away at 79.

Hollywood actress Teri Garr, known for her roles in classics like “Young Frankenstein” and “Tootsie,” has passed away at 79. She died Tuesday of multiple sclerosis “surrounded by family and friends,” said publicist Heidi Schaeffer.

Admirers took to social media in her honor, with writer-director Paul Feig calling her “truly one of my comedy heroes. I couldn’t have loved her more” and screenwriter Cinco Paul saying: “Never the star, but always shining. She made everything she was in better.”

Throughout her career, the performer, often known as Terri, Terry, or Terry Ann, seemed destined for show business from a young age.

Her father was Eddie Garr, a well-known vaudeville comic, and her mother was Phyllis Lind, one of the original high-kicking Rockettes at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Their daughter began dancing classes at six and was performing with the San Francisco and Los Angeles ballet companies by age fourteen.

She was 16 years old when she joined the road crew of “West Side Story” in Los Angeles, and she began starring in small roles in films as early as 1963.

In an interview from 1988, she described how she landed the role in “West Side Story.” After being rejected at her initial audition, she returned the following day dressed differently and was accepted.

Teri Garr, a comedian

Teri Garr then found steady work as a movie dancer, appearing in the chorus of nine Elvis Presley films, including “Viva Las Vegas,” “Roustabout,” and “Clambake.”

She has also appeared on various television shows, including “Star Trek,” “Dr. Kildare,” and “Batman,” and was a featured dancer on the rock ‘n’ roll music show “Shindig,” the rock concert performance “T.A.M.I.,” and a cast member of “The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.”

Her breakthrough role was as Gene Hackman’s girlfriend in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 thriller The Conversation. This led to an interview with Mel Brooks, who offered her the Gene Wilder’s German lab assistant role in Young Frankenstein if she could speak with a German accent.

“Cher had this German woman, Renata, making wigs, so I got the accent from her,” Garr once said.

The film established her as a great comic performer, with New Yorker film writer Pauline Kael calling her “the funniest neurotic dizzy dame on screen.”

Her big smile and off-center appeal helped her land roles in “Oh, God!” with George Burns and John Denver, “Mr. Mom” (as Michael Keaton’s wife), and “Tootsie,” in which she played the girlfriend who loses Dustin Hoffman to Jessica Lange and discovers he has dressed up as a woman to revive his career.

A gift for spontaneous humor

Teri Garr, best known for comedy, has shown in films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Black Stallion, and The Escape Artist that she can also tackle drama.

She had a gift for spontaneous humor, frequently playing David Letterman’s foil during early guest appearances on N.B.C.’s “Late Night With David Letterman”.

Her appearances grew so frequent, and the pair’s good-natured bickering so convincing that rumors of romantic involvement circulated for a while. Years later, Letterman acknowledged those early appearances with helping the program become a success.

During those years, Garr began to experience “a little beeping or ticking” in her right leg. It started in 1983 and expanded to her right arm, but she thought she could handle it. By 1999, her symptoms had gotten so bad that she saw a doctor and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

After disclosing her diagnosis, Garr became a spokesman for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, giving hilarious remarks at events in the United States and Canada.

Source: AP
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