James Sikking, the film and television actor who starred in the series “Hill Street Blues” and “Doogie Howser, MD,” has died.
Sikking died Saturday from complications of dementia, his publicist, Cynthia Snyder, confirmed in a statement Sunday night. He was 90.
The Los Angeles-raised character actor “was one of the kindest, wisest, funniest and most generous people I've ever known,” Sikking's “Doogie” co-star Neil Patrick Harris said in a tribute shared Monday on social media.
Harris, who played the son of Sikking’s character, the show’s titular medical prodigy, added: “A true professional. He treated everyone with respect, taught me countless lessons, but always had a mischievous spark in his eyes. It was an absolute honour to be his son. My condolences to his real family on their loss.”
Sikking enjoyed a varied acting career that spanned nearly 60 years and included appearances on popular series such as “Starsky and Hutch,” “MASH,” “Columbo,” “General Hospital” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” However, it was starring roles on the series “Hill Street Blues” and “Doogie Howser, M.D.” that brought Sikking fame.
By the early 1980s, Sikking already had a track record of portraying police and authority figures on screen. With the fast-paced NBC police procedural “Hill Street Blues,” he leaned even further into these types of characters. From 1981 to 1987, Sikking played Lt. Howard Hunter, a Vietnam War veteran who was the head of an emergency response team.
The lieutenant's uptight demeanor was often played for laughs, but it had its roots in Sikking's own experience with a drill instructor when he was a student at UCLA in the late 1950s.
“The drill instructor looked like he had steel for hair and his uniform was so starchy you knew it would be left in a corner when he took it off at the barracks,” he told the Fresno Bee in 2014.
“Hill Street Blues,” by writers Steven Bochco and Michael Kozoll, won 26 primetime Emmy Awards during its run. Sikking received a supporting actor Emmy nomination in 1984, but lost to co-star Bruce Weltz, who played Sergeant Mick Belker.
During his time on “Hill Street Blues,” Sikking also enjoyed a busy film career, which included “Ordinary People,” “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock” and “Morons From Outer Space.”
Sikking and Bochco reunited shortly after “Hill Street Blues” for “Doogie Howser, M.D.” In his starring role, he played Dr. David Howser, the father of Harris’s child prodigy, a Vietnam War veteran who owned his own practice. The series aired on ABC from 1989 to 1993 and won three primetime Emmy Awards.
After “Doogie Howser, M.D.,” Sikking appeared in supporting roles on the series “Brooklyn South” and “Invasion America,” but also turned his attention to film and television movies, including “In Pursuit of Honor,” “Dare to Love,” “Mutiny” and “Made of Honor.” Most recently, he appeared in the film “Just an American” and the television series “The Closer,” both in 2012.
Sikking was born on March 5, 1934, in Los Angeles and graduated from UCLA in 1959. He married Florine Caplan, with whom he had two children and four grandchildren.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
