James Sikking, star of ‘Hill Street Blues’ and ‘Doogie Howser, MD,’ dies at 90

ap photo Actor James Sikking poses for a photograph at the Los Angeles gala celebrating the 20th anniversary of the National Organization for Women, Dec. 1, 1986. Sikking, who starred as a hardened police lieutenant on “Hill Street Blues” and as the titular character’s kindhearted dad on “Doogie Howser, M.D.,” has died of complications from dementia, his publicist Cynthia Snyder said in a statement Sunday.
James Sikking, who starred as a hardened police lieutenant on “Hill Street Blues” and as the titular character’s kindhearted dad on “Doogie Howser, M.D.,” has died at 90.
Sikking died of complications from dementia, his publicist Cynthia Snyder said in a statement Sunday evening.
Born the youngest of five children on March 5, 1934 in Los Angeles, his early acting ventures included an uncredited part in Roger Corman’s “Five Guns West” and a bit role in an episode of “Perry Mason.” He also secured guest spots in a litany of popular 1970s television series, from the action-packed “Mission: Impossible,” “M.A.S.H.” “The F.B.I.,” “The Rockford Files,” “Hawaii Five-O” and “Charlie’s Angels” to “Eight is Enough” and “Little House on the Prairie.”
“Hill Street Blues” would debut in 1981, a fresh take on the traditional police procedural. Sikking played Lt. Howard Hunter, a clean-cut Vietnam War veteran who headed the Emergency Action Team of the Metropolitan Police Department in a never-named city.
Sikking would earn an Emmy nomination for outstanding supporting actor in a drama in 1984. The look and format of “Hill Street Blues” were something new to Sikking — and many in the audience, from the grimy look of the set to the multiple storylines that often kept actors working in the background, even when they didn’t have lines in the scene.
Aside from “Hill Street Blues,” Sikking played Captain Styles in 1984’s “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.” He wasn’t enthusiastic about the role, but had been lured by the idea that it would take just a day on set.
After the end of “Hill Street Blues,” he acted in nearly 100 episodes of “Dougie Howser, M.D.,” reuniting with Steven Bochco, who co-created both “Hill Street Blues” and the Neil Patrick Harris-starring sitcom.
He married Florine Caplan, with whom he had two children and four grandchildren.
Sikking had all but retired by the time the box set of “Hill Street Blues” came out. He had fewer but memorable roles after the turn of the millennium, guest-starring on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and acting in the rom-com films “Fever Pitch” and “Made of Honor.”