Obituary
A highly respected actor with many roles under his belt but to me he was always Lt. Howard Hunter. Whenever I watch an episode of Hill Street Blues I always enjoy the title sequence – not only for the iconic theme but also for the montage of great characters who are so familiar to me.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/variety.com/2024/tv/news/james-sikking-dead-hill-street-blues-1236071928/amp/
He played that role so well. ALways managing that tightrope between sincere, serious, and borderline comic.
Hunter in Hill Street Blues always reminded me of Sam the American Eagle from the Muppet Show.
My memory of the opening titles to Hill St Blues were always rearranging his name and referring to him as James Being Sick.
RIP.
I wonder if Hill St Blues is streaming anywhere. Off to Google…
Looks like all seven seasons are on 4.
Sam the eagle is a great call. Hunter was a complex character who was somewhat lost in life.
Hunter was a great character. He came across as slightly eccentric or possibly even mad, but he was great in a crisis, and balanced out the wilder members of the precinct.
Sikking was good at those authoritarian roles, including a smooth killer (spoiler alert!) in Narrow Margin and Sean Connery’s oppo in Outland. But his work in HSB was so entertaining that each time James B. popped up in something I’d think “It’s Howard Hunter!”
RIP.
He was great in Star Trek III too….basically Howard Hunter in space! How we used to love Hill Street Blues though – wonderful stuff.
Watching the pilot episode now and it’s great … Howard has just come out with the line “Goldblum? He couldn’t diffuse a roll of kosher toilet paper”. 😂