James B. Sikking, known for Hill Street Blues and Doogie Howser, passes away at 90

Last Updated on July 18, 2024

According to The Hollywood Reporter, television vet and character actor James B. Sikking was announced by his publicist, Cynthia Snyder, to have passed away this Saturday at his Los Angeles home due to complications with dementia. Sikking was a regular and a frequent collaborator of Steven Bochco shows. The actor is known for portraying the stern Lt. Howard Hunter on the cop series, Hill Street Blues, as well as playing the dad to the titular teenage doctor character played by Neil Patrick Harris on the drama Doogie Howser M.D. Sikking was 90 at the time of his passing.

In addition to being known for television, Sikking can also be seen in a bevy of notable film roles. He played a mocking hitman in the John Boorman film Point Blank (1967). He was also the stuffy Captain Styles who James T. Kirk would defy in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), directed by Leonard Nimoy. Sikking was also seen as the director of the FBI in Alan J. Pakula’s Julia Roberts/Denzel Washington John Grisham adaptation The Pelican Brief (1993).

Sikking had a lengthy run of supporting roles as a TV actor. He would show up in episodes for many classic programs, which included The Outer Limits, Honey West, The Fugitive, Hogan’s Heroes and Mannix. After two decades of accumulating various TV credits, he would land the role of Hunter, the pipe-smoking leader of the SWAT-like Emergency Action Team, on NBC’s Hill Street Blues. Bochco would give Sikking the luxury of developing the character and Sikking had taken inspiration from a drill instructor he had encountered during basic training at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

Sikking had explained in a 2014 interview with The Fresno Bee, “The drill instructor looked like he had steel for hair and his uniform had so much starch in it, you knew it would [stand] in the corner when he took it off in the barracks. So when I started to play Howard, I picked out the way he should be dressed. It had to be a very military look.”

90s kids would most recognize the actor as the good-hearted doctor David Howser in another Steven Bochco production, ABC’s Doogie Howser M.D. Sikking would portray the father of Doogie, who would help guide his son through the perils of being a doctor, as well as acting as the traditional father figure when Doogie indulges in his teenage side. David Howser was the husband of Belinda Montgomery’s Katherine on the series that ran for four seasons (1989-93).

Sikking was devoted to raising money for the Susan G. Koman Foundation, which funded research for cystic fibrosis. He had also read to public school third-grade classes for 19 years for the SAG Book Pals program. Sikking was affectionately known as “Jim the Reader.”

His survivors include his second wife, Florine, an author whom he met at UCLA and married in September 1962; children Emily and Andrew; as well as his grandchildren Lola, Gemma, Hugh and Madeline.