John Ashton, the legendary character actor who played the curmudgeonly (but ultimately heroic) Taggart in the Beverly Hills Cop movies, has died. No news yet on the cause of death, but his passing was confirmed by his manager to Variety. In addition to his role as Taggart, Ashton had a long and distinguished career on screen, with him also playing a memorable foil to Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin in Midnight Run (directed by his Beverly Hills Cop director Martin Brest).
Ashton was also a favourite of the legendary John Hughes, who cast him in a small role in She’s Having a Baby before giving him a big part (as Eric Stoltz’s father) in Some Kind of Wonderful. He also showed up in Hughes’ Curly Sue. Ashton was one of those guys who was just everywhere, with him excellent in Ben Affleck’s Gone Baby Gone, the underrated George Gallo movie Middle Men, and on many, many TV shows and movies, such as the memorable 80s miniseries, I Know My First Name Is Steven, where he played infamous kidnap victim Steven Stayner’s father. He also had a good role in the TV adaptation of Stephen King’s The Tommyknockers.
Ashton had just recently reprised his Beverly Hills Cop role opposite former co-stars Eddie Murphy and Judge Reinhold in Netflix’s Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. In fact, I actually interviewed him at the junket and found him to be a lovely guy. Just before I went to interview him, I spotted him smoking a cigar on the balcony of the Beverly Hills Hotel, and when I went over to say hello, he couldn’t have been nicer. One of the most touching moments in the interview was when I asked him whether he’d like to come back for yet another Beverly Hills Cop movie, and he smiled at me, assuring me that he absolutely would. It’s sad that he won’t get the chance because he was a really good guy.
Here’s part of the interview: