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Michael Cole, the last surviving main cast member of the television show “The Mod Squad,” died on Tuesday at the age of 84.
He was pronounced dead at Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center. THR According to his publicist, Rachel Harris. No cause of death was provided.
His series became a sensation when it debuted in 1968 as a commercial response to the counterculture uprising, featuring three young men as unconventional detectives. Peggy Lipton plays a drifter whose mother is a sex worker, Clarence Williams III plays a man caught up in the Watts riots, and Cole plays a spoiled rich kid who gets arrested for stealing a car. . , one is white and one is blonde. ”
The title of Cole’s 2018 memoir was “I Played the White Guy,” which he envied after seeing how the show was marketed.
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Cole was initially reluctant to accept the concept of what would become the signature project of his career, but told producer Aaron Spelling:[The show] It sounds ridiculous and I hope it never gets aired,” he wrote in the book, saying he didn’t like the idea of playing a character who essentially criticized other troubled young people.
The series ran for five years, and the entire cast reunited for the 1979 TV movie The Return of Mod Squad. The actors were not invited to appear in the 1999 film version, in which Giovanni Ribisi played the role made famous by Cole. The film was widely criticized and bombed at the box office.
Lipton passed away in 2019 and Williams passed away in 2021. Tige Andrews, who played the characters’ tough-love mentor, died in 2007.
Cole was born on July 3, 1940 in Madison, Wisconsin. He made his film debut in “Forbid Them Not” (1961) and also appeared in “Chuka” (1967), “The Bubble” aka “Fantastic Invasion of Planet Earth” (1967), and “The Last Child” (1971). I did. ).
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In addition to reappearing on the soap “General Hospital” in 1991, she made numerous guest appearances, including “Gunsmoke” (1966) and “Get Christy Love!”. (1974), “Police Story” (1975), “Wonder Woman” (1978), “The Love Boat” (1979), “Murder She Wrote” (1987 & 1990), “Diagnosis Murder” (1996) , “ER” (2006).
Cole also appeared in the 1990 miniseries, an adaptation of Stephen King’s “IT.”
He gave this last performance in 2010.
Cole is survived by his third wife of nearly 30 years, Sherry, and three children from a previous marriage.
