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Bernie Hamilton, 'Starsky' star, dies

Posted on: Thursday, 1 January 2009, 17:45 CST

Bernie Hamilton, an actor best known for his role as a police captain in the TV action series Starsky and Hutch, has died in Los Angeles. He was 80.

Hamilton's son Raoul told the Los Angeles Times the actor suffered a fatal cardiac arrest at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Beginning with a small part as a baseball player in The Jackie Robinson Story, Hamilton appeared in more than 60 movies and television shows. He won critical praise as a black man involved with a white woman in the low-budget 1964 movie One Potato, Two Potato, the newspaper said.

His film credits include The Young One, The Devil at 4 O'Clock, The Swimmer, Walk the Walk and Scream Blacula Scream.

Hamilton is best known for his work as Capt. Harold Dobey, the no-nonsense commander of the hip police officers played by Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul on Starsky and Hutch, which ran on ABC from 1975 to 1979.

At the hospital last night, one of the doctors came by and said, 'Wow, I remember him from 'Starsky and Hutch,' Hamilton's son said Wednesday.

In his later years, Hamilton moved into the music business, producing R&B and gospel records on the Chocolate Snowman label. He was the brother of the jazz drummer Chico Hamilton.

Source: United Press International

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