NEW YORK (AP) — John Ashton, the veteran character actor who memorably performed the gruff however lovable police detective John Taggart within the “Beverly Hills Cop” movies, has died. He was 76.
Ashton died Thursday in Fort Collins, Colorado, his household introduced in an announcement launched by Ashton’s supervisor, Alan Somers, on Sunday. No explanation for dying was instantly accessible.
In a career that spanned more than 50 years, Ashton was a regular face across TV series and films, including “Midnight Run,” “Little Big League” and “Gone Baby Gone.”
But in the “Beverly Hills Cop” films, Ashton played an essential part of an indelible trio. Though Eddie Murphy’s Axel Foley, a Detroit detective following a case in Los Angeles, was the lead, the two local detectives — Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and Ashton’s Taggart — were Axel’s sometimes reluctant, sometimes eager collaborators.
Of the three, Taggart — “Sarge” to Billy — was the more fearful, by-the-book detective. But he would regularly be coaxed into Axel’s plans. Ashton co-starred in the first two films, beginning with the 1984 original, and returned for the Netflix reboot, “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F,” released earlier this year.
Ashton played a more unscrupulous character in Martin Brest’s 1988 buddy comedy “Midnight Run.” He was the rival bounty hunter also pursuing Charles Grodin’s wanted accountant in “The Duke” while he’s in the custody of Robert De Niro’s Jack Walsh.
Talking in July to Collider, Ashton recalled auditioning with De Niro.
“Bobby started handing me these matches, and I went to grab the matches, and he threw them on the floor and stared at me,” said Ashton. “I looked at the matches, and I looked up, and I said, ‘F—- you,’ and he said, ‘F—- you, too.’ I said, ‘Go —- yourself.’ I know every other actor picked those up and handed it to him, and I found out as soon as I left he went, ‘I want him,’ because he wanted somebody to stand up to him.”
Ashton is survived by his wife, Robin Hoye, of 24 years, two children, three stepchildren, a grandson, two sisters and a brother.
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