Spotlight
We’ve had to say goodbye to some beloved musicians, athletes, actors and more. Here's a look at the stars we've lost so far in 2024, through August.
NEW YORK — John Ashton, the veteran character actor who memorably played the gruff but lovable police detective John Taggart in the "Beverly Hills Cop" films, has died. He was 76.
Ashton died Thursday in Fort Collins, Colorado, his family announced in a statement released by Ashton's manager, Alan Somers, on Sunday. No cause of death was immediately available.
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.
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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 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.
Speaking 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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Photos: Notable deaths in 2024
Glynis Johns
Adan Canto
Bud Harrelson
Dejan Milojevic
Jack Burke
Mary Weiss
Norman Jewison
Charles Osgood
Melanie Safka
Chita Rivera
Carl Weathers
Wayne Kramer
Ian Lavender
Toby Keith
Henry Fambrough
Bob Edwards
Don Gullett
Lefty Driesell
Andreas Brehme
Golden Richards
Richard Lewis
Nikolai Ryzhkov
Brian Mulroney
Akira Toriyama
Iris Apfel
Andy Russell
Ed Ott
Chris Mortensen
Steve Lawrence
Naomi Barber King
Paul Alexander
Thomas P. Stafford
Chris Simon
M. Emmet Walsh
Laurent de Brunhoff
Obit Angelos Baseball
Joe Lieberman
Louis Gossett Jr.
Joe Flaherty
John Sinclair
Larry Lucchino
Christopher Durang
Jerry Grote
Schappell Twins
Peter Higgs
Ralph Puckett Jr.
O.J. Simpson
Eleanor Coppola
Robert MacNeil
Faith Ringgold
Steve Sloan
Ken Holtzman
Carl Erskine
Whitey Herzog
Bob Graham
Dickey Betts
Mandisa
David Pryor
Roman Gabriel
Andrew Davis
Terry Anderson
Bill Gladden
Duane Eddy
Paul Auster
Dick Rutan
Steve Albini
Jimmy Johnson
Sean Burroughs
Roger Corman
A.J. Smith
David Sanborn
Alice Munro
Dabney Coleman
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi
Jim Otto
Ivan Boesky
Jan. A.P. Kaczmarek
Carlie Colin
Morgan Spurlock
Richard M. Sherman
Bill Walton
Albert Ruddy
Larry Allen
Janis Paige
Parnelli Jones
Chet Walker
The Rev. James Lawson Jr.
Jerry West
Ron Simons
Bob Schul
Willie Mays
Donald Sutherland
Bill Cobbs
Kinky Friedman
Martin Mull
Robert Towne
Vic Seixas
James Inhofe
Joe Bonsall
Shelley Duvall
Dr. Ruth Westheimer
Richard Simmons
Jacoby Jones
Shannen Doherty
James Sikking
Pat Williams
Lou Dobbs
Bob Newhart
Cheng Pei-Pei
Abdul 'Duke' Fakir
Bernice Johnson Reagon
John Mayall
Erica Ash
Jack Russell
Chi Chi Rodriguez
Susan Wojcicki
Frank Selvy
Wally Amos
Gena Rowlands
Peter Marshall
Alain Delon
Phil Donahue
Al Attles
James Darren
James Earl Jones
Frankie Beverly
Joe Schmidt
Chad McQueen
Tito Jackson
JD Souther
Dan Evans
Mercury Morris
Maggie Smith
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