“Beverly Hills Cop” actor John Ashton has died at the age of 76

AP
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John Ashton, the veteran actor who played the gruff but likeable police detective John Taggart in the film. Beverly Hills Cop movies.He died. He was 76 years old.

Ashton died Thursday in Fort Collins, Colorado, his family announced in a statement issued Sunday by Ashton’s manager, Alan Sommers. The cause of death was not immediately available.

In a career spanning more than 50 years, Ashton was a regular face in television series and films, including “Midnight Run,” “Little Big League” and “Gone Baby Gone.”

But in the Beverly Hills Cop films, Ashton played an integral role in an indelible trio. Although Eddie Murphy’s Axel Foley, a Detroit detective pursuing a case in Los Angeles, was the leader, the local detectives – Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and Taggart, played by Ashton – were sometimes reluctant, sometimes enthusiastic collaborators. .

Of the three, Taggart – “Sergeant” to Billy – was the most fearful and cautious detective. But he was regularly persuaded to join Axel’s plans. Ashton co-starred in all four films, from the 1984 original to the Netflix reboot, “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F,” released earlier this year.

Ashton played a more unscrupulous character in Martin Brest’s 1988 film “Midnight Run.” He was also the rival bounty hunter who pursues Charles Grodin’s wanted accountant in “The Duke” while in the custody of Robert De Niro’s Jack Walsh.

to talk In July to the colliderAshton recalled auditioning with De Niro.

“Bobby started handing me these matches, and I went to pick them up, and he threw them on the ground and stared at me,” Ashton said. “I looked at the matches, looked up, and said, ‘Fuck you,’ and he said, ‘Fuck you, too.’” I said: Go… by yourself. “I know all the other actors picked it up and handed it to him, and I found out as soon as I left that he said, ‘I want it,’ because he wanted someone to stand up to him.”

Ashton leaves behind his wife, Robin Hoey, 24 years, two children, three great-grandchildren, two sisters and a brother.