Alan Thicke, known best for his role as Jason Seaver on the ABC television series Growing Pains, died Tuesday. He was 69-years-old.
According to TMZ, Thicke suffered a heart attack while playing hockey with his youngest son Carter. He was taken to Providence St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Burbank, California, where he was pronounced dead.
Thicke remained a consistent presence on TV in recent years with guest appearances on NBC’s “This Is Us” and Netflix’s “Fuller House.” He also starred on the Pop reality series “Unusually Thicke,” which focused on his personal life.
As an actor, he was best known for “Growing Pains,” the multi-camera family comedy that aired on ABC from 1985 to 1992. Thicke played Jason Seaver, a psychiatrist and patriarch of a Long Island family. Working out of the family’s home after his wife returned to her career as a reporter, Seaver balanced his professional duties with his role caring for the couple’s children. Thicke starred alongside Joanna Kerns, Kirk Cameron, Tracey Gold, Jeremy Miller, and later a young Leonardo DiCaprio.
Thicke was a proud Canadian who played hockey constantly. He also had a close relationship with Wayne Gretzky.
Thicke spoke about that friendship in a Sportsnet interview with Luke Fox in 2012.
Tell me your best Gretzky story.
I was reminded of it a few days ago on the occasion of the anniversary of his trade from Edmonton to Los Angeles (on Aug. 9, 1988). He was house-sitting at my house in L.A. the night he got traded. I was in Norway with my other son (Brennan), and Wayne and Janet were house-sitting for my son Robin (11 years old at the time). I called from Norway because I picked up the Oslo morning paper and saw pictures of Gretzky — but I couldn’t understand the text, of course. And I thought maybe there had been a fire, a mudslide, a drive-by shooting, who knows? So I called home, and I learned Wayne left early in the morning; he got traded last night. He got the call at about 9 p.m., and he was gone by 6 the next morning. So we had to find a substitute nanny instantly, which is not as bad as what Edmonton had to find to replace him.
Last year, Thicke filled out an NHL bracket and picked the Capitals to win it all. Thicke also met Alex Ovechkin last year when the Russian machine had dinner with Gretzky during a west coast road trip.
https://twitter.com/alex_prewitt/status/720344247069749248
RIP, Alan.
