Actor, songwriter and TV show host Alan Thicke, best known as family patriarch Jason Seaver on ABC's hit 80s sitcom Growing Pains, has died. He was 69 and reportedly suffered a heart attack late this afternoon.
Though most strongly associated with his best-known role, Thicke was also an accomplished songwriter who composed iconic theme songs for several classic shows, including Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life, and the original theme to Wheel of Fortune.
Born in 1947 in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada, Thicke began his career in 1969 as a regular on the short-lived variety show It's Our Stuff. In the 70s he began working regularly in front of the camera as a game show and talk show host, and behind the camera as a producer and writer. Most notably, in 1977 he was tapped by Norman Lear to produce and serve as head writer on Fernwood 2 Night, a parody talk show starring Martin Mull, Fred Willard, Frank De Vol, and Tommy Tedesco.
Soon after, he became a frequent guest host on CTV's The Alan Hamel Show and in 1980 was hired to host his own series, The Alan Thicke Show, which replaced Hamel. The Alan Thicke Show would run until 1983 when he left to create and host the syndicate night time talk show Thicke of the Night. Intended to compete with The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Thicke of the Night was ultimately not a hit and was cancelled just under a year after its debut.
The cancellation proved not to be a setback however, as the next year Thicke was hired to head up the cast of ABC's family sitcom Growing Pains. Riding a wave of successful family comedies that would define the 80s and early 90s, Growing Pains also hinted at changing American families, starring Thicke as Psychiatrist Jason Seaver, who recently moved his practice into his home so his wife, played by Joanna Kerns, could return to her journalism career. The show was notable for making a teen idol of costar Kirk Cameron, who made a very public conversion to evangelical Christianity mid-way through the show's run, for the public battle with anorexia by co-star Tracey Gold, and for casting a young Leonardo DiCaprio in the final season.
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