This stern-featured veteran character actor excels at playing tightly wound and officious fathers, professionals, and other would-be martinets. James B. Sikking may have made his enduring impression on pop culture as Lieutenant Howard Hunter, the pipe-smoking, somewhat prissy but still gung ho S.W.A.T. team leader, on the Steven Bochco-produced "Hill Street Blues" (NBC, 1981-87). Though initially depicted as fairly ridiculous, Hunter became more sympathetic and complex as the series progressed. Sikking enjoyed another healthy run as the kindly but no-nonsense doctor dad of a 16-year-old surgeon on Bochco's "Doogie Howser, M.D." (ABC, 1989-93) and returned to series TV as an internal affairs officer on Bochco's "Brooklyn South" (CBS, 1997-98. One of Sikking's earliest TV jobs was a stint on the ever popular ABC daytime serial "General Hospital", as Dr. James Hobart, the troubled physician in the life of Audrey (Rachel Ames). He went on to amass over 200 TV guest shots on a wide array of series and became a familiar face in TV-movies and miniseries. Notable among the latter were his performances as Attorney General Elliot Richardson in "The Final Days" (ABC, 1989), the stern patriarch in the superior Fox drama "Doing Time on Maple Drive" (1992), and as General Douglas MacArthur in the 1995 HBO film "In Pursuit of Honor".Sikking's feature career goes back to the mid-1960s. He can be glimpsed in "Von Ryan's Express" (1965) playing a soldier alongside Frank Sinatra. A notable early credit had him playing a hit man in John Boorman's classic gangster film "Point Blank" (1967). Sikking was also a supercilious starship captain cut down to size in "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" (1984). His other film work includes "Charro!" (1969), "The Magnificent Seven Ride" (1972), "The Electric Cowboy" (1979). "Ordinary People" (1980), "Outland" (1981), "Narrow Margin" (1990), and "The Pelican Brief" (1993). In the latter blockbuster, he played the FBI director.
Profession(s):
Actor
Sometimes Credited As:
James Barrie Sikking
James Sikking
Jim Sikking
Education
University of California at Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, California
University of Hawaii Honolulu, Hawaii
University of California at Los Angeles Los Angeles, California BA theater arts
1995 Played General Douglas MacArthur in "In Pursuit of Honor" (HBO)
1992 Played father in Fox Network's first TV movie to arn notice, "Doing Time On Maple Drive"
1984 Played St. Styles in "Star trek III: The Search for Spock"
1979 TV series debut as a regular, "Turnabout", a short-lived NBC comedy-fantasy
1973 - 1976 Appeared as Dr. James Hobart on daytime drama "General Hospital" (ABC)
1972 Made TV movie debut in "The Astronaut"
1964 Film debut, "The Strangler", as an artist
1961 Had first episodic credit on syndicated "Assingment: Underwater"
Cast as an ensemble member, playing Lt. Howard Hunter, on "Hill Street Blues"
During a hiatus from "Hill Street Blues", co-starred with Mariette Hartley in an LA production of "Put Them All Together"
Starred in the London West End production of Clifford Odets's "The Big Knife"
Cast as a regular on "Doogie Howser. M.D."
Returned to series TV in the CBS drama "Brooklyn South"
