Bernie Hamilton, 80; portrayed boss of 'Starsky and Hutch'

Bernie Hamilton (right), with Earl Jones in the film ''One Potato, Two Potato.'' (cineam v/photofest/file 1964)

LOS ANGELES - Bernie Hamilton, an actor best known for playing the no-nonsense police captain on the 1970s TV series "Starsky and Hutch," has died. He was 80.

Mr. Hamilton, the brother of jazz drummer Chico Hamilton, died of cardiac arrest Tuesday night at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said his son, Raoul.

Beginning with a role as a baseball player in the 1950 movie "The Jackie Robinson Story," Mr. Hamilton appeared in more than two dozen films, including "The Young One," "The Devil at 4 O'Clock," "Synanon," "The Swimmer," "The Organization," and "Scream Blacula Scream."

In 1964, he gained notice playing opposite Barbara Barrie in "One Potato, Two Potato," a love story about a white divorcee who loses legal custody of her young daughter after marrying a black co-worker at a factory.

Mr. Hamilton had guest shots on numerous television series before becoming a regular on "Starsky and Hutch," the 1975-79 ABC police drama starring Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul as hip plainclothes cops who drove around in a white-striped, tomato-red Ford Gran Torino.

The series, on which Mr. Hamilton played the by-the-book Captain Harold Dobey, gave him wide recognition, said his son.

Fred Williamson, the action star of two movies that Mr. Hamilton appeared in during the '70s - the dramas "Hammer" and "Bucktown" - has called Mr. Hamilton "an extraordinary actor."

"He's a very versatile actor and never really got the recognition he deserved for his work," Williamson, who played Mr. Hamilton's old captain role in the 2004 movie comedy version of "Starsky and Hutch," told the Oakland Tribune at the time.

Raoul Hamilton said his father's "authoritative" police captain hit close to home.

"It was an extension of who he was as a real person," he said. "He was a self-made man. He comes from a family of five brothers and one sister from the east side of Los Angeles; they came from humble beginnings."

Mr. Hamilton ran away from home as a teenager and wound up staying in someone's garage and attending school.

He phased out of acting after "Starsky and Hutch" and spent the next 20 years in the music business producing R&B and gospel records.