Doug Sheehan, Star of ‘General Hospital’ and ‘Knots Landing,’ Dies at 75

Doug Sheehan, the Emmy-nominated tv actor who scored recurring roles throughout soaps and sitcoms alike, died final month at his residence in Massive Horn, Wyoming. He was 75.

An area funeral residence introduced Sheehan’s dying on its web site final Thursday, saying he “handed away peacefully” along with his spouse at his facet. A reason behind dying was not shared.

A California native born in 1949, Sheehan scored his first tv function with a 1978 episode of Charlie’s Angels. A 12 months later, he was given his first common function, lawyer Joe Kelly on ABC’s Basic Hospital. Sheehan would go on to seem in 205 episodes of the beloved cleaning soap, incomes a supporting actor Daytime Emmy nod within the course of.

“I used to be on throughout the ‘Camelot’ period when Luke and Laura have been operating round saving the world madly, and I used to be type of the good man who stood on the sidelines and stated, ‘Go Luke, go!’” he recalled in a 1989 interview.

In 1983, he made the soar to CBS, touchdown a plum function on the Dallas spinoff Knots Touchdown. For 4 seasons of the cleaning soap, Sheehan performed Ben Gibson, a contract reporter and ex-C.I.A. operative who finally turns into protagonist Valene Ewing’s second husband. Gibson would finally be written off the present in season eight, disappearing with out a hint to South America.

The actor additionally racked up credit on exhibits like Cheers, MacGyver, and Columbo. He was additionally forged in a principal function within the short-lived NBC sequence Day by Day, starring as a hapless stockbroker-turned-daycare operator as a part of a stacked ensemble that included pre-Seinfeld Julia Louis-Dreyfus and a younger Thora Birch.

Within the Nineteen Nineties, Sheehan turned to “TV dad” roles, portraying the fathers of Cher Horowitz and Sabrina Spellman on Clueless and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, respectively.

Although predominantly a small-screen actor, Sheehan additionally had roles within the motion pictures 10, Victor/Victoria, and Cops N Roberts. In his spare time, he was an avid polo participant.

He’s survived by his spouse, Cate. The pair had been married for greater than 40 years on the time of his dying.