John Ashton, ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ actor, dies at 76 – NBC New York

John Ashton, the veteran character actor who memorably played the gruff but lovable police detective John Taggart in the “Beverly Hills Cop” films, has died. He was 76 years old.

Ashton died Thursday in Fort Collins, Colorado, his family said in a statement released Sunday by Ashton’s manager, Alan Somers. No cause of death was immediately announced.

In a career spanning more than 50 years, Ashton has regularly appeared on television series and films, including “Midnight Run,” “Little Big League” and “Gone Baby Gone.”

But in the Beverly Hills Cop films, Ashton played an instrumental role in the indelible trio. Although the main character was Eddie Murphy’s Axel Foley, a Detroit detective working a case in Los Angeles, two local detectives – Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and Taggart (Ashton) – were Axel’s sometimes reluctant, sometimes willing collaborators.

Of the three, Taggart – “the sergeant” to Billy – was the more fearsome detective, by the book. But he was regularly talked into Axel’s plans. Ashton starred in the first two films, starting with the 1984 original, and returned in the new Netflix remake of Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, which was released earlier this year.

Ashton played a more unscrupulous character in Martin Brest’s 1988 comedy “Midnight Run.” He was a rival bounty hunter who also pursued wanted accountant Charles Grodin in “The Prince” while he was in the custody of Robert De Niro’s Jack Walsh.

Speaking to Collider in July, Ashton recalled auditioning with De Niro.

“Bobby started handing me these matches and I went to get them and he threw them on the floor and looked at me,” Ashton said. “I looked at the matches, looked up and said, ‘F*** you,’ and he said, ‘F*** you too.’ I said, “Go – alone.” I know every other actor took them and handed them to him, and as soon as I left he said, ‘I want him,’ because he wanted someone to oppose him.”

Ashton is survived by his wife Robin Hoye, 24, two children, three stepchildren, a grandson, two sisters and a brother.