John Ashton
Birthday: Born in 1948-02-22 in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA
Deathday: 2024-09-26
John David Ashton (February 22, 1948 – September 26, 2024) was an American actor best known for his role as Sergeant John Taggart in the hit action-comedy films Beverly Hills Cop (1984) and Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), where he played alongside Eddie Murphy. Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, Ashton developed a passion for acting early in life, later attending the University of Southern California's School of Theatre. Beyond his iconic role in the Beverly Hills Cop series, Ashton appeared in a wide range of films and TV shows throughout his career. His notable film appearances include Midnight Run (1988) alongside Robert De Niro, where he portrayed a bounty hunter named Marvin Dorfler. On television, Ashton has made guest appearances on popular series such as Columbo, MASH, and The A-Team. Ashton's performances are often characterized by his ability to balance humor and toughness, making him a beloved character actor, especially in roles that highlight his everyman charm and strong screen presence.
TV Credits
M*A*S*H
Character:
The 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital is stuck in the middle of the Korean war. With little help from the circumstances they find themselves in, they are forced to make their own fun. Fond of practical jokes and revenge, the doctors, nurses, administrators, and soldiers often find ways of making wartime life bearable....
Starsky & Hutch
Character:
Streetwise Detective David Starsky partners up with a more intellectual partner, Kenneth 'Hutch' Hutchinson, to protect citizens and patrol the streets of Bay City....
Judging Amy
Character: Dashiel Purdue
Judging Amy is an American television drama that was telecast from September 19, 1999, through May 3, 2005, on CBS-TV. This TV series starred Amy Brenneman and Tyne Daly. Its main character is a judge who serves in a family court, and in addition to the family-related cases that she adjudicates, many episodes of the show focus on her own experiences as a divorced mother, and on the experiences of her mother, a social worker who works in the field of child welfare. This series was based on the li...
Today
Character: Self
Today is a daily American morning television show that airs on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It was the first of its genre on American television and in the world, and is the fifth-longest running American television series. Originally a two-hour program on weekdays, it expanded to Sundays in 1987 and Saturdays in 1992. The weekday broadcast expanded to three hours in 2000, and to four hours in 2007. Today's dominance was virtually unchallenged by the other networks until the la...
A Touch of Frost
Character:
Jack Frost is a gritty, dogged and unconventional detective with sympathy for the underdog and an instinct for moral justice who attracts trouble like a magnet. Despite some animosity with his superintendent, Norman “Horn-rimmed Harry” Mullett, Frost and his ever-changing roster of assistants manage to solve cases via his clever mind, good heart, and cool touch....
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
Character:
Jay Leno hosts some of the biggest celebrities in the world....
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Character: Alan Fewkes
In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories....
Kojak
Character: Cullen
A bald, lollipop sucking police detective with a fiery righteous attitude battles crime in New York City....
Dallas
Character: Willie Joe Garr
The world's first mega-soap, and one of the most popular ever produced, Dallas had it all. Beautiful women, expensive cars, and men playing Monopoly with real buildings. Famous for one of the best cliffhangers in TV history, as the world asked "Who shot J.R.?" A slow-burner to begin with, Dallas hit its stride in the 2nd season, with long storylines and expert character development. Dallas ruled the airwaves in the 1980's....
Police Squad!
Character:
In this cult parody of cop dramas, replete with farce and sight gags, Lieutenant Frank Drebin and his fellow officers from Police Squad bungle their way though crime investigations....
Police Woman
Character:
Sergeant “Pepper"” Anderson, an undercover cop for the Criminal Conspiracy Unit of the Los Angeles Police Department, poses undercover from mob girl to prostitute....
Police Story
Character:
Police Story is an anthology television crime drama. The show was the brainchild of author and former policeman Joseph Wambaugh and represented a major step forward in the realistic depiction of police work and violence on network TV. Although it was an anthology, there were certain things that all episodes had in common; for instance, the main character in each episode was a police officer. The setting was always Los Angeles and the characters always worked for some branch of the LAPD. Notwith...
Hardball
Character: Charlie Battles
Hardball is an American crime drama television series that ran on NBC during the 1989-1990 television schedule....
Code R
Character: Karl
Code R is an American action-adventure television series that aired on CBS from January 21 to June 10, 1977. Code R focuses on the emergency services of the California Channel Islands. The series stars James Houghton, Martin Kove and Tom Simcox and ran for a single season of thirteen episodes....
I Know My First Name Is Steven
Character: Del Stayner
In 1973, 7-year-old Steven Stayner is kidnapped by pedophile Kenneth Parnell. Under the belief that Parnell has been given legal custody of him, and that his family has moved away, he stays with Parnell for seven years, enduring repetitive sexual abuse the entire time. Finally, in 1980, when Parnell kidnaps another young boy, Steven finds a way for them both to escape and return home....
The Finder
Character: Franklin Sherman
Walter Sherman, an Iraq War veteran, has the extraordinary ability to help people find the unfindable....
Columbo
Character: Calvin MacGruder
Columbo is a friendly, verbose, disheveled-looking police detective who is consistently underestimated by his suspects. Despite his unprepossessing appearance and apparent absentmindedness, he shrewdly solves all of his cases and secures all evidence needed for indictment. His formidable eye for detail and meticulously dedicated approach often become clear to the killer only late in the storyline....
The Tommyknockers
Character: Butch Duggan
A buried UFO slowly turns local inhabitants into gizmo-building alien mutants....
A Death in California
Character: Bob Swalwell
A Beverly Hills socialite embarks on a love/hate relationship with a psychotic businessman who murdered her fiance and then raped and terrorized her which leads to a bizarre trial....
Fairly Legal
Character: Lou Fisher
Kate Reed is a firm believer that justice can always be found – even if it's not always in the courtroom. Once a lawyer at her family's esteemed San Francisco firm, Kate's frustration with the legal system led her to a new career as a mediator. Thanks to her innate understanding of human nature, thorough legal knowledge, and wry sense of humor, Kate is a natural when it comes to dispute resolution. Except, it seems, when it comes to conflicts in her own life....
King of the Hill
Character: Instructor (voice)
Set in Texas, this animated series follows the life of propane salesman Hank Hill, who lives with his overly confident substitute Spanish teacher wife Peggy, wannabe comedian son Bobby, and naive niece Luanne. Hank has conservative views about God, family, and country, but his values and ethics are often challenged by the situations he, his family, and his beer-drinking neighbors/buddies find themselves in....
The Twilight Zone
Character: Chief Brady Simmons
This 1980s revival of the classic sci-fi series features a similar style to the original anthology series. Each episode tells a tale (sometimes two or three) rooted in horror or suspense, often with a surprising twist at the end. Episodes usually feature elements of drama and comedy....
JAG
Character: Brian Turque
Harmon "Harm" Rabb Jr. is a former pilot turned lawyer working for the military's JAG (Judge Advocate General) division, the elite legal wing of officers that prosecutes and defends those accused of military-related crimes. He works closely with Lt. Col. Sarah Mackenzie, and together they do what needs to be done to find the truth....
Fantasy Island
Character: Bobby
Mr. Roarke and his three assistants run a tropical paradise where guests come in to have their wildest dreams and fantasies come true....
The A-Team
Character: Cactus Jack Slater
A fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel work as soldiers of fortune while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a "crime they didn't commit."...
Movie Credits
Beverly Hills Cop
Character: Sgt. Taggart
Fast-talking, quick-thinking Detroit street cop Axel Foley has bent more than a few rules and regs in his time, but when his best friend is murdered, he heads to sunny Beverly Hills to work the case like only he can....
Beverly Hills Cop II
Character: John Taggart
Axel Foley returns to the land of sunshine and palm trees to investigate the near-fatal shooting of police Captain Andrew Bogomil. With the help of Sgt. Taggart and Det. Rosewood, they soon uncover that the shooting is associated with a series of "alphabet" robberies masterminded by a heartless weapons kingpin—and the chase is on....
Lawman Without a Gun
Character: 1st State Trooper
During the 1960s' civil rights movement, a black civil rights worker returns to his small Southern town and runs for sheriff against the incumbent, a popular segregationist....
Gone Baby Gone
Character: Det. Nick Poole
When 4 year old Amanda McCready disappears from her home and the police make little headway in solving the case, the girl's aunt, Beatrice McCready hires two private detectives, Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro. The detectives freely admit that they have little experience with this type of case, but the family wants them for two reasons—they're not cops and they know the tough neighborhood in which they all live....
Breaking Away
Character: Mike's Brother
Dave, nineteen, has just graduated high school, with his three friends: the comical Cyril, the warm hearted but short-tempered Moocher, and the athletic, spiteful but good-hearted Mike. Now, Dave enjoys racing bikes and hopes to race the Italians one day, and even takes up the Italian culture, much to his friends' and parents' annoyance....
Little Big League
Character: Mac MacNally
When the owner of the Minnesota Twins passes away, he bequeaths the team to his preteen grandson. The newly minted head honcho quickly appoints himself manager, causing unrest in an organization that struggles to take orders from a 12-year-old....
Trapped in Paradise
Character: Ed Dawson
Residents of a friendly Pennsylvania town foil three brothers' plan to rob a bank on Christmas Eve....
King Kong Lives
Character: Lt. Col. R.T. Nevitt
After falling from the Twin Towers, Kong lies in a coma for ten years. When his heart begins to fail, scientists engineer an artificial heart, and a giant female ape is captured to serve as a source for a blood transfusion. When Kong awakens following his heart transplant, he senses the nearby presence of the female ape and the two escape to wreak havoc together....
Borderline
Character: Charlie Monroe
Jeb Maynard is a patrolman guarding the U.S.-Mexican border, whose partner and buddy Scooter has just been murdered. Maynard knows that a smuggler of illegal aliens is responsible for Scooter's death, but the feds insist that drug dealers committed the crime....
Midnight Run
Character: Marvin Dorfler
A bounty hunter pursues a former Mafia accountant who embezzled $15 million of mob money. He is also being chased by a rival bounty hunter, the F.B.I., and his old mob boss after jumping bail....
She's Having a Baby
Character: Ken
Jake and Kristy Briggs are newlyweds. Being young, they are perhaps a bit unprepared for the full reality of marriage and all that it (and their parents) expect from them. Do they want babies? Their parents certainly want them to. Is married life all that there is? Things certainly aren't helped by Jake's friend Davis, who always seems to turn up just in time to put a spanner in the works....
Meet the Deedles
Character: Capt. Douglas Pine
Two surfers end up as Yellowstone park rangers and have to stop a former ranger who is out for revenge....
Reign of the Gargoyles
Character: Commander Latham
During World War 2 a group of brave US Airmen are downed in Nazi controlled Europe, after their aircraft is attacked by Nazi-controlled mythological Gargoyles....
Psycho Sisters
Character: Brock
After her husband dies, a woman begins to have a nervous breakdown and is consoled by her younger sister. Soon, however, other members of the family begin to suspect the younger woman's motives....
Some Kind of Wonderful
Character: Cliff Nelson
A young tomboy, Watts, finds her feelings for her best friend, Keith, run deeper than just friendship when he gets a date with the most popular girl in school....
An Eye for an Eye
Character: Sgt. Matthews
The host of a children's TV show is really a psychopathic killer, and when he hears stories from the kids who watch his show about the abuse they get from their parents, he starts visiting the parents and murdering them....
Escape from Alaska
Character: Kemp
A helicopter pilot work with a husband and his wife in the frozen North tagging foxes for the Environmental Protection Agency. When an avalanche hits the group, the husband is killed and only by the pilot's perseverance is the wife saved. Two years later, the wife takes on a corporation which wants to extend an oil pipeline across the tundra above Juneau. She is convinced that this will cause an avalanche on the town. Of course, she is rejected by the corporation executives. She recruits the pil...
The Shooter
Character: Alex Reed
A CIA agent gets caught up in political intrigue after he gets brought in to solve the murder of a Cuban ambassador....
The Deliberate Stranger
Character: Det. Roger Dunn
Based on a true story, this film depicts the life of Ted Bundy, the serial killer. In 1974, after having murdered several young women, he leaves Seattle for Utah, where he is a law student and where other girls disappear. It takes the cooperation of a number of police forces to work efficiently on this case. Soon, but not soon enough, the police eliminate endless possibilities and close in on him. Bundy is tried in the media and his good-boy attitude brings him sympathy but also the hatred of ma...
Fast Money
Character: Lt. Diego
Butler is an experienced car thief, McCoy a struggling reporter trying to nail a bad guy-senator. Meeting for the first time when they're both in dire need of air transportation, they team up long enough for Butler to steal a car with a very special piece of luggage in the trunk, and all hell breaks loose. Suddenly they're chased by both sides of the law, and who can tell which is which?...
Cat Murkil and the Silks
Character: Coach Larkin
A street-gang member kills the gang's leader and blames it on a rival gang....
For Which He Stands
Character: District Attorney
To save his family he'll risk losing everything. Fame, fortune, his life... even his soul....
The Day Lincoln Was Shot
Character: Ulysses S. Grant
A dramatization of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Based on the book by Jim Bishop....
Little Girls in Pretty Boxes
Character: Peter Bryant
A gymnast moves to a gym where the top coach in the US is and has difficulties adjusting....
Middle Men
Character: Morgan
Chronicles Jack Harris, one of the pioneers of internet commerce, as he wrestles with his morals and struggles not to drown in a sea of conmen, mobsters, drug addicts, and pornstars....
Last Resort
Character: Phil Cocoran
George Lollar takes his family on vacation with "Club Sand", a shoddy and untrustworthy company. On their tropical island, they find soldiers everywhere, an unhelpful staff, inhospitable accomodation and undesirable holiday makers, but everyone except for George manages to have fun in the sun....
Lonesome Soldier
Character: Macroberts
Based on a true American story, Lonesome Soldier immerses viewers in the captivating journey of Jackson Harlow, a young man hailing from the heart of Tennessee to the war-torn lands of Iraq. Haunted by the vivid memories of war, Jackson's homecoming proves to be a profound turning point in his life, as he discovers that the battle he faces is far from over—it’s just different. Lonesome Soldier vividly portrays the profound challenges and profound triumphs experienced by those who have bravely f...
Oh, God!
Character: Police Officer (uncredited)
When God appears to an assistant grocery manager as a good natured old man, the Almighty selects him as his messenger for the modern world....
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
Character: Chief John Taggart
Forty years after his unforgettable first case in Beverly Hills, Detroit cop Axel Foley returns to do what he does best: solve crimes and cause chaos....
All Happy Families
Character:
The Landrys are blindsided by news of their son's behavior, and must rally to find their way amidst comical family dysfunction....
Uncle John
Character: Uncle John
In this tale of small town intrigue, an urbanite returns to his quiet hometown on an impromptu trip as his Uncle, widely respected in town, struggles to evade suspicion of a murder....
Dirty Work
Character: Eddie Ryan
A bail bondsman deals drugs on the side and thinks he's struck it rich when he conceives a scheme to steal counterfeit money. When the mob comes calling for it, he tries to set up a fellow employee as the culprit....
Condition Red
Character: Deputy Warden
Prison guard falls in love with inmate. She wants him to let her escape....
Instinct
Character: Guard Dacks
In a prison for the criminally insane, deranged anthropologist Ethan Powell is set to be examined by a bright young psychiatrist, Theo Caulder. Driven by ambition and a hunger for the truth, Caulder will eventually risk everything—even put his very life on the line—in a harrowing attempt to understand the bizarre actions of this madman....
BRATS
Character: Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
In the 1980s, Andrew McCarthy was part of a young generation of actors who were set to take over Hollywood after a string of successful teen movies. However, when the New York magazine cover story in 1985 dubs them the Brat Pack, stars in the making suddenly find themselves losing control over the trajectory of their careers. Now, almost forty years later, McCarthy looks to reconnect with peers and co-stars so that together they can reflect on their respective legacies....
Curly Sue
Character: Frank Arnold
Bill is a penniless drifter who scams strangers out of just enough money to feed himself and his partner in crime, an orphan girl known as Curly Sue. Bill and Curly Sue target Grey, a yuppie lawyer, but their con takes an unexpected turn when the successful woman begins to like the ramshackle duo. But there's one problem—Grey's jealous, conniving boyfriend, Walker....
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
Character: Highway Patrolman
Adventurer/surgeon/rock musician Buckaroo Banzai and his band of men, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, take on evil alien invaders from the 8th dimension....
The Joke Thief
Character: Joseph Rogers
The Joke Thief takes us on a journey of one man's last hurrah. Simon McCabe is a stand up comedian who has been making people laugh for 35 years. All his life he has been the life of the party, but now he is tired, miserable and almost washed up since he's never got a lucky break due to a reputation of joke stealing. One faithful night, his longtime friend and fellow comedian convinces a comedy club owner to give Simon some stage time and one last shot at redemption. On the ride down to his gig,...
Elvis and the Beauty Queen
Character: Jake
Don Johnson stars as Elvis Presley in this made-for-TV true story about The King's love affair with Linda Thompson (Stephanie Zimbalist), a young beauty pageant contestant who was his live-in girlfriend and traveling companion for the last four years of his life. The story begins with their first meeting and traces their years together when Thompson tried to keep Presley off drugs in the last years of his career....
Making a Deal with the Devil
Character: FBI Director
A fascinating and dramatic tale of a behind the scenes plot developed by the FBI as they work secretly with the mob to eradicate corruption and crime in USA....
The Last Big Save
Character: Joseph Bird Sr.
A professional hockey player who is only happy when he is miserable signs a long-term contract that covers his entire career only to ruin it in his first year due to substance abuse and alcoholism. He rides his good luck in the final month of the final year of his contract when he gets a last chance at redemption in the seventh game of the finals....
Once Upon a River
Character:
After her father’s violent death, Native American teenager Margo Crane flees down Michigan’s Stark River in search of her estranged mother. On the way, she encounters allies, enemies, danger, and the beauty of nature, all while coming to grips with her past and her own identity....
American Christmas
Character: Rob
It took another ruined Christmas dinner to make Martha finally realize: her kids are jerks. Daughter, Penny is a 42-year old bully who's still letting Prom Queen go to her head. Son, Danny, 57 is a scam artist who owes the state more than he could sell his organs for. To top it off, Martha's husband has washed his hands of the whole mess. While she's sweeping up the shattered china, he's upstairs watching "It's a Wonderful Life" in his underwear. But this Christmas, Martha has had enough. With t...
Honky Tonk Freeway
Character: Otto Kemper
Ticlaw, a small town in Florida, has only one attraction: a safari park. The government constructs a freeway that passes near Ticlaw, but decides not to put an exit into the town. The people of Ticlaw, leaded by its Mayor, will do anything in order to convince the governor to alter the project....
A Letter to Dad
Character: Mike Donahue
Dan Donahue has finally met the woman of his dreams. But on the night he is going to propose, he is overcome by deep-rooted anger caused by the father who abandoned him as a boy. Dan confronts his feelings of bitterness head on as he pours his heart out in a letter to his father....
I Want to Go Home
Character: Harry Dempsey
Joey Wellman, an American cartoonist from Cleveland now largely forgotten at home, visits France with his partner Lena to attend an exhibition in Paris about the comic strip (bande dessinée) which features his work. He also hopes to be reconciled with his daughter Elsie who has been a student in Paris for two years, in flight from the American culture of which she sees her father as a typical example. Elsie is naively infatuated with French literature, and is trying to secure an introduction to ...
Death in Texas
Character: Asher
Recently released from prison, Billy will do whatever it takes to save the only person who has stuck by him, his mother Grace who desperately needs a liver transplant and she is all out of legal options....
Money Hunt: The Mystery of the Missing Link
Character: Cash Hunt
In this film noir comedy, detective Cash Hunt follows clues to solve a difficult puzzle. The producers offered a prize of $100,000 for the first viewer who could find the solution....
My Father's House
Character: Sergeant
Recovering from a heart attack, a workaholic editor recalls the simple days of his youth. Robertson adds an emotional center to this messy, flashback-filled 'heavy' dramatic piece. Plenty of co-star talent....