R.I.P.: 'Growing Pains' Dad Alan Thicke

Alan Thicke, an actor best known for helping set a template for parenting ideals in the ’80s sitcom “Growing Pains,” has died of a heart attacked suffered while playing hockey with his 19-year-old son.

He was 69, according to The LA Times. His death was confirmed with The Times on Tuesday evening by the publicist of his son, pop-soul singer Robin Thicke.

The Times spoke with Robin Thicke on Tuesday evening, and he called his father “the greatest man I ever met” and “always a gentleman.” He confirmed that Thicke suffered a heart attack while playing hockey with his son Carter, and that one of the last things he said was a compliment to his son on a nice shot.

Wearing a variety of hats during his long show business career in addition to being an actor and presenter, the Canadian-born Alan Thicke had continued to appear in TV roles through this year, including recent appearances on the NBC drama “This Is Us” and Netflix’s “Fuller House.”

“Season 2 Fuller House looking good,” Thicke tweeted Tuesday afternoon. “I even like the ones I’m not in! #fullerhouse.”

Thicke was born Alan Willis Jeffrey in 1947 in the small town of Kirkland Lake, Ontario. "Kids skated out of the delivery room. Your mother owned a hockey stick," Thicke told The Times in 1986 of his hometown, which was also the birthplace of hockey stars such as Ralph Backstrom, Dick Duff and Mickey Redmond.

Thicke skipped two grades and began attending Western University at 16 years old and graduated in 1967. Shortly after, he found his first job in entertainment with the variety show “The Good Company,” a young-skewing music and comedy series that aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Company in the late ‘60s. In 1970, Thicke moved to Los Angeles and married “Days of Our Lives” actress Gloria Loring. He found work behind the scenes as a writer and producer for shows such as “Fernwood 2 Night” and “The Richard Pryor Show” as well as specials for Olivia Newton-John and Barry Manilow, who helped Thicke earn his first Emmy nomination for “The Barry Manilow Special” in 1977.

Steadily working in the entertainment industry, Thicke also began collaborating with Loring to write theme songs for TV shows including “Wheel of Fortune,” “Facts of Life” and “Diff’rent Strokes,” the last of which he also sang.




“Growing Pains” was canceled in 1992 but Thicke’s entertainment career remained steady. He hosted the game shows “Pictionary” and “Three’s a Crowd,” made appearances on the sitcoms “Married with Children” and had a regular role on “Hope and Gloria,” which lasted only one season in 1995. In the 2000s, he also wrote two books on parenting and produced and starred in “The Growing Pains Movie.” He also had a recurring role in the series “How I Met Your Mother.” In 2014, he also co-created the “reality sitcom” about his family life called “Unusually Thicke,” which ran for two seasons on Pop TV and costarred his wife Tanya Callau. She and Thicke had married in 2005.