DUARTE, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Veteran actor T.K. Carter, who appeared in the horror film \u201cThe Thing\u201d and \u201cPunky Brewster\u201d on television, has died at the age of 69.<\/p>\n
Carter was declared dead Friday evening after deputies responded to a call regarding an unresponsive male in Duarte, California, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff\u2019s Department.<\/p>\n
Police did not disclose a cause of death or other details, but said no foul play was suspected.<\/p>\n
Thomas Kent \u201cT.K.\u201d Carter was born Dec. 18, 1956, in New York City and was raised in Southern California.<\/p>\n
He began his career in stand-up comedy and with acting roles. Carter had been acting for years before a breakthrough role as Nauls the cook in John Carpenter\u2019s 1982 horror classic, \u201cThe Thing.\u201d He also had a recurring role in the 1980s sitcom \u201cPunky Brewster.\u201d <\/p>\n
Other big-screen roles include \u201cRunaway Train\u201d in 1985, \u201cSki Patrol\u201d in 1990 and \u201cSpace Jam\u201d in 1996. <\/p>\n
\u201cT.K. Carter was a consummate professional and a genuine soul whose talent transcended genres,\u201d his publicist, Tony Freeman, said in a statement. \u201cHe brought laughter, truth, and humanity to every role he touched. His legacy will continue to inspire generations of artists and fans alike.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUARTE, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Veteran actor T.K. Carter, who appeared in the horror film \u201cThe Thing\u201d and \u201cPunky…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,3335,48,361,3332,75,2841,57533,129031,45700,1788,169350,169351,2845],"class_list":{"0":"post-401545","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-celebrities","12":"tag-celebrity","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-john-carpenter","16":"tag-local-news-for-apple","17":"tag-notable-deaths","18":"tag-television","19":"tag-thomas-kent","20":"tag-tony-freeman","21":"tag-u-s-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}