{"id":232071,"date":"2026-01-11T05:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/232071\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:16:08","slug":"veteran-actor-t-k-carter-known-for-the-thing-and-punky-brewster-dies-at-69","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/232071\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran actor T.K. Carter, known for \u2018The Thing\u2019 and \u2018Punky Brewster,\u2019 dies at 69"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ZDDFIQE6VROMBNK5ABKWIRUL2A.jpg\" alt=\"Actor TK Carter arrives for the premiere of &quot;The LA Riot&quot; at the Tribeca Film Festival, Monday, April 25, 2005, in New York.\" class=\"width_full\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1300 \/ 845;width:100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Actor TK Carter arrives for the premiere of &#8220;The LA Riot&#8221; at the Tribeca Film Festival, Monday, April 25, 2005, in New York.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__image-by color_dgray f_s_xxs m-none\">Mary Altaffer \/ AP<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">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<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">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<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">Police did not disclose a cause of death or other details, but said no foul play was suspected.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">Thomas Kent \u201cT.K.\u201d Carter was born Dec. 18, 1956, in New York City and was raised in Southern California.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">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<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">Other big-screen roles include \u201cRunaway Train\u201d in 1985, \u201cSki Patrol\u201d in 1990 and \u201cSpace Jam\u201d in 1996.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">\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":"Actor TK Carter arrives for the premiere of &#8220;The LA Riot&#8221; at the Tribeca Film Festival, Monday, April&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[126127,146,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-232071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-culture-movies-national-news-television","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}