{"id":228112,"date":"2026-01-11T11:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T11:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/228112\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T11:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T11:20:11","slug":"veteran-actor-t-k-carter-known-for-the-thing-dies-at-69","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/228112\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran actor T.K. Carter, known for &#8216;The Thing,&#8217; dies at 69"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>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<p>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>Police did not disclose a cause of death or other details, but said no foul play was suspected.<\/p>\n<p>Thomas Kent \u201cT.K.\u201d Carter was born Dec. 18, 1956, in New York City and was raised in Southern California.<\/p>\n<p>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>Other big-screen roles include \u201cRunaway Train\u201d in 1985, \u201cSki Patrol\u201d in 1990 and \u201cSpace Jam\u201d in 1996. <\/p>\n<p>\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&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[179,430,3623,156,3717,61973,96524,111,139,136025,69,417,136026,135728,5021],"class_list":{"0":"post-228112","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-celebrity","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-john-carpenter","14":"tag-local-news-for-apple","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-notable-deaths","18":"tag-nz","19":"tag-television","20":"tag-thomas-kent","21":"tag-tony-freeman","22":"tag-u-s-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}