{"id":400444,"date":"2026-01-11T04:45:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T04:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/400444\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T04:45:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T04:45:07","slug":"veteran-actor-t-k-carter-known-for-the-thing-and-punky-brewster-dies-at-69-npr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/400444\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran actor T.K. Carter, known for ‘The Thing’ and ‘Punky Brewster,’ dies at 69 : NPR"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Actor<\/p>\n

\n Actor TK Carter arrives for the premiere of “The LA Riot” at the Tribeca Film Festival, Monday, April 25, 2005, in New York.<\/p>\n

Mary Altaffer\/AP<\/p>\n

hide caption\n <\/p>\n

toggle caption<\/p>\n

Mary Altaffer\/AP<\/p>\n

DUARTE, Calif. \u2014 Veteran actor T.K. Carter, who appeared in the horror film “The Thing” and “Punky Brewster” 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’s 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 “T.K.” 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’s 1982 horror classic, “The Thing.” He also had a recurring role in the 1980s sitcom “Punky Brewster.”<\/p>\n

Other big-screen roles include “Runaway Train” in 1985, “Ski Patrol” in 1990 and “Space Jam” in 1996.<\/p>\n

“T.K. Carter was a consummate professional and a genuine soul whose talent transcended genres,” his publicist, Tony Freeman, said in a statement. “He brought laughter, truth, and humanity to every role he touched. His legacy will continue to inspire generations of artists and fans alike.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Actor TK Carter arrives for the premiere of “The LA Riot” at the Tribeca Film Festival, Monday, April…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,206],"class_list":{"0":"post-400444","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}