Kevin Tighe
Kevin Tighe | |
|---|---|
| Born | John Kevin Fishburn August 13, 1944 Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Occupation | actor |
| Spouse | Rebecca |
Kevin Tighe (b. John Kevin Fishburn; August 13, 1944) is a American character actor primarily known for his roles on television. Tighe is best known for his role as Roy DeSoto, a senior paramedic, on the NBC-Universal television series Emergency! (1972–77). He and Randolph Mantooth, his partner in the series, have remained close friends.[1]
Life and career
Tighe was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of an actor.[2] When he was five, he and his family moved to the nearby suburb of Pasadena. Tighe began acting at an early age, auditioning for juvenile leads at the Pasadena Playhouse, before he was enrolled at Pasadena High School, where he graduated in 1962. Then he attended University of Southern California, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts in acting (1967).[3] That same year, his first big screen appearance was a bit role in The Graduate (as a fraternity member, with a few lines of dialogue late in the film) after which he served a stint in the Army. After his military service, he returned to acting, working under contract for Paramount Pictures.
He also worked with actors including Lorne Greene, Dustin Hoffman, Maggie Smith and Michael Landon, before he signed a contract with Universal Studios in 1971, where he auditioned for Jack Webb's television series, Emergency!, playing senior paramedic Roy DeSoto, opposite Robert Fuller, Julie London and Bobby Troup, for all six seasons (1972–77). It was there that he met Randolph Mantooth, a year Tighe's junior, on the set, and they become best friends for life.
Tighe has had many guest appearances in other television series since then, including Adam-12, The Love Boat, Murder, She Wrote, Star Trek: Voyager, ER, Freaks and Geeks, Law & Order (both :SVU and :CI), The 4400, Tales from the Crypt and The West Wing where he portrayed Governor Jack Buckland, among others. On Lost, he has appeared numerous times (2005–2010) as the villainous Anthony Cooper, father of John Locke. Tighe has also made recent appearances on the following shows: Numb3rs as Keith Watts (2008), Leverage for two episodes as Ian Blackpoole (2009), Lie to Me as Fletcher Bellwood (2009), and Trauma as Captain Channing (2010), which was intended as a nod to Emergency!.
Tighe has also become a character actor and has appeared in supporting or featured roles in several movies, including Matewan, Eight Men Out, K-9 (the first of two films with James Belushi, the other being Race the Sun), Road House, Another 48 Hours, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, I Love a Man in Uniform (for which he won a Genie Award for best supporting actor in 1994) and a TV-remake of Escape to Witch Mountain, and Geronimo: An American Legend. He also played Coach McDevitt in the 1992 hit School Ties alongside Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Brendan Frasier.
Tighe also appeared as Warren Snider in the Disney movie version of the Broadway play, Newsies.
Stage appearances
He made an Off Broadway appearance as Mick Dowd in A Skull in Connemara, and was the eponymous tiger in the Center Theatre Group production of Rajiv Joseph's Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. He also co starred in RoadHouse with Patrick Swayze and Sam Elliot.