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Veteran actor TK Carter, who had memorable roles in “The Thing,” “Runaway Train,” and “Punky Brewster,” has died. He was 69 years old.
Carter died at his home in Duarte, Calif., after deputies were called around 5:42 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 9, according to a statement obtained by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials.
Officers found Carter dead at the scene and did not suspect foul play. The sheriff’s office has not released any other information about his cause of death or what prompted the call.
According to IMDB, Carter was born on December 14, 1956 and raised in Los Angeles, but began acting in his pre-teen years and began doing stand-up routines at age 12. By high school, Carter was acting in theater and landed a role in Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple.
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He continued to work on comedy after high school, performing stand-up routines at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles and honing his acting skills at the Improvisation Café and Ye Little Club.
After some work on stage, the actor and comedian finally began appearing on screen in the 1970s, landing bit roles on TV shows such as The Policewoman, The Waltons, and The Jeffersons.
He eventually landed his breakthrough role as Cook Knowles in the 1982 horror film The Thing, and also landed the role of Dave Prince in 1985’s Runaway Train.
Around that time, Carter landed a recurring role on the hit 1980s show Punky Brewster as Mike Fulton for two seasons. He also appeared on the sitcom Just Our Luck for one season.
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In the 1990s, Carter starred as Iceman in Ski Patrol and landed the voice role of Note in 1996’s Space Jam. He also appeared on several television shows at the time, including Moesha, The Steve Harvey Show, The Nanny, and NYPD Blue.
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He appeared in the television series The Corner and a series of small films in the 2000s, before returning to television in the 2010s to appear in shows such as How to Get Away with Murder, Everybody Hates Chris, Saints and Sinners, and The Bobby Brown Story.
Carter continued acting into the early 2020s, appearing in Stumptown, Fake Friends, and the TV series Dave. His last TV credit was on the 2023 show “The Company You Keep.”
