Alan Thicke was playing hockey with one of his sons yesterday afternoon when he suddenly suffered a heart attack and passed away shortly afterwards. He was 69 years old.
Thicke is perhaps most well known for his role on late 80s’, early 90’s sitcom Growing Pains where he played the patriarch of the family, Dr. Jason Seaver. He also appeared in several other movies and TV shows however, including a stint in the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful from 2006 – 2009, the TV shows How I met Your Mother and even the latest season of the Full House revival, Fuller House. But perhaps the most surprising job he had during his career was as a composer of television theme songs.
Do you remember the theme song for the hit TV series Diff’rent Strokes? How about that shows spin-off The Facts Of Life? Thicke co-wrote both theme songs with his first wife Gloria Loring and Al Burton. He also wrote several theme songs for hit game shows such as The Joker’s Wild, Celebrity Sweepstakes, and the original theme song for Wheel of Fortune. Most of the songs he wrote though came before his role on Growing Pains. It was on that show where his career took off, and he became immortalized in pop culture.
Thicke may have passed away in Los Angeles were he lived, but Canadian will always remember him as one of their own. After all he was born in Kirkland Lake Ontario, and attended the University of Western Ontario in London. He will be missed.
Photo: Toglenn on Wikipedia
