Obituary for John Ashton | film

In several 1980s action comedies, John Ashton, who has died of cancer aged 76, played angry, silly or baffled characters caught up in chaotic situations not entirely of their own making.

The first, Beverly Hills Cop (1984), was originally intended as a dramatic vehicle for Sylvester Stallone: ​​”Stallone wanted to make it 'Rambo Blows Up Beverly Hills' or something like that,” said Ashton, who first auditioned for the film in this form .

When it was later retooled for late-night sensation Eddie Murphy, it became a comedy where other actors were allowed to be funny too. Among them was Ashton, who played the dyspeptic Sergeant John Taggart. Together with his partner, Detective Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold), he is supposed to keep an eye on Murphy's disrespectful Detroiter Axel Foley, who is causing a stir in Beverly Hills while hunting for a murderer.

Foley surrounds the couple. During a stakeout, he sticks bananas into their car's exhaust, causing the vehicle to sputter and stall when they try to follow him. Ashton's irritability was well balanced by Reinhold's peppy naivety. One of the joys of the film was watching Taggart gradually come to terms with Foley. After starting the film arguing, they end it as allies.

After seeing the enthusiastic response to the film at an industry screening, Ashton and Reinhold stopped by a Los Angeles theater a few weeks later to see how the film was being received by audiences. They sat on the balcony and marveled at the “hoots and hollers, screams and shouts” from the audience.

Directed by Martin Brest and released in the United States in December 1984, “Beverly Hills Cop” grossed $316 million worldwide and was one of the ten highest-grossing films in the country in 1984 and 1985.

Ashton and Reinhold returned in Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), as well as in the current fourth part, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024), in which Taggart was now promoted to police chief. “If we wanted to make (another) Beverly Hills Cop, the only way we could do it was if we were all there,” Murphy said earlier this year.

Less commercially successful than “Beverly Hills Cop,” but far superior was the buddy film “Midnight Run” (1988), also directed by Brest. It starred Robert De Niro as a disheveled bounty hunter who transports a renegade mafia accountant (Charles Grodin) across the United States. Ashton was great as the comically gruff Marvin Dorfler, a rival bounty hunter who keeps trying to intercept the duo and claim the money for himself. The character may have been stupid, but Ashton also convincingly demonstrated that he could be intimidating when needed.

The role was written as an uncomplicated heavy role. “But that’s not how I played him,” said Ashton, who instead addressed Marvin as someone who was simply doing his job. It worked: Even though the character died in the middle of George Gallo's script, Brest ordered a rewrite. “About a month later, Marty said, 'We can't kill Villagers, the audience will hate us!'” Ashton recalls. He was spared and given additional scenes, including a memorable appearance during the tense climax.

One of the highlights of the film was seeing Ashton face off against De Niro repeatedly. It was also important for him to win the role in the first place. When he arrived at the audition, he encountered “about 30 guys in the hallway saying, 'I can't believe I have to read with Bobby De Niro.' Everyone's freaking out.” Ashton, however, resisted. “Nobody but me will get this role,” he decided.

During the subsequent improvisation, De Niro was supposed to hand him a bunch of keys. When he went to get her, De Niro threw her to the ground. “Fuck you!” Ashton barked, sparking an escalating exchange of obscenities. “I know every other actor picked up on that,” he reflected. He later learned that as De Niro left the room, he said to Brest, 'I want him.'”

Ashton was born in Springfield, Massachusetts to Edward and Eva (née Wells) and grew up in Enfield, Connecticut. He was educated at Enfield High School and Defiance College in Ohio and then studied theater at the University of Southern California. In 1970 he received a scholarship to travel abroad and appeared in theater productions across Europe.

He always called the theater his first love, and it was in that medium that he won his only awards: a 1973 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for A Flea in the Ear and a 1982 Drama Logue Award for a production of Sam Shepard's “True West,” in which he starred alongside Ed Harris.

His first film was the slasher thriller Eye for an Eye (1973). He then became a well-known face with guest appearances on television shows such as Kojak, Columbo and Starsky & Hutch. In 1978, he appeared in six episodes of the soap opera Dallas as a sidekick tasked with doing JR Ewing's (Larry Hagman) dirty work.

His film credits included the acclaimed bicycle drama Breaking Away (1979), the Charles Bronson thriller Borderline (1980), John Schlesinger's chaotic comedy Honky Tonk Freeway (1981), the monster film King Kong Lives (1986) and several John Hughes projects: Some Kind from Wonderful (1987), She's Getting a Baby (1988) and the children's comedy Curly Sue (1991). In 1989, he played a troubled father whose seven-year-old son is kidnapped in the fact-based TV drama I Know My First Name is Steven (1989), and tearfully recounted his childhood memories of a stranger at a press conference to promote the film Followed home from school.

There was a lot of talk about a sequel to Midnight Run and even a script that Ashton read but felt wasn't up to par. Eventually, three unremarkable television sequels were produced without the original staff. In the first two, Another Midnight Run and Midnight Runaround (both 1994), Dorfler was played by Ed O'Ross.

Ashton worked continuously in film and television. Notable roles included a prison guard in “Instinct” (1999), starring Anthony Hopkins and Cuba Gooding Jr., and another police officer in Ben Affleck's powerful thriller “Gone Baby Gone” (2007). Ashton's most recent appearance was as a judge in two upcoming westerns: Hot Bath, Stiff Drink an' a Close Shave and its sequel, Hot Bath an' a Stiff Drink 2.

He is survived by his third wife, Robin Hoye, and two children, Michelle and Michael, from his previous marriages to Victoria Runn and Bridget Baker, both of which ended in divorce.