Alan Thicke


Alan Thicke Biography

Alan Jeffery Thicke (born Alan Willis Jeffery; March 1, 1947) is a Canadian actor, comedian, songwriter, and game and talk show host. He is best known for his role as Jason Seaver, the father on the ABC television series Growing Pains, and for being the father of singer-songwriter Robin Thicke.

Early life

Thicke was born in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada, the son of Joan, a nurse, and William Jeffery, a stockbroker. His mother later married Brian Thicke, a physician. He graduated from Elliot Lake Secondary School in 1965, and was elected homecoming king. He went on to attend the University of Western Ontario, where he joined the Delta Upsilon fraternity.

Career

Game shows

Thicke hosted a Canadian game show on CFCF-TV in Montreal called First Impressions in the late 1970s and the prime-time celebrity game show Animal Crack-Ups in the late 1980s. In 1997, he hosted a television version of the board game Pictionary. In the early 2000s, he hosted the All New 3's a Crowd on the Game Show Network.

Talk shows

Norman Lear hired Thicke to produce and head the writing staff of Fernwood 2-Night, a tongue-in-cheek talk show based on characters from Lear's earlier show, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.

Thicke was also the host of his own popular talk show in Canada during the early 1980s, called The Alan Thicke Show. The show at one point spawned a prime-time spinoff titled Prime Cuts, which consisted of edited highlights from the talk show.

Based on the success of his talk show, Thicke was signed to do an American syndicated late-night talk show, Thicke of the Night.

Theme song composer

Thicke had a successful career as a TV theme song composer, often collaborating with his then-wife Gloria Loring on these projects, which included the themes to the popular sitcoms Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life. He also wrote a number of TV game show themes, including The Wizard of Odds (for which he also sang the vocal introduction), The Joker's Wild, Celebrity Sweepstakes, The Diamond Head Game, Blank Check, Stumpers!, Whew!, and the original theme to Wheel of Fortune. Thicke has also been a popular songwriter. He co-wrote "Sara," a solo hit for Bill Champlin and included on the latter's Runaway album (1981).

Television and film appearances

Thicke co-hosted the Walt Disney World Very Merry Christmas Parade (now the Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade) with Joan Lunden from 1983 to 1990, when he was succeeded by Regis Philbin.

Apart from Growing Pains, Thicke also appeared on the American television series Hope & Gloria, which ran for 35 episodes. He played a lead role in the Not Quite Human trilogy of made-for-TV movies. In 2004, Thicke hosted the Miss Universe Canada pageant. In April 2006, he hosted Celebrity Cooking Showdown on NBC, in which celebrities were teamed with famous chefs in a cooking competition.

In August 2006 and 2007, Thicke made a few appearances as talk show host Rich Ginger on The Bold and the Beautiful. Thicke also had a cameo appearance in the 2007 movie Alpha Dog as the father of the lead character's girlfriend.

In 2008, Thicke appeared in a major supporting role as Jim Jarlewski in the television series adaptation of Douglas Coupland's jPod. That same year, he had a cameo appearance in the How I Met Your Mother episode "Sandcastles in the Sand" as the dad in Robin Scherbatsky's second "Robin Sparkles" music video. He guest starred as himself in the episode "The Rough Patch". He appeared on a website made specifically for the show, canadiansexacts.org, featured in the episode "Old King Clancy".

In February 2009, Thicke made a guest appearance on adult swim's Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job. In the same month, he made a guest appearance on the web series Star-ving. He also had a role in the 2009 film The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard. On July 10, 2009, Thicke appeared on the 1000th episode of Attack Of The Show, and sang a song with Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn, at the end kissing Munn.

Thicke appeared in the season six finale of Just Shoot Me, "The Boys in the Band". He made a guest appearance on a few episodes of Canada's Worst Handyman 5. In 2010, Thicke appeared on the television program, Tosh.0. In October 2010, he appeared as a celebrity contestant on Don't Forget the Lyrics, where he played for the charities ProCon.org and the Alan Thicke Center for diabetes research.

In March 2013, Thicke participated on ABC's Celebrity Wife Swap. He swapped wives with comedian Gilbert Gottfried.

Personal life

Thicke has been married three times. His first marriage, to Days of our Lives actress Gloria Loring (1970"83), produced two sons, Brennan and Robin Thicke. His second marriage, to Miss World 1990 Gina Tolleson (1994"99), produced a third son, Carter William (1997). In 1999, he met Tanya Callau in Miami, where he was the celebrity host, she the model. They married in 2005.

Brennan Thicke was a voice actor for cartoons when he was younger. Robin Thicke is a platinum album-selling musician.

Thicke is close friends with ice hockey legend Wayne Gretzky. When Robin was 11, Thicke went to Oslo, Norway on vacation and hired Gretzky as Robin's babysitter. While Gretzky was babysitting Robin, he found out he had officially been traded to the Los Angeles Kings and had to suddenly leave. Thicke reportedly didn't find out that his son was home alone until he called home the next morning and found out that Gretzky had had to leave because he was traded. Despite the trade and outrage among most Canadians, Thicke and Gretzky remain friends today. Ironically enough, Thicke is also a Los Angeles Kings fan.

Filmography

Films

Year Title Role
1971 The Point! Narrator/Father (voice; third telecast)
1983 Copper Mountain Jackson Reach
1984 Calendar Girl Murders Alan Conti
1991 And You Thought Your Parents Were Weird Matthew Carson / Newman (voice)
1993 Betrayal of the Dove Jack West
1995 Open Season Xanex
1998 Anarchy TV Reverend Wright
2000 Bear with Me
2001 Xin shi zi jie tou Steve
2003 Hollywood North Peter Casey
2003 Carolina Chuck McBride " Perfect Date Host
2004 Raising Helen Hockey Cantor
2004 Childstar J.R.
2006 The Surfer King Pipeman
2006 Alpha Dog Douglas Holden
2009 The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard Stu Harding
2009 RoboDoc Dr. Roskin
2010 Making a Scene The Producer

Television movies

Year Title Role
1986 Perry Mason: The Case of the Shooting Star Steve Carr
1987 Hitting Home Conrad Vaughan
1987 Not Quite Human Dr. Jonas Carson
1988 14 Going on 30 The real Forndexter
1988 Dance 'til Dawn Jack Lefcourt
1989 Not Quite Human II Dr. Jonas Carson
1990 Jury Duty: The Comedy Phil Beckman
1992 The Trial of Red Riding Hood The Wolf
1992 Still Not Quite Human Dr. Jonas Carson
1993 Rubdown Raymond Holliman
1994 Lamb Chop and the Haunted Studio Alan
1995 Lamb Chop's Special Chanukah Alan
1996 Windsor Protocol Senator Joplin Hardy
1996 Shari's Passover Surprise Alan
1996 The Secret She Carried Reed Epperson (uncredited)
1997 Shadow of the Bear William Andrich
1997 Any Place But Home August Danforth
1998 Thunder Point Joplin Hardy
1998 Casper Meets Wendy Baseball Announcer
1999 Two of Hearts Hank Powers
2000 Ice Angel Coach Parker
2000 The Growing Pains Movie Jason Seaver
2004 Growing Pains: Return of the Seavers Jason Seaver
2008 Mother Goose Parade

Television series

Year Title Role Notes
1969 It's Our Stuff Regular
1969 Time for Living Regular
1974 Jack: A Flash Fantasy Jack of Diamonds
1978 America 2-Night Doug Episode: "I Am Democracy"
1983"84 Thicke of the Night Host
1984 Masquerade Episode: "Sleeper"
1984/87 The Love Boat Alan Price / Robert McBride / Senator Bob Townsend 3 episodes
1985 Scene of the Crime Craig Spears Episode: "A Vote for Murder"
1985"92 Growing Pains Jason Seaver
1990 The Hitchhiker Mickey Black Episode: "Tough Guys Don't Whine"
1992 Travelquest Host
1993 Murder, She Wrote Harrison M. Kane Episode: "The Phantom Killer"
1994 Burke's Law Episode: "Who Killed the Beauty Queen?"
1995 Minor Adjustments Roger Episode: "The Ex-Files"
1995"96 Hope & Gloria Dennis Dupree
1996/97 Married... with Children Bruce / Henry 3 episodes
1997 The Outer Limits Donald Rivers Episode: "A Special Edition"
1999 Arliss Doctor Episode: "Rules of the Game"
2000 Beggars and Choosers Episode: "The Woodhouse Conundrum"
2000"02 Son of the Beach Captain 'Buck' Enteneille / Captain Buck Enteneille 3 episodes
2001 7th Heaven Ed Palmer Episode: "Parents"
2003 EGG, the Arts Show Alan Scott Episode: "Broadway Workshop"
2004 My Wife and Kids Magician Episode: "Fantasy Camp: Part 2"
2005 Yes, Dear Joel Episode: "The New Neighbors"
2005 Half & Half Gavin Storm Episode: "The Big Mothers for Others Episode"
2005 Joey Himself Episode: "Joey and the Poker"
2006"09 The Bold and the Beautiful Rich Ginger 7 episodes
2007 Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide Hal E. Burton Episode: "Spring Fever & the School Newspaper"
2008 About a Girl Dude's Dad Episode: "About a Homecoming"
2008 JPod Jim Jarlewski 13 episodes
2008/13 How I Met Your Mother Himself 4 episodes
2010 Canada's Worst Handyman 5 Himself
2010 Tosh.0 Himself Episode: "Crystal Light Dancers (Reunion)"
2010 I'm in the Band Simon Craig 5 episodes
2011 This Hour Has 22 Minutes Himself
2012 The L.A. Complex Donald Gallagher 4 episodes
2010 I'm in the Band Simon Craig 5 episodes
2013 Celebrity Wife Swap Himself Season 2 episode 3

Television commercials

In the 1990s, Thicke was the spokesman for the Canadian division of Woolco department stores until its demise in 1994. In 1991 Thicke appeared in a television commercial for 'Fruit of the Loom' underwear. In 1997 he appeared in a television infomercial for the 'Bright Smile' tooth whitening system. He appeared in 2007 in a TV ad for the 'Tahiti Village' a Las Vegas time-share resort that went out of business in 2009. In 2009 Thicke began appearing in TV ads endorsing 'CCS Medical', a distributor of home-delivered diabetes supplies.

Books authored by Alan Thicke




This webpage uses material from the Wikipedia article "Alan_Thicke" and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. Reality TV World is not responsible for any errors or omissions the Wikipedia article may contain.
ADVERTISEMENT




POPULAR TV SHOWS (100)



POPULAR PEOPLE (100)


Page generated in 0.32787084579468 seconds