Celebrity Biographies
howard hesseman
In Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985), he played Captain Pete Lassard, brother of Commander Eric Lassard. More competent than his brother, he had the misfortune that the leading recruits were assigned to his district, causing a chain of nonsense. The actor Howard Hesseman, with extensive filmography as a secondary, died on January 29, 2022, at the age of 81, in Los Angeles due to complications after a colon operation.
Born on February 27, 1940, in Lebanon (Oregon), Howard Lex Hesseman –his full name– suffered the divorce of his parents at the age of five. After graduating from Silverton High School, he attended the University of Oregon and later became a founding member of The Committee, an improv comedy troupe in San Francisco. After several television appearances, Howard Hesseman made his big screen debut with a small role in the drama The Last Letter .
In the United States, Howard Hesseman became very popular as the protagonist of the series WKRP Radio Cincinnati (1978-82), where he played Dr. Johnny Fever, a star DJ from Los Angeles who arrives at the local Cincinnati station after being fired from his previous position.
Howard Hesseman stood out above all in the field of comedy, with titles such as La última locura (1974), Rampage on the highway (1981), Amazonas en la luna (1987) or the magnificent This Is Spinal Tap (1984), where he played to the manager of musician Duke Fame .
In his later years on the job, Howard Hesseman appeared in such feature films as About Schmidt , Rocker , Halloween 2 , and on the television series That ‘ 70s Show , Boston Legal , CSI , and Chicago Med.
He is survived by his wife since 1959, fellow actress Caroline Ducrocq.