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John Hillerman, Higgins on 'Magnum, P.I.,' Dies at 84
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/john-hillerman-dead-magnum-pi-actor-was-84-1056800
John Hillerman, the actor who made a career out of playing snooty types, including Tom Selleck's fastidious estate caretaker Jonathan Quayle Higgins III on Magnum, P.I., died Thursday. He was 84.
Hillerman, who received four Emmy nominations in consecutive years for portraying Higgins and won in 1987, died at his home in Houston, family spokeswoman Lori De Waal told the Associated Press. She said the cause of death had not been determined.
His Higgins character was a natural extension of a part he played on the TV detective show Ellery Queen: Simon Brimmer, a radio personality and affected gent who fancied himself a savvy sleuth. Ironically, Hillerman, who often played condescending characters with more than a touch of the Tory Brit — the Mayfair accent — was a Texan from a tiny railroad town, the son of a gas station owner.
Hillerman also appeared as Higgins on episodes of Murder, She Wrote and Simon & Simon.
The actor also was recognized for his character on the 1977-78 sitcom The Betty White Show, in which he played the star's director and former spouse; as Sandy Duncan's father on Valerie's Family: The Hogans; and as Bonnie Franklin's crusty boss Mr. Connors at a PR firm on One Day at a Time.
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John Hillerman, the actor who made a career out of playing snooty types, including Tom Selleck's fastidious estate caretaker Jonathan Quayle Higgins III on Magnum, P.I., died Thursday. He was 84.
Hillerman, who received four Emmy nominations in consecutive years for portraying Higgins and won in 1987, died at his home in Houston, family spokeswoman Lori De Waal told the Associated Press. She said the cause of death had not been determined.
His Higgins character was a natural extension of a part he played on the TV detective show Ellery Queen: Simon Brimmer, a radio personality and affected gent who fancied himself a savvy sleuth. Ironically, Hillerman, who often played condescending characters with more than a touch of the Tory Brit — the Mayfair accent — was a Texan from a tiny railroad town, the son of a gas station owner.
Hillerman also appeared as Higgins on episodes of Murder, She Wrote and Simon & Simon.
The actor also was recognized for his character on the 1977-78 sitcom The Betty White Show, in which he played the star's director and former spouse; as Sandy Duncan's father on Valerie's Family: The Hogans; and as Bonnie Franklin's crusty boss Mr. Connors at a PR firm on One Day at a Time.
</snip>
RIP Higgins...
11 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
From MagnumMania fan site....
"In 1945, immediately after the war in Palestine, Higgins led a patrol that had orders to shoot Jewish refugees. He came across Rabbi Asher Solomon and others on a Tramp Steamer lifeboat as it came to shore. Higgins disobeyed a standing order to "shoot on sight" and marched away from the refugees. Years later, they met outside a British museum where Jonathan tells him, "I was obeying a higher law that does not permit me to shoot unarmed refugees."
My new SIL & I bonded over the show.
That firmly established him as one of the good guys despite his squabbles with Magnum. 
We were both native Texans who subsumed our natural accents. I loved it when I discovered that snooty Higgins from Magnum was from Galveston.
He even used that British accent in a series of TV commercials for Mauna Loa macadamia nuts.
Thanks for the great entertainment, sir.
Though he'll be best remembered for his curmudgeon role in "Magnum, P.I." - with Zeus and Apollo... 
