Oh, man. I always loved the “Is he or isn’t he?” mystery of whether or not Higgins was actually Robin Masters. Such a great foil for Magnum.
Also, his appearances as Higgins’ various half-brothers were terrific. I loved it when he played the Texan, which was actually used something closer to his hometown accent.
I don’t remember him in Chinatown but his Blazing Saddles role made all Johnson’s proud.
I didn’t remember him either but here he is:
Dang. I love John Hillerman. “Magnum, P.I” was one of my favorite shows when I was growing up.
Just the other day my aunt posted on FB something about her dogs, and she called them “the lads” in her post. It totally brought him to mind because, “Zeus, Apollo…patrol.” So I posted this for her:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwkI36WS1EU
Dang he was great on that show.
-xtien
He was also great in Paper Moon by Peter Bogdanovich, he played a twin, a Whisky smuggler and his corrupt sheriff brother… he was so good and funny.