Michael Cole, the actor who played Pete Cochran in “The Mod Squad,” has died, Fox News Digital verified. He was 84.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cole died on Tuesday at Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center. The reason of death has not been specified.
Cole’s spokesperson informed Variety that he died “peacefully this morning, surrounded by loved ones, after living a full and vibrant life.”
Cole is best remembered for his portrayal as one of three adolescent detectives on ABC’s “The Mod Squad” from 1968 to 1973. Clarence Williams III and Peggy Lipton also appeared in the series.
The actor was born on July 3, 1940 and reared in Madison, Wisconsin. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cole never knew his father. Cole, his elder brother, and his mother spent their early years living at his grandmother’s house.
According to the publication, Cole started drinking when he was 12 and was used to getting into trouble. At 16, he dropped out of high school and married his fiancée, who was expecting their first kid. Before their divorce, the former couple had two children, Candi and Jeff.
Cole left Wisconsin for Las Vegas, where he met Bobby Darin, a singer and actor at the time. Cole then relocated to Los Angeles and lived under a highway, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
He subsequently met an acting instructor named Estelle Harman, who had a significant effect on his life. Cole said in 2018 that Harman “recognized what was in there before I did.” According to the publication, she provided him free acting lessons and let him sleep on the bed on stage during her workshop.
It wasn’t until many years later that producer Aaron Spelling approached Cole to give him a job on “The Mod Squad.”
Cole wrote about this event in his 2018 book, “I Played The White Guy,”
“I resisted taking the part when Spelling offered it, telling him, ‘[The show] sounds stupid, and I hope it never gets on air,'” Cole writes in his book, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “I didn’t want to play some guy who ratted on some other troubled kids.”
“The Mod Squad” ran for 123 episodes throughout five seasons. Cole was engaged in a major vehicle accident while filming the episode, which sent him flying through his windshield. He required 130 stitches, according to The Hollywood Reporter.