Police Academy actor George R. Robertson, who played Chief Hurst in a whopping six movies in the franchise, has died at the age of 89.
His family informed the Hollywood Reporter that he died at a Toronto hospital this past Sunday and a memorial is in the works for the latter part of March.
The Police Academy franchise began in 1984 and spawned seven movies across the following decade, with Robertson in the first six.
Set in an unspecified American city, the films revolved around a police academy that has been told it must take any recruits who want to join up, even the zaniest.
Robertson turned in a memorable performance as a member of the old guard longing for the days when the cops ‘all had Johnsons.’
Born in Brampton, Ontario in 1933, he was a prize-winning athlete in his school days before crossing the border and attending business school at Columbia University.
While there he became acquainted with his future wife Adele, whom he was married to for 61 years until his death last month.
Despite having a master’s degree in business, he felt the stage beckoning and became a theater actor before jobbing around in films.
Throughout the late 1960s and into 1970s, he secured small roles in such legendary pictures as Rosemary’s Baby, Airport and Norma Rae.
In the middle of the 1980s he secured his most beloved role as Chief Hurst, who is initially resistant to the changes in his department but later warms to the newbies.
Over the course of the film franchise, his character Chief Hurst manages to rise up the ranks to the position of Commissioner.
Steve Guttenberg led the first few films as the dashing criminal Carey Mahoney, who enters the police academy as an alternative to jail.
The cast included former football player Bubba Smith, the prolific character actor George Gaynes and a young Kim Cattrall long before her Sex And The City days.
Robertson left the franchise after film six, declining to stay on for the seventh and latest picture, 1994’s Police Academy: Mission To Moscow.
However his acting career proceeded apace, including with a turn as Barry Goldwater in the 2003 film The Reagans starring James Brolin and Judy Davis.
He was back in a political role as Dick Cheney in the controversial ABC two-parter The Path To 9/11, aired in 2006 to mark the fifth anniversary of the jihad attacks.
Robertson’s historical roles included Admiral Leahy in 1995’s Hiroshima and Senator Fulbright in 2003’s The Pentagon Papers.
He even played a fictional president in the 1995 picture National Lampoon’s Senior Trip, the movie debut of future Marvel heartthrob Jeremy Renner.
Alongside his acting career, he threw himself into humanitarian work, including as a UNICEF ambassador, in which capacity he spoke at schools dressed as Chief Hurst.
In 1990, one year after he acted in his last Police Academy picture, he was given the Danny Kaye UNICEF Canada Award.
Robertson also raised money for an orphanage in Thailand by walking a staggering 328-mile route through the southwest of France.
His native Canada feted him for his work, with the CBC presenting him with the Margaret Collier Award for lifetime achievement and the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television giving him their Gemini award for humanitarianism.
He continued acting well into the 2010s, playing his final role in the 2017 National Geographic movie Cradle To Grave about the lifetime aging process.