Obituary: Actor Michael Cole, 84, known for his role on ABC's The Mod Squad over 50 years ago, has died, He was the last lead actor in the series. Co-stars Clarence Williams III died in 2021 at the age of 81, while Peggy Lipton died in 2019 at the age of 72, so they all died fairly close to each other.
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| Cole from way back |
It was a popular series and one of those shows that attempted to get more of a youth, urban viewership.
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Cole was born on July 3, 1940, and raised in Madison, Wisconsin. He never knew his biological father, and he, his older brother, Ted, and his mother, Kathleen, lived in his grandmother’s house in his early years. He said he started drinking when he was about 12 and got into plenty of trouble.
He dropped out of high school and at 16 married his girlfriend, who was pregnant with their first child, Candi. They had a second child, Jeff, before getting divorced before Cole turned 20.
After leaving Wisconsin, he tended a bar in Las Vegas, where got some career advice from singer-actor Bobby Darin, and came to Los Angeles. He was broke and living under freeways when he met acclaimed acting coach Estelle Harman, who saw his potential — “she recognized what was in there before I did,” he said in 2018 — gave him free lessons and let him sleep on a bed on the stage of her workshop.
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