Michael Cole, Last Surviving 'Mod Squad' Star, Dies at 84

Michael Cole, who had been the last surviving main cast member from TV's "The Mod Squad," died Tuesday at 84.

His death, at Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center, was confirmed to THR by his publicist, Rachel Harris. No cause of death was offered.

His series was a sensation when it debuted in 1968, a commercial response to counterculture unrest that featured three young people as unconventional detectives. Starring Peggy Lipton as a drifter with a sex worker mother, Clarence Williams III as a man caught up in the Watts Riots, and Cole as a spoiled rich kid nabbed for stealing a car, the show's now cringe-worthy tagline was, "One black, one white, one blonde."

Cole's 2018 memoir title winked at the way the show had been sold — it was entitled "I Played the White Guy."

Initially unenthused by the concept of what would become the signature project of his career, Cole told producer Aaron Spelling, "[The show] sounds stupid and I hope it never gets on the air." He wrote in his book that he didn't like the idea of playing a character who was essentially ratting out other troubled young people.

The series ran for five years, and the entire cast reunited for the 1979 TV movie "The Return of Mod Squad." The actors were not invited to appear in the 1999 big-screen adaptation, in which Giovanni Ribisi played the part made famous by Cole. The film was widely panned and bombed at the box office.

Lipton died in 2019, and Williams in 2021. Tige Andrews, who played the characters' tough-love mentor, died in 2007.

Cole was born July 3, 1940, in Madison, Wisconsin. He made his film debut in "Forbid Them Not" (1961), and also acted in "Chuka" (1967), "The Bubble" aka "Fantastic Invasion of Planet Earth" (1967), and "The Last Child" (1971).

Along with recurring on the soap "General Hospital" in 1991, he made a number of guest appearances, including on "Gunsmoke" (1966), "Get Christie Love!" (1974), "Police Story" (1975), "Wonder Woman" (1978), "The Love Boat" (1979), "Murder, She Wrote" (1987 & 1990), "Diagnosis Murder" (1996), and "ER" (2006).

Cole was also featured in the 1990 miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's "It."

He gave this final performances in 2010.

Cole is survived by his third wife, Shelley, of nearly 30 years, and by three children from his previous marriages.