Jon Cypher, who starred on all seven seasons of the police drama Hill Street Blues and played Prince Charming opposite Julie Andrews in the original TV production of Cinderella, has died at 94. The actor died on Aug. 3 at his home in Central Point, Oregon, with his wife of 40 years by his side, his family wrote in an obituary in Oregon’s Ashland News. Cypher shot to fame overnight at age 25 after landing the role of Prince Charming in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s original musical adaptation of Cinderella in 1957, playing opposite Andrews, then 21. The live, color broadcast drew more than 107 million viewers, with over 60 percent of U.S. households tuning in, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Cypher became a television mainstay as the calculating, politically ambitious police chief Fletcher Daniels on the critically acclaimed Hill Street Blues, which ran from 1981-87. Cypher reflected in a 2014 interview that acting is “not an easy profession,” telling aspiring performers that surviving its harsh spotlight meant learning to “pick yourself up many, many, many times.” In his obituary, Cypher’s family said that he sang opera in four languages and “was known to burst out in song, bringing joy to every event.” The family did not disclose a cause of death.
Read it at The Hollywood Reporter
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