{"id":508567,"date":"2026-01-11T13:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T13:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/508567\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T13:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T13:15:10","slug":"the-thing-the-way-back-actor-was-69","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/508567\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;The Thing,&#8217; &#8216;The Way Back&#8217; Actor Was 69"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThomas Kent \u201cT.K.\u201d Carter, an actor best known for his role in John Carpenter\u2019s 1982 horror classic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/thing\/\" id=\"auto-tag_thing_1\" data-tag=\"thing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Thing<\/a>, has died, his publicist, Tony Freeman, confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. He was 69.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tCarter was found dead Friday in his home in Duarte, California. No foul play is suspected, THR learned. A cause of death has not yet been revealed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cT.K. Carter was a consummate professional and a genuine soul whose talent transcended genres,\u201d Freeman said in a statement. \u201cHe brought laughter, truth and humanity to every role he touched. His legacy will continue to inspire generations of artists and fans alike.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tBorn in New York City on Dec. 18, 1956, the actor was raised in the San Gabriel Valley. He made his acting debut in 1976 on NBC\u2019s crime drama Police Woman.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tCarter\u2019s breakthrough role was playing roller-skating chef Nauls in The Thing opposite Kurt Russell. The following year, he was on the ABC sitcom Just Our Luck with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/tv\/tv-news\/richard-gilliland-designing-women-actor-and-husband-of-jean-smart-dies-at-71-4156084\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Richard Gilliland<\/a>, and from 1985-86, he played Mike Fulton on the first two seasons of NBC\u2019s Punky Brewster. In the 1996 original <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/space-jam\/\" id=\"auto-tag_space-jam_1\" data-tag=\"space-jam\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Space Jam<\/a> movie, he voiced the character Monstar Nawt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tAdditional acting credits across film and TV include Good Times,\u00a0The Waltons,\u00a0The Jeffersons, 227,\u00a0Good Morning,\u00a0Miss Bliss,\u00a0Family Matters,\u00a0The Sinbad Show,\u00a0Moesha,\u00a0The Steve Harvey Show,\u00a0The Nanny,\u00a0Seems Like Old Times,\u00a0Southern Comfort, Doctor Detroit, Ski Patrol and\u00a0My Favorite Martian.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tHis most recent roles were in the 2020 film <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/topics-projects\/\" id=\"auto-tag_topics-projects_1\" data-tag=\"topics-projects\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Way Back<\/a>, starring Ben Affleck; 2022\u2019s Fake Friends; three episodes of the Milo Ventimiglia-starrer The Company You Keep in 2023; and five installments of rapper Lil Dicky\u2019s sitcom Dave that same year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tHe is survived by his mother and children. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thomas Kent \u201cT.K.\u201d Carter, an actor best known for his role in John Carpenter\u2019s 1982 horror classic The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":508568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[171,53,593,182385,156321,227508,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-508567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-obituaries","11":"tag-space-jam","12":"tag-the-thing","13":"tag-the-way-back","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115876654177379910","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}