James Barrie Sikking (born March 5, 1934) is an American actor known for his role as Lt. Howard Hunter on the 1980s NBC TV series Hill Street Blues. He also starred on the ABC TV series Doogie Howser, M.D. as Dr. David Howser and on the short-lived 1997 CBS drama series Brooklyn South as Captain Stan Jonas. Sikking did the voice of General Gordon on the short-lived 1998 cartoon series Invasion America.
His well known films include The Competition, Outland, Up the Creek and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, in which he played Captain Styles, the captain of the USS Excelsior. Sikking's film career started in 1955. Sikking starred in the critically-acclaimed 1992 Fox Network TV movie Doing Time on Maple Drive. He has made guest appearances on many TV series including Perry Mason, Rawhide, Bonanza, Hunter and Batman Beyond.
Sikking was born in Los Angeles, California. His mother, Sue (née Paxton), was a founder of Unity-by-the-Sea. He has two brothers, Tom and Art, and a sister, Joy. Sikking is sometimes credited as "James B. Sikking" and is the father of actor Andrew Sikking.
James B. Sikking is still probably best known for his yeoman work on the TV series "Hill Street Blues" throughout most of the 80s. The Los Angeles native was born in 1934, the son of Unity ministers. His full name -- James Barrie Sikking -- was given to him as James M. Barrie (of "Peter Pan" fame) was his parents' favorite author at the time. Graduating from El Segundo High School, Sikking's interest in acting started after participating in various college plays while a student at the University of California-Santa Barbara, UCLA and the University of Hawaii. He made his professional stage debut with a production of "Damn Yankees" and broke into films with unbilled work in the films Five Guns West (1955) and The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956). He finally started receiving billing in the 1960s, albeit bit parts in films and TV, as minor villains or in-charge types with such roles as a professional assassin in Point Blank (1967), the head of vice squad in The New Centurions (1972), and a CIA agent in Scorpio (1973) coming his way. Sikking's first steady TV job was playing Dr. James Hobart for three years on the daytime soap "General Hospital" during the 1970s. Moving into "Grade A" quality films in the early 1980s, he still stayed pretty much in the background with little chance to shine such as his playing of Donald Sutherland's white-collar business buddy in the Oscar-winning Ordinary People (1980). It took his scene-stealing role as the gung-ho, often volatile and emotionally unpredictable Lt. Howard Hunter on "Hill Street Blues," however, to alter the course of his career. Following the show's demise after six seasons, Sikking continued to move around in the top supporting ranks, finding steady work on TV as David Howser, Neil Patrick Harris' doctor dad on "Doogie Howser, M.D." and in important roles in such mini-movies as "Doing Time on Maple Drive." Continuing in such movies as Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock (1984), Narrow Margin (1990) and The Pelican Brief (1994), typically playing various authoritarians, he had a rare movie co-lead in Final Approach (1991). Long married to wife Florine, whom he met while at UCLA, his son Andrew is also an actor.
