Actor Jan-Michael Vincent has died at age 74 after suffering cardiac arrest, according to a death certificate obtained by TMZ
Vincent, best known for his role in the 1980’s TV series Airwolf, reportedly died on Feb. 10 in a North Carolina hospital following a cardiac arrest. No autopsy was performed and the actor was later cremated.
No autopsy was performed and the star was later cremated, according to a death certificate obtained by TMZ.
The Denver born star had many screen credits to his name, with his career spanning back to the late 1960s.
His role as helicopter pilot Stringfellow Hawke in Airwolf – after an acclaimed performance in the 1983 television miniseries The Winds of War – that made him a star.
The show, which ran from 1984 to 1986, earned him $200,000 per episode, making him the highest paid actor at the time.
At the height of his fame he admitted to issues with drugs and alcohol – which reportedly contributed to the cancellation of the CBS series in 1986 – and confessed in recent years that he was still struggling with alcoholism. Prior to Airwolf he had been arrested in 1977, 1978 and 1979 for possession of cocaine and in 1984 and 1985 was also arrested after two bar brawls.
Through the years he was also involved in three very serious car accidents.
The first near-fatal incident happened in 1992.
In a 1996 collision, Vincent broke three vertebrae in his neck and sustained a permanent injury to his vocal cords that left him with a permanently raspy voice.
The ensuing complications he battled for years after and led to another drink driving arrest and stint in rehab.
The third crash happened in September 1997.
Another less serious crash happened in 2008 when Vincent lost control of his vehicle on highway 465 in Mississippi. He was treated at a medical center and released.
The actor almost died in 2012 after an infection forced him to have his right leg amputated, the result of complications from peripheral artery disease. Vincent said he was lucky to be alive in a 2014 interview.
‘I’m an alcoholic. I’m me. I got my personality. I don’t behave like an alcoholic.’ he told the National Enquirer
He added: ‘I look at this now and think I have nothing to be upset about when I think about what our U.S. military go through, they’re the real heroes.’
Vincent was married three times: the first to Bonnie Poorman in 1968, which resulted in a daughter, Amber, born in 1972. The couple divorced in 1977, and he remarried in 1986 to Joanne Robinson, until she filed a restraining order in 1998 after she alleged he had been abusing her since the year of their marriage. He married Patricia Christ in 2000.
In addition to Airwolf, Vincent appeared in the 1983 miniseries The Winds of War and films such as The Mechanic and Big Wednesday. His final film role was in the 2003 independent film White Boy.
