These days there are plenty of police procedural shows on the air, including Law&Order, CSI, and Chicago P.D. But, back in the 1960s, the genre was still getting its start. Following the success of Dragnet, series creator Jack Webb created another police series, Adam-12, about a veteran cop and a rookie working in Los Angeles. That rookie on Adam-12 was played by Kent McCord, who is now the last surviving cast member of the series.
Adam-12 aired for seven seasons from 1968 to 1975, all of which featured McCord alongside actor Martin Milner, as Jim Reed and Pete Malloy, respectively. Milner died in 2015 at age 83. As for McCord, he is now 79 years old, and while he is no longer acting, he has spoken out about the classic show fairly recently. Read on to find out more about McCord’s life today.
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He kept acting after Adam-12.
McCord already had a lot of acting work under his belt prior to Adam-12. He worked as an extra and had small roles on many series and also appeared regularly on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and on Dragnet. Following Adam-12, some of his roles include the sci-fi series Galactica 1980 and the movies Airplane II: The Sequel and Predator 2. In his later career, he appeared on JAG in the late ’90s and on the sci-fi series Farscape in the early 2000s. His last role was in the TV movie Tides of War in 2005.
He took on a leadership role in the actors union.
McCord was a vice president of the Screen Actors Guild. According to his website, “He chaired the Children’s Committee, which helped fashion protections for child performers throughout the world.” MeTV reports that McCord even ran to be president of the organization in the early 2000s, but lost to Little House on the Prairie star Melissa Gilbert.
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He was also a race car driver.
McCord’s website also talks about his interest in race car driving, including the fact that his acting career meant he got to attend the Indianapolis 500. The site explains, “He has competed as a driver in automobile races such as the annual Toyota Pro Celebrity Challenge in Long Beach, California, and Watkins Glen, New York. He has also competed in several professional racing series in the Sports Car Club of America and IMSA, in such events as the 12 Hours of Sebring.”
He’s been married for nearly 60 years.
McCord married his wife, Cynthia Lee Doty, 59 years ago in 1962. According to his website, they were high school sweethearts. The couple has three children: Kristen, Megan, and Michael. In an interview with Celebrity Biograph at Nostalgia Con in 2016, McCord said his wife teases him about looking like NFL quarterback Tom Brady when he was younger. “My wife, every time she sees Tom Brady, says, ‘Where were you on the night he was conceived?'”
He’s aware of the impact the classic cop show has had.
In the Celebrity Biograph interview, McCord said that people who were kids when the show was filming on the street in Los Angeles come up to him to this day. “I still get in LA, I’ll have somebody stop and say, ‘You know, you used to shoot in my neighborhood,” he explained. “‘I was a kid and I used to watch you guys shoot.'”
He’s also mentioned that people have told him that the series led them to become police officers. “I’m always humbled by the fact,” he said, “and it also exhibits the kind of responsibly make-believe has.”
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