Every episode of Hill Street Blues began the same way. The precinct’s tired officers shuffled into the morning roll call, Sgt. Phil Esterhaus ran down the day’s assignments in his courtly baritone, and then he sent them out the door with four words that became a national catchphrase: “Let’s be careful out there.” Over Mike Post’s gentle piano theme, viewers met a squad room so crowded with people, overlapping talk and unfinished business that it felt like nothing else on television in 1981.
Created by Steven Bochco and Michael Kozoll, the NBC drama nearly died in its first season because of low ratings, but it won eight Emmys that year and went on to take four straight awards for Outstanding Drama Series. It ran for seven seasons and 146 episodes, from January 15, 1981, to May 12, 1987, and it paved the way for NYPD Blue, ER and nearly every ensemble drama that followed. Nearly four decades after the final roll call, here is where the Hill Street cast is today, starting with the officers we have lost and ending with the ones still with us.
Is Michael Conrad still alive?
Michael Conrad was the man behind that famous sign-off. As the gentlemanly desk sergeant Phil Esterhaus, he gave the chaotic precinct its calm center, and he won back-to-back Emmys for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 1981 and 1982. Off camera, though, he was quietly fighting urethral cancer while the show was in production.
Conrad died on November 22, 1983, in Los Angeles, during the show’s fourth season. He was 58. According to a UPI report at the time, most of the cast attended his private funeral at Hillside Memorial Park. The writers had Esterhaus die offscreen, and the roll call would soon belong to a gruffer sergeant.
Is Rene Enriquez still alive?
Born in Granada, Nicaragua, Rene Enriquez played Lt. Ray Calletano, the steady officer who quietly pushed back when colleagues underestimated him. Calletano was promoted to captain early in season six, but he appeared only sparingly after that, and Daniel J. Travanti later recalled that Enriquez was “saddened by being let go.” His last credited film role came in Bulletproof in 1988.
Enriquez died on March 23, 1990, in Tarzana, California, at 56. The New York Times reported pancreatic cancer at the time, but his death certificate later listed complications from AIDS. Just nine months later, the cast would lose another original member.
Is Kiel Martin still alive?
Kiel Martin played Det. J.D. LaRue, the wisecracking schemer who was always one bad idea away from trouble. LaRue struggled with drinking, and so did Martin. In 1984, at the producers’ urging, he completed a rehab program, and the writers took LaRue out of four episodes until he returned for the season finale. After the show he guest-starred on Murder, She Wrote and L.A. Law and starred in the short-lived Fox sitcom Second Chance.
In January 1990, he left a stage production of Biloxi Blues after chest pains, and a biopsy revealed lung cancer. Martin died on December 28, 1990, at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, at 46. The Seattle Times reported the cause as cardiovascular collapse due to lung cancer. Bochco later called his life “tragically short.”
Is Robert Prosky still alive?
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When Hill Street needed someone to take over roll call, it found Robert Prosky. The Philadelphia native joined in 1984 as Sgt. Stan Jablonski, a bluntly practical replacement for Esterhaus, and his own catchphrase, “Let’s do it to them before they do it to us,” became nearly as famous. That same year he earned a Tony nomination for Glengarry Glen Ross on Broadway, and he later turned up in Broadcast News, Mrs. Doubtfire and Dead Man Walking.
Prosky died on December 8, 2008, in Washington, D.C., five days before his 78th birthday. He was 77. His son John said the cause was complications from heart surgery, as NPR reported.
Is Taurean Blacque still alive?
As the cool, quiet Det. Neal Washington, toothpick in his mouth and LaRue at his side, Taurean Blacque stayed with the show for all seven seasons and earned an Emmy nomination, losing to his co-star Michael Conrad. After it ended, he moved to Atlanta to raise his children, voiced Roscoe in Disney’s Oliver & Company and starred in the sci-fi film DeepStar Six.
His proudest role was at home. NBC News reported that he adopted 11 children, and in 1989 President George H.W. Bush asked him to serve as the national spokesperson for adoption. Blacque died in Atlanta on July 21, 2022, after a brief illness, his family said. He was 82.
Is Barbara Bosson still alive?
Barbara Bosson played Fay Furillo, the captain’s ex-wife who kept barging into his office with complaints about alimony and their son. The role earned her five straight Emmy nominations. She was married to Steven Bochco from 1970 to 1997, and she later starred in his shows Hooperman, Cop Rock and Murder One, where she played prosecutor Miriam Grasso.
Bosson died on February 18, 2023, in Santa Monica, California, at 83. Her son Jesse Bochco said she passed “peacefully” and “surrounded by her family and loved ones,” according to ET. He told reporters the cause had not been determined.
Is James B. Sikking still alive?
James B. Sikking played Lt. Howard Hunter, the pipe-smoking, gung-ho SWAT commander whose bluster made him one of the show’s funniest characters. Bochco brought him back in 1989 as Dr. David Howser, the father of Doogie Howser, M.D., and he later starred in Brooklyn South and the film The Pelican Brief.
Sikking died at his Los Angeles home on July 13, 2024, from complications of dementia, his publicist told CBS News. He was 90. His TV son Neil Patrick Harris called him “one of the kindest, wisest, funniest, and most generous people I’ve ever known.”
Is Jon Cypher still alive?
Jon Cypher played Chief Fletcher Daniels, the slick, ambitious top brass who always cared more about headlines than the Hill. Decades earlier, in 1957, he had played Prince Charming opposite Julie Andrews in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. He later played Man-at-Arms in Masters of the Universe and Gen. Marcus Craig on Major Dad.
Cypher was the most recent loss. As we reported in August, he died on August 3, 2026, at his home in Oregon. He was 94, and his obituary did not give a cause. That leaves the rest of the squad room, and the good news starts here.
Is Ed Marinaro still alive?
Before he was Officer Joe Coffey, Ed Marinaro was a star running back at Cornell, finishing second in the 1971 Heisman voting, and he played in two Super Bowls with the Minnesota Vikings. Coffey was killed off in 1986, and Marinaro moved on to play Mitch Margolis on Sisters and the hard-driving Coach Marty Daniels on Blue Mountain State.
Marinaro is alive and 76. He still posts regularly about college football on his X account, and his son Eddie followed him to Cornell to play football.
Are Ken Olin and Megan Gallagher still alive?
Ken Olin spent one season on the Hill as Det. Harry Garibaldi before becoming Michael Steadman on thirtysomething. He then moved behind the camera, directing 20 episodes of This Is Us and serving as an executive producer. Now 72, he is an executive producer on CBS’s Tracker, whose fourth season premiered October 4, 2026.
Megan Gallagher joined in the final season as Officer Tina Russo and went on to China Beach, Millennium and The Larry Sanders Show. She is 66, and Parade reported on a rare sighting of her on a power walk in Los Angeles in 2025.
Is Betty Thomas still alive?
Betty Thomas played Officer Lucy Bates, the tough patrol cop who rose to sergeant, and she won an Emmy for the role in 1985 after seven nominations. Then she reinvented herself as one of Hollywood’s busiest directors, with The Brady Bunch Movie, Private Parts, Doctor Dolittle, 28 Days and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.
Thomas is alive and 79. The Directors Guild honored her with its Robert B. Aldrich Award in 2021.
Is Michael Warren still alive?
Michael Warren played Officer Bobby Hill, Renko’s patrol partner and the show’s moral compass. He came to acting from basketball, where he was a starting guard on John Wooden’s UCLA teams that won NCAA titles in 1967 and 1968. “At 22 I was a washed-up ballplayer,” he has said of his short pro career. After Hill Street he starred on City of Angels and played Baron Marks on Soul Food.
Warren is alive and 80. According to a HELLO! Magazine look at the cast in March 2026, he has turned his attention to public speaking and advocacy.
Is Joe Spano still alive?
Joe Spano played Lt. Henry Goldblume, the sensitive negotiator who believed every standoff could be talked down. A new generation knows him as Tobias Fornell, the FBI agent and Gibbs’ sparring partner on NCIS. He appeared in the show’s 2003 premiere and kept coming back for more than 20 years.
Spano is alive and 80, and he is still working. His most recent credit is a 2026 voice role in the animated film Hoppers.
Is Charles Haid still alive?
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Charles Haid played Officer Andy Renko, the cowboy-loving patrolman whose bickering partnership with Bobby Hill gave the show its heart on patrol. Haid once described the ensemble as “a collection of mutts.” After the show, he became an award-winning director, winning a Directors Guild Award for an episode of ER and directing NYPD Blue, Breaking Bad and the feature film Iron Will.
Haid is alive and 83. His last listed credit is the 2016 comedy Sensitivity Training.
Is Bruce Weitz still alive?
Bruce Weitz played Det. Mick Belker, the scruffy undercover cop who growled at suspects, called them “hairball” and actually bit a few. The role earned him six Emmy nominations and the 1984 award for Outstanding Supporting Actor. Afterward, he starred on Anything but Love, appeared in Deep Impact and spent five years as mob boss Anthony Zacchara on General Hospital.
Weitz is alive and 83. His most recent screen role was a 2021 episode of For All Mankind.
Is Veronica Hamel still alive?
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Veronica Hamel played public defender Joyce Davenport, Furillo’s secret love and later his wife. Their late-night pillow talk closed many an episode, and she earned five Emmy nominations. A former model, she moved into TV movies and later played Jack Shephard’s mother, Margo, on Lost. “I thought I’d have time to become a movie star,” she said in a 1994 interview.
Hamel is alive and 82, and she turns 83 on November 20. She has not acted since Lost and largely stays out of the spotlight.
Is Dennis Franz still alive?
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Dennis Franz played two characters on the Hill. He first appeared as a corrupt detective, then returned in 1985 as Lt. Norman Buntz, who got his own spinoff, Beverly Hills Buntz. Eight years later he became Andy Sipowicz on NYPD Blue and won four Emmys. He retired after the show ended in 2005. When his TV son Austin Majors died in 2023, Franz told ET, “Austin was always such a joy to have on the set.”
Franz is alive and 81, and he turns 82 on October 28. He and his wife, Joanie Zeck, spend summers at their lake home in northern Idaho, and in 2025 they listed their Montecito estate for nearly $18 million.
Is Daniel J. Travanti still alive?
The man who held the Hill together is still with us. Daniel J. Travanti played Capt. Frank Furillo, the steady, quietly recovering alcoholic who absorbed every crisis. He won back-to-back Emmys in 1981 and 1982. Then came the TV movie Adam, roles on Missing Persons and Boss, and an arc as Chris O’Donnell’s father on NCIS: Los Angeles. Travanti has spoken openly about his own sobriety, calling alcoholism a “disease of loneliness and secrecy.”
Travanti is alive and 86. In 2024 he filmed a cameo for the small-town comedy Lunch Hour in Owatonna, Minnesota. There he stopped to greet fans on his way to the set, and the local paper reported he was happy to talk about how he stays healthy and in shape. For a look at how the whole precinct has changed, see our ‘Hill Street Blues’ cast then and now. Esterhaus asked them all to be careful out there, and nearly 40 years after the last roll call, most of the squad is still answering it.
