Fox News Digital confirmed that Michael Cole, who played Pete Cochran on “The Mod Squad,” has died. He was 84.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cole died at Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center on Tuesday. A cause of death has not been provided.
A representative for Cole told Variety that he passed away “peacefully this morning, surrounded by loved ones, after living a full and vibrant life.”
Michael Cole, actor who starred in “The Mod Squad,” has died. (Getty Images)
Cole is best known for his role as one of three young detectives on ABC’s “The Mod Squad” from 1968 to 1973. The series also starred Peggy Lipton and Clarence Williams III.
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The actor was born on July 3, 1940, and grew up in Madison, Wisconsin. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cole never knew his father. Cole, his brother, and his mother lived at his grandmother’s house for the first few years of his life.
According to the source, Cole started drinking at the age of 12 and was used to getting into trouble. He dropped out of high school at 16 and married his girlfriend, who was pregnant with their first child. The couple had two children, Candi and Jeff, before divorcing.
Michael Cole plays Pete Cochran in “The Mod Squad.” (ABC Photo Archive/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
Michael Cole, pictured in 1993, was 84 when he died on Tuesday. (Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images)
Cole left Wisconsin and moved to Las Vegas, where he met Bobby Darin, a singer and actor at the time. Cole later moved to Los Angeles and lived under a freeway, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
He then met acting coach Estelle Harman, who had a big impact on his life. Cole said in 2018 that Harman “realized what was there before I did.” She gave him free acting lessons and let him sleep on a bed on the stage of her studio, the outlet reported.
It wasn’t until a few years later that producer Aaron Spelling contacted Cole about a role in “The Mod Squad.”
Clarence Williams III and Michael Cole in “The Mod Squad.” (ABC Photo Archive/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
Cole detailed this encounter in his book “I Played The White Guy,” released in 2018.
“I turned it down when Spelling asked me to do it, telling him, ‘[The show] sounds stupid, and I hope it never gets off the air,’” Cole wrote in his book, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “I didn’t want to play some guy who criticizes some other troubled kid.”
Michael Cole in the episode “Color of Laughter,” which aired October 12, 1971. (ABC Photo Archive/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
“The Mod Squad” aired 123 episodes over five seasons. During his time on the show, Cole was involved in a serious car accident that sent him flying through the windshield. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he needed 130 stitches.
