- published: 22 May 2013
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Taurean Blacque (born Herbert Middleton Jr. in Newark, New Jersey, May 10, 1941) is an American television and stage actor, best known for his role as Detective Neal Washington on the series Hill Street Blues. He also is a past national spokesman for adoptive services, having been one of the first single black men in the United States to adopt a child.
Before appearing on television, Blacque trained and performed at the New Federal Theater in New York, a theater founded to provide opportunities to minorities and women. Early in his acting career, Blacque began making guest appearances in sitcoms such as What's Happening!!, Sanford and Son, The Bob Newhart Show, The Tony Randall Show, Good Times, and Taxi, and auditioned for permanent roles on others, including Venus Flytrap on WKRP in Cincinnati, eventually played by Tim Reid.
In 1981 he joined the cast of the police drama Hill Street Blues, staying with the show throughout its run, which ended in 1987. While appearing on that show, he was nominated in 1982 for the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, but lost to fellow HSB actor Michael Conrad, in the only year in which all the nominees in a category came from the same series. His theatrical career continued during his run on the show, winning him an NAACP Image Award of Best Actor (Local) in 1985 for his role in Amen Corner. In 1986 his stage roles included the male lead in the musical Don't Get God Started during its initial six-week summer run in Beverly Hills.
Bruce Peter Weitz (born May 27, 1943) is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as Sgt. Michael "Mick" Belker in the 1980s TV series Hill Street Blues for which he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 1984.
Weitz was born in Norwalk, Connecticut, the son of Sybil Weitz Rubel, a homemaker, and Alvin Weitz, who owned a liquor store. He is Jewish.
Weitz appeared in the 1998 hit film Deep Impact and also appeared in the films Half Past Dead and El Cortez (2005). Some of his many guest appearances on television include NYPD Blue, Quincy, Midnight Caller, Sisters, Superman: The Animated Series as Bruno Mannheim, JAG, The X-Files, The West Wing, and Highlander: The Series.
He portrayed Anthony Zacchara on General Hospital from October to November 2007; from January 2008 to March 2009; on July 10, 2009; on August 13, 2009; and on September 3, 2009 to present. The character was shot and killed by his Grandson Johnny Zacchara on May 22, 2012. According to Daytime Confidential Anthony will be sticking around to haunt Johnny "for a stretch of time".
Hill Street Blues is an American serial police drama that was first aired on NBC in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime into 1987. Chronicling the lives of the staff of a single police precinct in an unnamed American city, the show received critical acclaim and its production innovations influenced many subsequent dramatic television series produced in North America. Its debut season was rewarded with eight Emmy awards, a debut season record surpassed only by The West Wing, and the show received a total of 98 Emmy Award nominations during its run.
In 1997, the episode "Grace Under Pressure" was ranked number 49 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time. When the list was revised in 2009, "Freedom's Last Stand" was ranked 57.
In 2002, Hill Street Blues was ranked number 14 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
MTM Enterprises developed the series on behalf of NBC, appointing Steven Bochco and Michael Kozoll as series writers. The writers were allowed considerable creative freedom, and created a series which brought together, for the first time, a number of emerging ideas in TV drama.