Bernie Hamilton (June 12, 1928 – December 30, 2008) was a trailblazing American actor who, after a long career of breaking barriers, became a television icon as the tough but fair-minded Captain Harold Dobey on the classic 1970s police series, Starsky & Hutch.
The brother of jazz legend Chico Hamilton, Bernie began his career in the 1950s and received his first major artistic role from the legendary surrealist director Luis Buñuel, playing a jazz musician fleeing a lynch mob in The Young One (1960). He delivered a powerful, breakthrough performance as the lead in One Potato, Two Potato (1964), one of the first mainstream Hollywood films to honestly confront the issue of interracial marriage.
From 1975 to 1979, he became a household name as the no-nonsense, shouting police captain on Starsky & Hutch, a role that made him one of the most visible and authoritative Black actors on television. After the series, he largely retired from acting to focus on his other passions, producing gospel and R&B records and running a nightclub and art gallery, cementing his legacy as a versatile artist and cultural impresario.
