Bernie Hamilton

Best known for his portrayal of station boss Captain Harold C. Dobey on the 1970s television hit, "Starsky and Hutch," Bernie Hamilton first discovered his love for acting while attending Oakland Technical high school in California. With him at school was his older brother Chico, who would later become an influential jazz drummer. Hamilton's first break came when he was cast as a baseball player in "The Jackie Robinson Story." After playing several black stereotypes in the 1950s, Hamilton landed his first artistically rewarding role as a wisecracking jazz musician in Luis Buñuel's 1960 film, "The Young One." His newfound reputation as a talented dramatic actor led to Hamilton's most challenging character of his career: the black husband to a white woman in the emotionally charged and controversial 1964 drama, "One Potato, Two Potato." After he became a household name wrangling two notoriously reckless cops on "Starsky and Hutch," Hamilton only acted occasionally while producing R&B, gospel, and blues music through his record label, Chocolate Snowman. He even released an album featuring his own singing, titled "Captain Dobey Sings the Blues." In 1985, Hamilton retired from acting and focused on operating his Sunset Boulevard nightclub, Citadel d'Haiti, until his death in 2008.