When John Ashton appeared first in Haroula Rose’s “All Happy Families,” now in theaters, I smiled. As he did so many times throughout his career, Ashton helps ground Rose’s film in the believable. He was an actor who never seemed fake, even in the broadest comedy scenes of hits like “Beverly Hills Cop” and “Midnight Run,” two of the best such films of their era. Ashton added a relatable everyman believability to everything he did, all the way to the end, which sadly came this week when the character actor passed away from cancer at age 76.
A USC School of Theatre graduate, John Ashton was a TV and film staple in the ‘70s and ‘80s, appearing in several episodes of “Dallas,” and one-shots on everything from “Columbo” to “Police Squad!” He played characters in films like “Breaking Away” and even “King Kong Lives,” but his gruff persona fit perfectly in a pair of beloved ‘80s action-comedies. First, as Taggart in “Beverly Hills Cop,” Ashton was the perfect foil for Eddie Murphy, capturing the conservative, old-fashioned cop that Murphy’s Axel Foley was designed to replace, while also refusing to turn him into a two-dimensional dinosaur. Other actors would have leaned into the differences between Axel and Taggart, but Ashton gives a more complex performance than that, eventually realizing that his way of policing may not be the only one.
He’s even better in 1988’s “Midnight Run,” again knowing how to be a perfect supporting actor by balancing out the energy of the leads while never stealing focus from them. He appeared memorably in “Some Kind of Wonderful” in between the two, but the ‘90s were rougher on Ashton with a lot of forgettable roles in forgettable films. He had basically disappeared when Ben Affleck made the very smart decision to cast Ashton in “Gone Baby Gone,” where he reminded viewers how much he can do in even a limited role. He was recently seen reprising his role in “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F,” and, again, can be seen in Rose’s film, making what he did well look so, so easy.