R.I.P. T.K. Carter, The Thing and The Corner actor

What’s Happening

Listen up: A stand-up comic and prolific actor, Carter starred in everything from Punky Brewster to David Simons harrowing portrait of addiction.

Carter, The Thing and The Corner actor A stand-up comic and prolific actor, Carter starred in everything from Punky Brewster to David Simon’s harrowing portrait of addiction. William Hughes — By William Hughes | | 2:45pm T. (plot twist fr)

Carter in The Corner, Screenshot: YouTube TV News T.

The Details

Carter Copy to clipboard × Copy Link Copy Link — Facebook X Reddit Bluesky Email 0 T. A stand-up comic and actor, Carter had a decades-spanning career that ran the gamut from the worlds of comedy—with appearances in TV shows like Punky Brewster and FXXs Dave , and films like 1990s farce Ski Patrol —to far more serious fare.

(Notably, the starring role in David Simons harrowing 2003 miniseries The Corner . ) Per TMZ , Carters body was found out in his California home on Friday, January 9.

Why This Matters

Raised in Los Angeles, Carter pursued stand-up from an early age, appearing at The Comedy Store and the Improv when he was still just a teenager, becoming a (young) contemporary of folks like Paul Mooney and Richard Pryor. Simultaneously pursuing both comedy and acting, he picked up early roles in TV starting in the late 70s, including brief stints on Good Times and The Jeffersons , before breaking into film. (A notable early role saw him play his part in one of the solid tension-building scenes of horror movie history , playing roller-skating chef Nauls in John Carpenters The Thing .

The entertainment world moves fast, and this is a prime example.

The Bottom Line

) Carter spent the 80s and 90s mostly known as a comic actor, including season-long stints on kid-focused sitcoms Good Morning, Miss Bliss and Punky Brewster . (Carter was actually intended to star in a spin-off of the latter series, Fenster Hall , but after the series flopped to get a green light, he was brought on to the cast of the original show as a teacher for Soleil Moon Fryes plucky foster kid.

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