General Hospital and Mod Squad alum Michael Cole dead at 84

Actor Michael Cole, whose career spanned from 1961 to 2010, has died at age 84. He was beloved by fans for his portrayal of Pete Cochran on the hit crime drama Mod Squad from 1968 to 1973, and he reprised the role for the 1979 TV movie The Return of Mod Squad. Fans also adored him for playing Harlan Barrett on General Hospital in 1991.

He was born in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1940. According to his IMDb page, he began drinking alcohol at age 12, dropped out of school, and bummed around for quite some time before a chance meeting with Estelle Harman, a well-respected acting coach, would turn his life around and get him out of trouble and into acting.

A successful acting career

By age 20, he had married and divorced his then-girlfriend, and they had two kids. Appearing in TV shows like Gunsmoke and Run for Your Life, his career would finally take off when uber-producer Aaron Spelling coaxed him into taking on the role of Pete on Mod Squad.

The show was a huge hit because it tapped into the late 1960s youth and counter-culture movement. According to Deadline, it dealt with “such issues as the Vietnam War, racism, and social justice. " He co-starred with Clarence Williams III (Link) and Peggy Lipton (Julie) on it. The premise was that the three were people who looked younger than they were and faced prison unless they agreed to join the squad and go undercover to solve crimes.

Later, on General Hospital, his character Harlan Barrett was the father of Julia Barrett (Crystal Carson) and Brenda Barrett (Vanessa Marcil). Anthony Geary had exited the role of Luke Spencer and returned as Bill Eckert, who ran a cannery for Harlan. Little did anyone know, Harlan was the leader of The Cartel, a criminal cadre that also included international supervillain Cesar Faison (Anders Hove), Leopold Taub (Chip Lucia), and Lord Larry Ashton (Hugo Napier). The group used the lethal carcinogen called carbon disulfide, a byproduct of the canning operation, as a weapon to hold international trading hostage.

Fortunately, Bill and Robert Scorpio (Tristan Rogers) found out about the Cartel’s diabolical scheme to kill the elite of Port Charles and enacted a plan to stop them. When Bill pretended to shoot Robert, Harlan wanted to give him a double tap to be sure, so Bill dispatched his former boss, saving Robert’s life.

Cole appeared on several TV shows, including Fantasy Island, Wonder Woman, Police Story, and Murder, She Wrote, among many others, while also having a good career in the theater. In 2009, he wrote an autobiography called I Played the White Guy, which was a play on the Mod Squad tagline that read: “One White, One Black, One Blonde.”

He is survived by his children: Candi and Jeff from his first marriage at age 16; Jennifer Holly Cole, who he fathered with his second wife Paula Kelly Jr.; and his third wife, Shelley Funes, who he credited with turning his life around by convincing him to check into the Betty Ford rehab clinic.

You can watch new episodes of General Hospital on ABC and Hulu.