LOS ANGELES
Ken Howard, the strapping character actor who starred in the 1970s TV drama “The White Shadow” and was currently serving as president of SAG-AFTRA, has died at age 71.
The union announced Howard’s death Wednesday. No cause was given.
Howard’s career spanned four decades in TV, theater and film. In the acclaimed CBS series “The White Shadow,” which aired from 1978-81, he starred as a white coach to an urban high school basketball team — a part, one of Howard’s best known, that drew on the personal history of the 6-foot-6 actor, who played basketball growing up on Long Island in New York and at Amherst College.
The series’ title came from Howard’s nickname as the only white starter on the Manhasset High varsity team.
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