A burly, mustachioed character actor frequently cast as law enforcement agents or villainous heavies, John Ashton began his acting career on the L.A. stage in the early 1970s after graduating from USC. The New Englander entered films as a police sergeant in "Psychopath" (1973) and went on to be cast as law enforcement agents in such efforts as "Breaking Away" (1979, as Dennis Quaid's older brother), "Borderline" (1980) and the cult favorite "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension" (1984). But it was his role as L.A. Police Sergeant John Taggart, opposite Eddie Murphy, in
