Magnum’s posh English gent ... who was actually a Texan

Tributes to actor John Hillerman, dead at 84

MAGNUM, P.I. actor John Hillerman has died after finding fame as snobby British estate manager Higgins in the 80s show.

The star’s posh accent was so convincing that millions of fans believed he was English – but he passed away from natural causes in Texas, where he was born, at the age of 84.

As Jonathan Quayle Higgins III, he starred alongside Tom Selleck, mocking private investigator Magnum’s brash American ways.

He practised his accent by listening to a recording of Laurence Olivier reciting Hamlet and once received a fan letter from the UK describing him as “a credit to the Empire”.

But he felt bad about letting down this fan and many others like him, who wrote to him from the UK. “I hate to disappoint you, but I’m a hick from Texas,” he would write.

Hillerman’s portrayal of Higgins won him an Emmy and a Golden Globe.

His character was a former British officer who had won the Victoria Cross. In real life, Hillerman served in the US Air Force doing maintenance, reaching the rank of sergeant.

It was then he got into acting, after working with a theatrical group in Fort Worth.

Magnum, P.I. ran for eight years from 1980 but Hillerman had also appeared in movies Chinatown and Blazing Saddles, as well as other TV roles, including The Love Boat, Murder, She Wrote and Hart to Hart.

He retired in 1999 and returned home to Houston, where he died. Larry Manetti, who played Rick in Magnum, remembered Hillerman on Twitter as a “good friend”.

Others tweeted tributes using pictures of Higgins with his loyal Doberman Pinschers, Zeus and Apollo.