{"id":11537,"date":"2025-10-16T22:25:52","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T22:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=11537"},"modified":"2025-12-19T01:22:52","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T01:22:52","slug":"recalling-michael-conrad-hill-streets-articulate-sergeant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=11537","title":{"rendered":"Recalling Michael Conrad, Hill Street\u2019s articulate sergeant"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

The only word for Michael Conrad, the American actor born on this day 100 years ago, who played veteran cop Sgt. Phil Esterhaus in the long-running U.S. crime series \u2018Hill Street Blues\u2019 in the early Eighties, was formidable.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just that he stood a robust six-feet-four but his countenance stirred apprehension. He told me, \u2018I can put a look on my face that people back away from.\u2019 Esterhaus was the loquacious officer who led the roll call at the start of each episode of the show and told his men, \u2018Let\u2019s be careful out there.\u2019<\/p>\n

He had a long list of film and television credits often playing heavies but in \u2018Hill Street Blues, playing\u2019 a bear of a man, he was articulate with a compassionate regard for his squad and catnip for women. Life imitated art while when he and I had lunch in Alice\u2019s Restaurant at the Malibu Pier early in the show\u2019s run.<\/p>\n

A very attractive woman stopped at our table, lowered her voice and said, \u2018Excuse me, but I just have to say that I love you\u2019 and walked away. Conrad said, \u2018It\u2019s amazing how many women find me so attractive in my middle years.\u2019 Of course, I reminded him, Esterhaus was portrayed as something of a sexual dynamo. \u2018True,\u2019 he said. \u2018But I don\u2019t take it too seriously. It\u2019s only make believe, you know.\u2019 He paused and smiled, \u2018Even though I\u2019m pretty good in the real world too. I\u2019ve had considerable experience in this area. You\u2019re talking to a man who is very knowledgeable about women and marriage. I\u2019ve had many, many different and varied experiences. I still don\u2019t know it all but I do know an awful lot.\u2019<\/p>\n

Conrad confessed that he was a very emotional man. \u2018I live my life very carefully, husbanding my emotions because in life you can\u2019t let them go and acting is the area that I have to release them,\u2019 he said.\u00a0 <\/span>\u2018I also I have a very violent nature, a monumental temper but it doesn\u2019t come out very often.\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

James B. Sikking, who played combat-ready SWAT commander Howard Hunter and had known Conrad for years, told me he had never seen him lose his temper. \u2018\u2019Oh, sure, I\u2019ve seen him angry but only when a scene or something isn\u2019t going right,\u2019 he said. \u2018He has horrendous words to deliver and that can be frustrating and cause anger. But Michael is really the quintessential professional actor.\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t kidding. Every episode began with Esterhaus delivering an often convoluted and multisyllabic monologue. So diligent was he in mastering those lines that he retained them. At lunch, he showed me. \u2018Tinia pedis or dermatophytosis, referred to in the vernacular as athlete\u2019s foot, is a tough and resilient foe capable of waging relentless guerilla warfare,\u2019 he declaimed. \u2018Therefore, everybody is expected to do his part in the war effort. Specifically, frequent changes of socks and the daily application of detergent substances to the bipedal surfaces. Let\u2019s show a little podiatric diligence and lick this thing, huh, fellas?\u2019<\/p>\n

The actor appeared on several TV western series and he said he was pleased with the non-western pictures he\u2019d made including \u2018They Shoot Horses, Don\u2019t They\u2019 with Jane Fonda, \u2019The Longest Yard\u2019 with Burt Reynolds and his favourite, the allegorical war film \u2018Castle Keep\u2019 with Burt Lancaster and Peter Falk. It did not do very well and Conrad said, \u2018It was ahead of its time. We captured a feeling of soldiers in timeless war, timeless foolishness, timeless misery. It was a fabulous picture.\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He had never tried to chart his career, he said, \u2018I think it\u2019s fooliish. I think there\u2019s a tapestry, a strange design that all of us have and I think you\u2019ve got to let it take you where it takes you.\u2019 His greatest wish was to make a western: \u2018I love the West. I\u2019d rather do a western than eat. There\u2019s always a fresh way to do something. I want to act out the love of the land, the love of being on horseback smoking a cigarette out by yourself at night, humming a little song. Little snatches of grandeur, of peace. Little things.\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t to be. He went on to international fame with two Emmy Awards for outstanding supporting actor. But when I spoke to him on the phone from Toronto in the fall of 1983 he hinted that he was having health problems and he died of urethral cancer that November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett The only word for Michael Conrad, the American actor born on this day 100 years ago, who played veteran cop Sgt. Phil Esterhaus in the long-running U.S. crime series \u2018Hill Street Blues\u2019 in the early Eighties, was … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11537"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11563,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11537\/revisions\/11563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}