Vince House (July 21, 1929 – July 18, 2002) was an American film and television actor. He appeared in over 100 films and television programs, and was perhaps best known for playing the co-starring role of "Motorcycle Officer Vince" in

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

's ''

Emergency! ''Emergency!'' is an American action-adventure medical drama television series jointly produced by Mark VII Limited and Universal Television. Debuting on NBC as a midseason replacement on January 15, 1972, replacing the two short-lived situatio ...

'' and as "Mr. Peter Butler" in ''

Mr. Novak ''Mr. Novak'' is an American television dramatic series starring James Franciscus in the title role as a high school teacher. The series aired on NBC for two seasons, from 1963 to 1965. It won a Peabody Award in 1963. Synopsis The series follows ...

''.

Early life

Howard was born in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

. Howard attended and graduated at

Vashon High School Vashon High School is a high school of the St. Louis Public Schools in St. Louis, Missouri. When it opened in 1927, it was the second high school for black students in St. Louis. History Designed by Rockwell M. Milligan, the school opened on Sep ...

. After attending and graduating from Vashon High School, he served in the army, as a

truck driver A truck driver (commonly referred to as a trucker, teamster, or driver in the United States and Canada; a truckie in Australia and New Zealand; a HGV driver in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the European Union, a lorry driver, or driver in ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. He was also part of the singing group, The Rhythm Aces, with Willie Davis, Billy Steward, Lloyd McGraw and Chuck Rowan, where he also changed his

surname In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community. Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name ...

to "Howard". Howard left the Rhythm Aces, where he later joined the rock 'n roll group, Billy Ward and his Dominoes. He left the group, where he settled to move to

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, where he was hired to work as a

technician A technician is a worker in a field of technology who is proficient in the relevant skill and technique, with a relatively practical understanding of the theoretical principles. Specialisation The term technician covers many different speciali ...

for the

Radio Corporation of America The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

, in 1958. Howard later performed in the

nightclub A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

The Horn at

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

, where he was later hired for the role of the history teacher "Mr. Peter Butler", where producer,

E. Jack Neuman Ernest Jack Neuman (February 27, 1921 – January 15, 1998) was an Edgar and Peabody award-winning American writer and producer. Early years Neuman was born in Toledo, Ohio. He moved to Denver, Colorado, as a child and graduated from Regis Je ...

, saw his performance on stage.

Career

Howard began his career in 1963, where he co-starred in the new

dramatic television series, ''

''. After the series ended in 1965, he began appearing in numerous television programs, such as, '' The Fugitive'', '' Kolchak: The Night Stalker'', ''

Hawaii Five-O Hawaii Five-O or Hawaii Five-0 may refer to: * ''Hawaii Five-0'' (2010 TV series), an American action police procedural television series * ''Hawaii Five-O'' (1968 TV series), an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productio ...

'', ''

Cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...

'', ''

The Time Tunnel ''The Time Tunnel'' is an American color science fiction TV series written around a theme of time travel adventure starring James Darren and Robert Colbert. The show was creator-producer Irwin Allen's third science-fiction television series and ...

'', ''

Get Smart ''Get Smart'' is an American comedy television series parodying the secret agent genre that had become widely popular in the first half of the 1960s, with the release of the ''James Bond'' films. It was created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, an ...

'', ''

Bewitched ''Bewitched'' is an American fantasy sitcom television series that originally aired for eight seasons on ABC from September 17, 1964, to March 25, 1972. It is about a witch who marries an ordinary mortal man and vows to lead the life of a typic ...

'', ''

Gidget Gidget () is a fictional character created by author Frederick Kohner (based on his teenaged daughter, Kathy) in his 1957 novel, ''Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas''. The novel follows the adventures of a teenaged girl and her surfing frie ...

'', ''

The Monkees The Monkees were an American rock and pop band, formed in Los Angeles in 1966, whose lineup consisted of the American actor/musicians Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork alongside English actor/singer Davy Jones. The group was conc ...

'', ''

Star Trek: The Original Series ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry that follows the adventures of the starship and its crew. It later acquired the retronym of ''Star Trek: The Original Series'' (''TOS'') to distinguis ...

'' and ''

I Dream of Jeannie ''I Dream of Jeannie'' is an American fantasy sitcom television series, created by Sidney Sheldon that starred Barbara Eden as a sultry, 2,000-year-old genie and Larry Hagman, as an astronaut with whom she falls in love and eventually marrie ...

''. Howard has also appeared in starred, co-starred and appeared in films such as '' Where It's At'', ''

Lethal Weapon 3 ''Lethal Weapon 3'' is a 1992 American buddy cop action film directed by Richard Donner and written by Jeffrey Boam and Robert Mark Kamen. The sequel to ''Lethal Weapon 2'' (1989), it is the third installment in the ''Lethal Weapon'' film serie ...

'', '' I Love You, Alice B. Toklas'', '' Fuzz'', ''

The Barefoot Executive ''The Barefoot Executive'' (also known as ''The Rating Game'') is a 1971 American comedy film starring Kurt Russell, Joe Flynn, Wally Cox, Heather North, Harry Morgan, and John Ritter (in his film debut), about a pet chimpanzee, named Raffles, ...

'', '' The Man'' and '' Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came''. In 1970s-1994, Howard played recurring roles in television programs including '' The Smith Family'', ''

Barnaby Jones ''Barnaby Jones'' is an American detective television series starring Buddy Ebsen as a formerly retired investigator and Lee Meriwether as his widowed daughter-in-law, who run a private detective firm in Los Angeles, California. The show was or ...

'', ''

The Streets of San Francisco ''The Streets of San Francisco'' is a television crime drama filmed on location in San Francisco and produced by Quinn Martin, Quinn Martin Productions, with the first season produced in association with Warner Bros. Television (QM produced the ...

''. He also co-starred in ''

'', playing the role of "Motorcycle Officer Vince", in which he mostly appeared in scenes where the

Los Angeles County Fire Department The Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD) provides firefighting services as well as technical rescue services, hazardous materials response services and emergency medical response services for the unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County ...

squad arrives, later being an extra help to them. While Howard was appearing in numerous television programs and films, he retired his career, last appearing in the

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

television series ''

Murder, She Wrote ''Murder, She Wrote'' is an American crime drama television series, created by Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link, starring Angela Lansbury, and produced and distributed by Universal Television for the CBS network. The series f ...

'', in 1994.

Death

Howard died of

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

on July 18, 2002, three days before his 73rd birthday.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* * *
Rotten Tomatoes profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Vince 1929 births 2002 deaths Deaths from leukemia People from St. Louis County, Missouri Male actors from Missouri American male film actors American male television actors 20th-century American male actors 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people American truck drivers Technicians