Alan Thicke, stricken while playing hockey at a local rink, gave everyone a thumbs up and even asked his son Carter to take a picture as he was being taken away by medical first responders. Shortly later, Thicke was pronounced dead of a reported massive heart attck at a nearby hospital.
Thicke, 69, best known for playing Dr. Jason Seaver on the 1980s sitcom "Growing Pains," became ill while playing hockey with Carter, 19, at Pickwick Gardens ice skating rink in Burbank, California, reported Entertainment Tonight. He had suddenly started vomiting and turned ashen so paramedics were called.
"On his way out he asked his son to take a picture," Darin Mathewson, vice president of Pickwick Gardens, told ET. "He goes, 'Ah, take a shot kiddo' and he did and off they went."
"He had Carter take a picture of him, and said, 'Make sure you get the rink in the background' as they were taking him out of here. When he went by us, he gave us the thumbs up, like, 'I'm doing good guys, I'm good,'" Mathewson added.
Pop star Robin Thicke honored his father in an Instagram post Tuesday.
"Growing Pains" launched Thicke's career as well as television son Kirk Cameron, reported CNN. Born in Ontario, Canada, the father of pop star Robin Thicke began his career on Canadian television before coming to the United States.
Behind the camera, he wrote for talk shows like "Fernwood 2-Night," a short-lived satirical talk show that later became "America 2-Night," and "The Richard Pryor Show." He also composed the theme songs for the game show "Wheel of Fortune" and sitcoms "Diff'rent Strokes" and "The Facts Of Life."
From 1980 and 1983, the avid hockey fan hosted a Canadian afternoon talk show on CTV called "The Alan Thicke Show," and followed with the short-lived U.S. late show "Thicke of the Night," said CBC News.
More recently, he appeared in the film "I Don't Care and It's Not My Fault Anyway," which premiered at the Whistler Film Festival in British Columbia earlier this month. He was also scheduled to appear in the season 2 of "Fuller House," a reboot of the 1990s family sitcom "Full House" on Netflix.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other stars shared their condolences on Twitter.