Alan Thicke.
(Image credit: Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images)

Actor Alan Thicke, famous for playing doting father and psychiatrist Jason Seaver on the hit 1980s show Growing Pains, died Tuesday. He was 69.

TMZ reports Thicke was playing hockey with his son when he suffered a heart attack, and he died later at a hospital in Burbank, California. Recently, Thicke starred in his own reality show, Unusually Thicke, and made guest appearances on This Is Us and Fuller House. Earlier in his career, Thicke hosted a popular daytime talk show in his native Canada, and also penned the theme songs to Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life, and several television game shows. He is survived by his wife, Tanya, and sons Brennan, Carter, and Robin, the "Blurred Lines" singer.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.