Rif Hutton, Actor on ‘Doogie Howser, M.D.’ and ‘JAG,’ Dies at 73

Rif Hutton Vertical Entertainment/Courtesy Everett Collection

Rif Hutton, the veteran character actor who recurred on shows including Doogie Howser, M.D. and JAG, has died. He was 73.

Hutton died Saturday at his home in Pasadena after a 13-month battle with glioblastoma, his wife, Bridget Hoffman, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Hutton had a thriving career as a voice actor, looper and ADR artist, with work on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and films in the Shrek, Kung Ku Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, Rio, Ice Age, Hotel Transylvania and Angry Birds franchises.

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He also had a gig in 1990s commercials as the owner of a KFC restaurant.

Hutton appeared as Dr. Ron Welch, a friend and colleague of Neil Patrick Harris’ title character at Eastman Medical Center in Los Angeles, on 17 episodes over all four seasons of the ABC sitcom Doogie Howser, M.D., created by Steven Bochco and David E. Kelley.

And on JAG, he portrayed Lt. Cmdr. Alan Mattoni on 10 episodes of the Donald P. Bellisario-created CBS drama JAG from 1997-2001.

Walter Hutton was born in San Antonio on Nov. 28, 1955. With his father in the U.S. Air Force, he was raised all over the U.S., mainly in New Jersey. In the eighth grade, he won a statewide speech contest reciting Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech and said that made him think a career as an actor was possible.

After graduating from Seton Hall University and serving in the U.S. Navy, he showed up on episodes of such shows as The Jeffersons, Remington Steele, 227 and Night Court from 1985-87 and appeared in Stand and Deliver (1988), starring Edward James Olmos.

Hutton also worked on the daytime soaps Tribes, General Hospital and The Bold and the Beautiful; on series including L.A. Law, Married … With Children, Hunter, Wings, Murphy Brown, The Larry Sanders Show, Star Trek: Generations, Babylon 5, Family Matters, Seinfeld, ER, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Cold Case and Monk; and in such films as the Richard Pryor-starring Moving (1988), L.A. Heat (1989) and The Thirteenth Floor (1999).

Survivors include his wife, Bridget Hoffman, also a voice actor (they married in 2001 and worked together often), and his son, Wolfgang.

“People knew when they hired him for a voice job that he was going to be the most prepared — he always was,” fellow voice actor Steve Apostolina wrote on Facebook. “He was also always first to show up on a gig — I had the great pleasure of beating him a few times and scooping a treasured chair, but those were few and far between.”