Scott Hylands, who starred as the cynical Det. Kevin “O.B.” O’Brien on the 1980s cop show Night Heat, the first Canadian original drama series to simultaneously air in the U.S., has died. He was 83.
Hylands died July 29, his son, Luke Hylands, announced. A longtime resident of Salt Spring Island in British Columbia, he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in October 2021.
The Canadian actor had portrayed his share of villains and heavies in guest spots on U.S. television for about two decades when he returned north to star as a good guy — finally! — in Night Heat, filmed in Toronto.
On the documentary-style series, conceived by onetime New York City detective Sonny Grosso — who with partner Eddie Egan helped bring down the “French Connection” drug-smuggling ring in the 1960s — Hylands portrayed the veteran cop O’Brien alongside Jeff Wincott as his younger, hot-headed partner, Frank Giambone.
Meanwhile, Allan Royal played Tom Kirkwood, who writes about the pair in his “Night Heat” newspaper column (he’s also the series’ narrator). Each episode represented one shift in the show’s unnamed city and was shot between the hours of 6 p.m. and 4 a.m.
The series ran for four seasons and 96 episodes, from January 1985 through January 1989, on CTV in Canada and in late night on CBS. (It often out-rated Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show in some markets.)
From left: Jeff Wincott, Allan Royal and Scott Hylands in a promotional photo for ‘Night Heat.’
Alliance Entertainment/Courtesy Everett Collection
Scott Hylands Douglas was born on Feb. 27, 1943, in Lethbridge, Alberta. His mother, Ruth, was a nurse and a math teacher; his father, Walter, was killed in action in 1945 during World War II.
He attended Shawnigan Lake Boys School on Vancouver Island, graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1964 and then headed to New York, where he landed the lead in a 1965 off-Broadway production of Billy Liar.
After several years in San Francisco with the American Conservatory Theater, he made his onscreen debut by starring as the deranged ex-boyfriend in Daddy’s Gone a-Hunting (1969), directed by Mark Robson and written by Lorenzo Semple Jr. and Larry Cohen.
He spent the 1970s showing up in the films Slipstream (1973), Earthquake (1974) and The Boys in Company C (1978) and on episodes of such series as The Streets of San Francisco, Kung Fu, Harry O, Police Woman, Cannon, Medical Center, Baretta, Wonder Woman and Police Story and in the 1978-79 miniseries Centennial.
After Night Heat ended its run, Hylands worked on such shows as NYPD Blue, The X-Files, Due South, Stargate SG-1, The Outer Limits, V, Once Upon a Time and Wynonna Earp.
Perhaps most notably during this stretch, he played Ennis Stuccy, the stepfather of Carrie Coon’s Department of Homeland Security agent Gloria Burgle, on the third season of FX’s Fargo in 2017.
In addition to his son, survivors include his wife of 36 years, Veronica, and his daughter, Rebecca.
“I was lucky to have worked with him on my first big acting job,” Wincott told the Toronto Sun in 2021. “He taught me a lot. He was always prepared, professional, and he cared deeply about doing good work, a lesson and example I carried with me throughout my career.”
