Dan Haggerty, the actor who starred as the character Grizzly Adams, died on Friday, January 15, 2016. His manager Terry Bomar shared that he had been fighting cancer. Haggerty had chemo last summer for a spinal tumor, but the condition didn’t improve, and a spot was found on his lung. He was 74 years old.

Haggerty was born in Pound, Wisconsin where his family owned and operated a small wild animal attraction. He took on the role of James Capen Adams in The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams in ’74. He reprised the role three years later on the show of the same name, which ran for 37 episodes. He played Grizzly Adams again in Once Upon a Starry Night, Legend of the Wild, and The Capture of Grizzly Adams.

His first acting role came in 1953 on The Files of Jeffrey Jones. He took an 11-year break, then returned in Muscle Beach Party. His other film credits were Easy Rider, Angels Die Hard, Pink Angels, The Adventures of Frontier Fremont, King of the Mountain, Repo Jake, Grizzly Mountain, and Escape to Grizzly Mountain. He was working on three projects at the time of his death.