RIP JAN-MICHAEL VINCENT...

You were one of the first actors I followed as a kid, enthralling me with your role of Link Simmons on "The Banana Splits" adventure serial, "Danger Island". 

Thereafter, I watched you in a long string of movies, particularly the offbeat and hard-boiled: "Damnation Alley"; "Shadow of the Hawk"; "Haunting Fear"; "Bite the Bullet"; "White Line Fever"; "Buster and Billie"; "Deliver Us From Evil"; "Demonstone"; "Hard Country"; "Tribes", "Defiance"; "The World's Greatest Athlete"; "The Undefeated"; "Hooper"; "Big Wednesday"; "Bandits" "Red Line"; "Raw Nerve"; "Enemy Territory"; "Born in East L.A."; "Vigilante Force"; "Going Home"; "The Winds of War"; and the original version of "The Mechanic" with fellow tough guy, Charles Bronson. 

However, most fans hold you close to their hearts for your continuing role as Stringfellow Hawke in the action-packed "Airwolf", where you teamed with good buddy, Ernest Borgnine's Dominic Santini. 

You had a tough time of it in your later years, but you were always strong enough to face whatever came your way: an icon of continued admiration, a true-blue hero right to the end.