Thomas played Jerry Gold on the ‘90s sitcom and also starred in Cheers and Morky & Mindy. Most recently, the Texas native held a reoccurring role on Ray Donovan and appeared on episodes of Bones and NCIS: New Orleans. He also hosted The Jay Thomas Show on SiriusXM.
His days as a radio DJ inspired his annual appearance on Late Night with David Letterman, where Thomas would tell the story of how a young disc jockey and his older coworker captured The Lone Ranger star Clayton Moore and got into a car accident. Moore ultimately saved the day by telling off the enraged driver of the other vehicle.
“Jay was one of a kind, never at a loss for words and filled with so much fun and wonderfully whacky thoughts and behaviour,” his agent Don Buchwald said in a statement to TMZ.
Thomas is survived by his wife Sally, and sons Sam, Jake, and country music songwriter J.T. Harding.
Thomas had placed Harding for adoption after conceiving him with a girlfriend at the beginning of his career. But when Harding’s adopted dad died in 2007, the two reconnected.
“It took some time, but it started happening naturally,” Harding, now 36, told PEOPLE in 2008. “He started saying, ‘This is my oldest son,’ and I would say, ‘This is my biological father.’ No one can ever replace my dad.”
This article originally appeared on PEOPLE.