The “grumpy veteran police detective” is a well-worn trope but it’s possible nobody has ever done it better than John Ashton. While Ashton had nearly 100 screen credits to his name, he will likely be best remembered as Detective John Taggart in the Beverly Hills Cop films opposite Judge Reinhold and Eddie Murphy. Yesterday we learned that Ashton had passed away, and now his on-screen partner remembers him.
John Ashton passed away on Thursday but it was only over the weekend that the news broke widely. Following the announcement, Judge Reinhold, who played Billy Rosewood, Taggert’s partner in the Beverly Hills Cop movies said goodbye to his friend on Twitter, while sharing some images on the set of the recent Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.
Thursday night John seemed like he was sleeping but the Yankees were on. They won the game, clinched the division then John made it to home. Forty years of laughs on screen and off. John LIVED his life! My brother, my partner, my Sarge - I love you.There’s no smoking in… pic.twitter.com/auysWWGzxNSeptember 29, 2024
Reinhold jokes that there’s “no smoking in heaven.” It sounds like Ashton and his most famous role may have had a lot in common. Taggert enjoyed his cigars and based on the comment, and one of the pictures posted here, it looks like Ashton felt the same way. But honestly, if you can't smoke in heaven, what's the point?
If Ashton passed on while watching his favorite team, it sounds like a peaceful goodbye, which is all anybody could hope for. Judge Reinhold calls Ashton his brother, which is fitting for two guys who have worked together for four decades. We know that Reinhold and Murphy have remained close over the years, and it seems that the same was true for Reinhold and Ashton.
Several fans responding to Reinhold’s post are saying similar things. Beverly Hills Cop fans are all very happy that, at the very least, we all got to experience the reuniting of the iconic trio of Taggert, Rosewood, and Eddie Murphy’s Axel Foley, one last time. Ashton declined to appear in the third film, which is just one of the reasons Beverly Hills Cop III isn't as good as the previous two. Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, which dropped to everybody with a Netflix subscription earlier this summer. The critical response to Axel F was much stronger.
There had been attempts to make a fourth Beverly Hills Cop movie for decades, but the project stalled for a variety of reasons. Considering how close we got to not getting the movie, it is quite wonderful that they were able to make it happen. Trying to make the movie now, would be that much harder, and doing it without Ashton the film certainly would have been missing something.
Axel F may end up being something of a tribute to Ashton considering it came out just a couple of months before he passed away. The final scene of the film put the three main Beverly Hills Cop characters back into a car together, calling back to one of the most famous scenes from the original Beverly Hills Cop. It’s the perfect place to leave Taggert, sitting with his friends.
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