James Houghton, ‘Knots Landing’ Star and ‘Young and the Restless’ Writer, Dies at 75
James Houghton, who starred as Seaview Circle resident Kenny Ward on the first four seasons of Knots Landing and received four Daytime Emmys as a writer on The Young and the Restless, has died. He was 75.
Houghton died Aug. 27 at his home in Encino of peritoneal mesothelioma, his wife, Karen Houghton, told The Hollywood Reporter. She did not want to discuss his death until now.
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Houghton also portrayed the fiancé of Nancy Allen’s character in Robert Zemeckis’ I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978), and he played U.S. senator Cash Cassidy — a bitter rival of Charlton Heston’s oil mogul Jason Colby, on the second season (1986-87) of the ABC primetime soap The Colbys, a spinoff of Dynasty.
Houghton starred as Kenny, a record producer who often fooled around on his wife, Ginger (Kim Lankford), before they had a baby on 66 episodes of CBS’ Knots Landing from 1979-83.
The young Wards were one of the original four couples who lived on the show’s iconic cul-de-sac. Gary and Val (Ted Shackleford and Joan Van Ark), Sid and Karen (Don Murray and Michele Lee) and Richard and Laura (John Pleshette and Constance McCashin) were the others.
“The thing about Knots Landing was, because we were all on a cul-de-sac together and because we interacted with one another, it was still very much a family,” Houghton noted in a 2006 interview.
“Plus, we were putting on a show that — the initial season or two at the very least, a new show — we were in this foxhole mentality of ‘We’re all in this together.’ We’re all praying that it’ll catch fire and we’ll be on a show that will last a while and put us all into some kind of security, which most of us had never had.”
Earlier, Houghton had originated the role of Greg Foster on the CBS daytime drama The Young and the Restless, playing the attorney from 1973-76. (Wings Hauser followed him in the part.)
He returned to the soap in 1991 as a writer and shared four Emmys — off 14 nominations — as a member of the outstanding drama series writing team through 2007. He and his fellow writers made Y&R a dominating force in the daytime ratings.
James Carter Houghton was born in Los Angeles on Nov. 7, 1948. His father was Buck Houghton, a producer of the first three seasons of CBS’ The Twilight Zone, and that got his son on the 1962 episode “The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank” in one of his first onscreen appearances.
Houghton attended the Harvard School in Studio City, boarding school at the Institut Le Rosey in Rolle, Switzerland, and UC Berkeley before he appeared in 1972 on the ABC series Alias Smith & Jones and in the women-in-prison exploitation film Sweet Sugar.
He then joined Y&R, where he and William Espy, as Snapper Foster, played brothers.
“We were both driving around in old beat-up cars and just trying to make ends meet, and that was our first job where we actually weren’t worried about where our next meal was coming from,” he said.
Houghton left the soap to star with Martin Kove on the CBS action series Code R, but that show, about a rescue team on the Channel Islands, lasted just 13 episodes in 1977.
In the late 1970s and early ’80s, his onscreen wife Lankford had been romantically involved with Warren Zevon, and through that Houghton (and Shackelford) got to be on the cover of the singer-songwriter’s 1982 album, The Envoy.
Houghton and Lankford, who were real-life neighbors in Laurel Canyon while they worked on Knots Landing, were written off the David Jacobs-created Dallas spinoff when Kenny and Ginger move to Nashville to pursue careers in country music.
Houghton said he didn’t want to leave, but with other characters on the Dallas spinoff becoming more popular and getting bigger salaries, he understood.
“There comes a time when you’ve got to throw some ballast overboard in order to make room for something else,” he said. “You know, it’s a pretty surgical process. I didn’t take it personally.”
Houghton’s acting résumé also included the films One on One (1977), More American Graffiti (1979), Superstition (1982) and Purple People Eater (1988); guest spots on Fantasy Island, Hotel, The Love Boat and Remington Steele; and a role on the 1986 ABC miniseries North and South: Book 2, Love and War.
He and his younger sister, Mona Houghton, co-wrote three Knots Landing episodes in 1982, and after The Young & the Restless, he wrote for another CBS soap, The Bold and the Beautiful. He also authored a crime thriller, The Hooligan’s Game, published in 2017.
Over the years, Houghton gave his time and money to such charities as Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Special Olympics and School on Wheels.
In addition to his wife — they met at a T-ball game and were married in November 1994 — and sister, survivors include his mother, Wanda; his children, Daniel and Alisa; his son-in-law, Jim; and his grandson, Milo.
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