John Benedict Hillerman December 20 1932 November 9 2017 was an American actor best known for his starring role as Jonathan Quayle Higgins III on the television series Magnum PI that aired from 1980 to 1988 For his role as Higgins Hillerman earned five Golden Globe nominations winning in 1981 and four Emmy nominations winning in 1987 Description above from the Wikipedia article John Hillerman licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia