Larry Wilcox

Larry Wilcox is an actor and producer best known for portraying California Highway Patrol Officer Jonathan “Jon” Baker on the iconic 1977–1983 NBC series CHiPs. Over six seasons and 139 episodes, Wilcox’s clean-cut, by-the-book Jon formed one of television’s most memorable partnerships opposite Erik Estrada’s freewheeling Frank “Ponch” Poncherello, turning the buddy-cop action drama into a global hit that defined late-1970s pop culture.

After serving as a U.S. Marine in Vietnam (1967–1970), earning a combat action ribbon, Wilcox studied theater and broke into acting with guest roles on Room 222, The Man and the City, and Cannon. Early film credits include The Last Hard Men (1976) with Charlton Heston and James Coburn, The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission (1988), and the cult sci-fi Death of a Centerfold (1981) alongside Jamie Lee Curtis.

He reprised Jon Baker in the 1998 TNT reunion movie CHiPs ’99 and made a cameo in the 2017 big-screen adaptation written and directed by Dax Shepard.

Wilcox also starred in the short-lived 1982 sci-fi series The New CHiPs spin-off concept Sky Riders, appeared in Murder, She Wrote, Matlock, Profiler, and lent his voice to animated projects.

As a producer, he helmed episodes of CHiPs, the 1993 film Loaded Weapon 1 (uncredited), and later founded Team Elite, a military-themed production company. A licensed pilot, motorcycle enthusiast, and inductee into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame, Wilcox remains a beloved figure from television’s golden era of action heroes.