John Aprea, Nick Katsopolis On 'Full House', Has Died At 83
His acting career goes back to the 1960s and includes stints on several soap operas
The world currently has two Full House rewatch podcasts hosted by its stars. Both have lost a potential guest. John Aprea, the actor who recurred on the 1987-1995 ABC sitcom for seven episodes as Jesse’s father Nick Katsopolis, died on August 7 at the age of 83.
Aprea’s manager confirmed the news to Sunday, saying he passed away at his Los Angeles home. A cause of death has not been confirmed or disclosed. He was born to Italian immigrants on March 4, 1941, in Englewood, New Jersey. He had a sister named Rosanna who passed before him. After he and his family lived in Italy for a few years, they settled back in New Jersey, and he subsequently played football for and graduated in 1959 from Dwight Morrow High School. Aprea moved to New York City in the early 1960s to pursue acting.
Aprea’s role as Nick Katsopolis had him play alongside Yvonne Wilder (in a minor recast) as his wife Irene. He was not only father to John Stamos’s Jesse Katsopolis, but Pam Tanner, Danny’s deceased wife and DJ, Stephanie, and Michelle’s mother. Despite how relatively fresh Pam’s death still was in season 2, where her parents primarily recurred, they didn’t really talk about her much in any capacity, if at all, which is rather jarring in hindsight. Appearing in “It’s Not My Job”, “Our Very First Christmas Show”, “A Little Romance”, “Fogged In”, “El Problema Grande de D.J.” and “Goodbye Mr. Bear”, his final appearance in the original series was to attend Jesse and Becky’s wedding in “The Wedding” part 2. This means he never shared a scene with his twin grandsons, Nicky and Alexander, the former of whom Jesse named after him, born in the fifth season. He didn’t even appear when his father Iorgos, aka Papouli, visited and subsequently died, or did anything to warn about Stavros after the funeral. 27 years on, in 2017, he made a surprise appearance on the sequel series Fuller House in the third season episode “Wedding or Not Here We Come”. Nick came in clutch to babysit for his great-grandson, D.J.’s youngest son Tommy, while the rest of the household (D.J., Tommy’s brothers, Stephanie, Kimmy, her daughter and ex-husband) went to Japan for Steve and C.J.’s wedding.
Elsewhere, his career included starring as the patriarch of a multi-generational Italian American family on NBC’s The Montefuscos, lasting just nine episodes in 1975. Aprea’s most substantive gig seems to have been NBC’s soap opera Another World playing two characters, crook Lucas Castigliano and multimillionaire shipping magnate Alexander Nikos in different stints between 1989 and 1998. Both characters met the same fate of being shot to death. His soap career extends to other roles including an arc as Sheriff Jack North on Falcon Crest in 1987, the villainous Manny Vasquez on Knots Landing in 1988, and Dr. Bryce on Days of Our Lives. He also had guest roles on Mannix, The Rookies, The F.B.I., Wonder Woman, Silk Stalkings, The Sopranos, Cold Case, NYPD Blue, Pacific Blue, Melrose Place, Lie to Me and CSI.
In film, Aprea appeared in The Godfather Part II as young Salvatore Tessio. His other film credits include playing the brother of Ray Sharkey’s fast-rising music promoter in The Idolmaker, as well as Bullitt, the original The Stepford Wives, The Manchurian Candidate remake, and playing a mobster in New Jack City.
He is survived by his third wife, Betsy, who he was with for 25 years; his daughter from a previous marriage to actress Cherie Latimer named Nicole, and stepchildren Marika and Valentino.
Sources: TVLine, The Hollywood Reporter, Full House Wiki