Fans and friends remember Alan Thicke

Ken Boxer eyes filled with tears when he learned of the passing of his longtime friend Alan Thicke.

Boxer recalled how Thicke dropped everything to be at his wedding decades ago.

He also made Boxer’s Pallazzio restaurant on State Street in Santa Barbara one of the locations used in his his reality show.

Thicke has just wrapped the fourth season of the show entitled “Unusually Thicke.”

He recently had lunch with Boxer after playing tennis with other local friends.

Boxer said he seemed fit and active before his untimely death from a heart attack while playing ice hockey with his son Carter in Burbank on Tuesday.

Born Alan Jeffrey in Ontario Canada, Thicke got his start writing for other television stars, but the father of ‘Blurred Lines’ singer Robin Thicke and two other sons Brennan and Carter, was also a composer.

Thicke composed the “Facts of Life” and Diff’rent Strokes” themes.

Fans can hear him sing on the Diff’rent Strokes theme.

He was often hosting and guest starring in TV shows.

Boxer remembers hosting a party so he could try out ideas for a game show.

That night Thicke lost his car keys and joked that he was the kind of guest who never leaves.

“He didn’t take life seriously,” Boxer said, “He was always joking around he had the most incredible sense of humor. I’m going to miss that.”

Thicke owned a home in Carpinteria where his youngest son Carter was raised.

Carter, now a University of Southern California student, was playing ice hockey with his dad in Burbank when he died.

Thicke past wives include soap opera star Gloria Loring, and former Miss World America Gina Tolleson.

He is survived by his sons and his third wife Tanya Callau.

Memorial services have not been announced..