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Mr. Thicke had the opportunity to host a real talk show in the early 1980s. The Alan Thicke Show was a daytime chat show recorded in Vancouver, with guests, according to IMDB, that included Anthony Hopkins, Margaret Trudeau and Wayne Gretzky, who was a friend.

In 1983, he was given his own late-night U.S. talk show, Thicke of the Night. Mr. Foster – a guest on both shows – says Mr. Thicke was a terrific interviewer.

“The guy was a total giver. He would ask a question but then would not impart his own opinion; he would just let you go,” Mr. Foster says. “He didn’t interrupt. Which was a great quality.”

It wasn’t enough, however. Mr. Thicke was up against Johnny Carson, the undisputed king of late night. The show lasted only nine months.

Two years later came the show that “sort of saved my life,” Mr. Thicke later told the Western Alumni Gazette. He played kind, wholesome psychiatrist dad Jason Seaver on Growing Pains, dispensing solid advice in tidy, neatly wrapped episodes. The show ran for seven seasons and would remain the role with which Mr. Thicke was most closely associated – even as he continued to thrive with a busy and satisfying career. Recent achievements included induction into the Canadian Walk of Fame in 2013.

His real-life role as dad was also central to his life; he was a devoted father, by all accounts. He also had two grandsons. To them, he was “Pops.”

“He was a true family man, and a really good man. I know a lot of people know him as the funny guy – comedian and talk show host, actor and all that stuff. What made him happiest the most was his family … that was his rock,” says actor Kristy Swanson, who dated Mr. Thicke for four years.

Comedian Mark Critch recalls Mr. Thicke appearing on an ‘80s-themed episode of This Hour Has 22 Minutes in 2011, and playing him songs his son Robin was working on.

“I was listening to Blurred Lines with Alan Thicke before it was released on his cell phone,” says Mr. Critch, who says Mr. Thicke was “incredibly” proud. “He looked like his kid had just learned to skate for the first time.”

When Robin ran into legal trouble over the song, his dad was very supportive, according to people close to Mr. Thicke.

Alan Thicke, of course, knew a great deal about music; he wrote numerous theme songs for TV shows, including sitcoms and game shows.

Mr. Foster, who helped him with the original Wheel of Fortune theme, says Mr. Thicke was “so bright” and a great collaborator.

Mr. Foster says Mr. Thicke worked very hard on his friendships. He invited people over for Canadian Thanksgiving each year. And just recently he invited Mr. Foster and legendary TV director James Burrows to an L.A. Kings game. They had seats right behind the glass.

“We were like three teenagers. It was just the best night,” Mr. Foster says.

In addition to friends, Ms. Loring says, family was everything to Mr. Thicke.

“We were divorced 30 years ago and his sense of humour always rose to the occasion. A divorce is very painful and very hard and [prompts] very difficult feelings and there’s all of that to wade through and yet Alan found a way to make it funny. He said ‘I was happily married for 14 years; unfortunately Gloria was only happily married for 11.’”

Ms. Loring recalls very Canadian Christmases back with the Thicke family in Brampton, Ont., where they would eat croissants, tourtière and cabbage rolls and drink pink champagne. Ms. Loring, Mr. Thicke and their families continued to spend holidays together. They shared Thanksgiving dinner recently, at Robin’s home in Malibu.

“I remember looking at Alan with his white beard and thinking oh my God, honey you’re finally getting old and so am I – older,” Ms. Loring says. “And I thought isn’t it going to be sweet that we can have so many years ahead of us and watch our grandchildren graduate high school and all of that. And now we don’t have that with him.”