At the end of the penultimate episode of NCIS, the long-running CBS drama paid tribute to an actor with over 180 credits — including the mothership and the Los Angeles spinoff.
“In memory of our friend and colleague Rif Hutton. We will miss you,” read the tribute card at the end of the episode.
Hutton died in April 2026 after battling a glioblastoma for just over a year.
Rif Hutton guest starred on NCIS in two episodes in Season 16 (“Friendly Fire”) and Season 19 (“Face the Strange”) as Marine General Phillip Braxton. He then played an entirely different character — he was far from the first to do so — on NCIS: Los Angeles in Season 14 (“Flesh & Blood”), Commander Albert Burns.
Hutton’s voice work was featured in projects such as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Hotel Transylvania and guest starred in other shows including The Rookie: Feds, Truth Be Told, American Horror Story, and SEAL Team. He also played Lenny Caulfield in over 30 episodes of General Hospital.
His friend and fellow voice actor Steve Apostolina paid tribute to Hutton in a Facebook post on the day his death was announced.
“A remarkable human being has left this earthly plane. To say that Rif Hutton was one of a kind is a gross understatement. There will never be another like him – perhaps his son Wolfy will come closest,” he wrote. “Loving father and husband, generous, wryly funny, incredibly bright and the hardest working person I’ve ever known (I think my dad was the only one who came close). I worked in the voice over community with him for over 30 years but I really got to know him well when I directed him in one of my early plays. And while I knew him and spent a fair amount of time with him, he’d rarely talk about himself, because he was a humble man.”
He continued to list his work with the Big Brother organization, as a paramedic and chef, and at testing centers during COVID.
“In our voice-over/looping community he was legend. As comfortable as a team leader as he was a team player. People knew when they hired him for a voice job that he was going to be the most prepared – he always was. He was also always first to show up on a gig – I had the great pleasure of beating him a few times and scooping a treasured chair, but those were few and far between,” Apostolina noted.
“Rif Hutton was a man of action. He inspired so many and leaves behind a legion of loyal admirers – people who loved him. Stories of his generosity would blow your mind,” he concluded. “F**k cancer in general, but in particular glioblastoma. I was lucky to cross his path and I am a better person for knowing him. RIP – Rif Hutton.”