NEW YORK - Dennis Farina, a onetime Chicago police officer who as a popular character actor played a TV policeman on Law & Order during his wide-ranging career, has died.
Farina died Monday morning in a Scottsdale, Ariz., hospital after suffering a blood clot in his lung, according to his publicist, Lori De Waal. He was 69.
For three decades, Farina was a character actor who displayed remarkable dexterity, charm and toughness.
“Sometimes you can take those dramatic roles and maybe interject a little humor into them, and I think the reverse also works,” Farina said in a 2007 interview. “One of the funny things in life to me is a guy who takes himself very seriously.”
Farina’s many films include Saving Private Ryan (1998), Out Of Sight (1998), Midnight Run (1988), Manhunter (1986), and his breakout and perhaps best-known film, Get Shorty (1995), a comedic romp in which he played a Miami mob boss.
He recently completed shooting a comedy film, Lucky Stiff.
Among his TV roles was Detective Joe Fontana on Law & Order during the 2004-06 seasons, when he replaced longtime cast member Jerry Orbach in the ensemble.
Law & Order executive producer Dick Wolf said he was “stunned and saddened to hear about Dennis’ unexpected passing this morning. The Law & Order family extends sympathy and condolences to his family.”
A veteran of the Chicago theater, Farina appeared in Joseph Mantegna’s Bleacher Bums and Streamers, directed byTerry Kinney, among other productions.
Born Feb. 29, 1944, Farina was raised in a working-class neighborhood of Chicago, the seventh child of Italian immigrants.
After three years in the U.S. Army, he served with the Chicago Police Department for 18 years, both as a uniformed officer and a burglary detective, before he found his way into acting as he neared his 40s.
His first film was the 1981 action drama Thief, directed by Michael Mann - a future collaborator on several projects - whom he had met through a mutual friend.
In Thief, he landed a small role as a criminal henchman, and, while not initially planning a career change, found the film world “very interesting,” he said in 2004.
“I remember going to the set that day and being intrigued by the whole thing. I liked it. And everybody was extremely nice to me,” he said.
He continued to work as a detective while taking occasional dramatic roles, and even took a leave of absence from the Chicago police to star in Crime Story before he made the full-time acting plunge.
“If I’m characterized as a character actor, that’s fine with me,” he said in 2007. “Whatever they want to call me is fine. In the kind of roles I do, you can do them and walk away from it and have a really nice time.”
Farina is survived by three sons, six grandchildren and his longtime partner, Marianne Cahill.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 07/23/2013