Dennis Farina
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Donaldo Guglielmo Farina (born February 29, 1944) is an American film and television actor. He is a character actor, often typecast as a mobster or police officer—the latter an appropriate choice, as Farina was an officer of the Chicago Police Department serving from 1967 to 1985. When Farina quit the force, he was a detective.
Farina was born in Chicago, Illinois to a large Italian-American family and had two brothers and three sisters. He is father of three sons: Dennis, Joseph and Michael, from his first marriage.
Farina began his work in show business working for director Michael Mann as a police consultant on Mann's early works. This led to an interest in acting when Mann cast him in a small role. Farina proceeded to moonlight as an actor in the Chicago theater scene before Mann chose him for his Crime Story series.
Other movies in Farina's filmography include Manhunter, Midnight Run, Striking Distance, Get Shorty, Saving Private Ryan, Big Trouble, Snatch, The Mod Squad and Out of Sight. He has also acted opposite Bette Midler in the romantic comedy That Old Feeling. In early 2005 Farina provided the voice of aging boxer-turned-superhero Wildcat on Justice League Unlimited.
Farina starred as Det. Joe Fontana on NBC's long-running television series Law & Order from 2004 to 2006. In May 2006, it was announced that Farina was leaving Law & Order to pursue other projects.
[edit] Trivia
- His role on Crime Story was as a Chicago police officer. Farina's Law & Order character, Joe Fontana, worked for Chicago Homicide before his transfer to the NYPD. As is common on Law & Order, Fontana shares a number of other characteristics with the actor who plays him: they hail from the same Chicago neighborhood, attended the same parochial school, and have the same tastes in both clothes and music (Dean Martin).
- In Manhunter, he plays Jack Crawford. In the film's remake, Red Dragon, Harvey Keitel played Crawford. In Get Shorty, Keitel played Farina's character in the movie-within-the-movie.
- In Farina's first episode on Law & Order, his partner Det. Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin) says that when he first saw Farina's character, he "didn't know if he was a cop or a wiseguy." This was a joking reference to Farina's having played mobsters so many times.[citation needed]
- One of his most well-known movie characters is Jimmy Serrano, the mob boss from Midnight Run.
- When Farina left the Chicago PD, he was a Detective Sergeant. When Michael Mann cast him in the series Crime Story, Farina's character was "promoted" to Lieutenant.
- He is the only actor on Law & Order, and the only one of the three actors who played Jack Crawford (the others being Scott Glenn and Harvey Keitel), who has actually served in law enforcement.
