Dennis Farina (February 29, 1944 â€" July 22, 2013) was an American
actor, TV presenter, narrator and former police officer. He was a
character actor, often typecast as a mobster or police officer. He is
known for roles such as mobster Jimmy Serrano in the comedy Midnight
Run, Ray "Bones" Barboni in Get Shorty and Cousin Avi in Snatch. He
starred on television as Lieutenant Mike Torello on Crime Story and as
NYPD Detective Joe Fontana on Law & Order. From 2008 to 2010, he
hosted and narrated the television program Unsolved Mysteries on Spike
TV. His last major television role was in HBO's Luck, which premiered
on January 29, 2012.Farina was born on a Leap Day (February 29, 1944)
in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood, the fourth son and youngest of the
seven children of Joseph and Yolanda Farina. Farina's father, who was
from Villalba, Sicily, was a Chicago-area doctor, and his mother a
homemaker. The Farinas raised their children in a North Avenue home in
Old Town, a working-class neighborhood with a broad ethnic mixture,
with Italians and Germans being the two predominant ethnicities.Before
becoming an actor, Farina served three years in the United States Army
during the Vietnam Era, followed by 18 years in the Chicago Police
Department, advancing in rank from 1967 to 1985.Farina began working
for director Michael Mann as a police consultant, which led Mann to
cast him in a small role in the 1981 film Thief. He moonlighted as an
actor in Chicago-based films (like Code of Silence, a 1985 Chuck
Norris film) and theater before Mann chose him for his Crime Story
series, which aired on NBC from 1986 to 1988. Farina played mobster
Albert Lombard in Mann's previous hit television show, Miami Vice. He
later starred as the title character in Buddy Faro, a short-lived 1998
private-detective series on CBS.
actor, TV presenter, narrator and former police officer. He was a
character actor, often typecast as a mobster or police officer. He is
known for roles such as mobster Jimmy Serrano in the comedy Midnight
Run, Ray "Bones" Barboni in Get Shorty and Cousin Avi in Snatch. He
starred on television as Lieutenant Mike Torello on Crime Story and as
NYPD Detective Joe Fontana on Law & Order. From 2008 to 2010, he
hosted and narrated the television program Unsolved Mysteries on Spike
TV. His last major television role was in HBO's Luck, which premiered
on January 29, 2012.Farina was born on a Leap Day (February 29, 1944)
in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood, the fourth son and youngest of the
seven children of Joseph and Yolanda Farina. Farina's father, who was
from Villalba, Sicily, was a Chicago-area doctor, and his mother a
homemaker. The Farinas raised their children in a North Avenue home in
Old Town, a working-class neighborhood with a broad ethnic mixture,
with Italians and Germans being the two predominant ethnicities.Before
becoming an actor, Farina served three years in the United States Army
during the Vietnam Era, followed by 18 years in the Chicago Police
Department, advancing in rank from 1967 to 1985.Farina began working
for director Michael Mann as a police consultant, which led Mann to
cast him in a small role in the 1981 film Thief. He moonlighted as an
actor in Chicago-based films (like Code of Silence, a 1985 Chuck
Norris film) and theater before Mann chose him for his Crime Story
series, which aired on NBC from 1986 to 1988. Farina played mobster
Albert Lombard in Mann's previous hit television show, Miami Vice. He
later starred as the title character in Buddy Faro, a short-lived 1998
private-detective series on CBS.
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