One of my favorite character actors has been Dennis Farina.

And one of my all-time favorite series was Crime Story which ran on TV from 1986 to 1988, via 44 episodes, where Farina portrayed Lt Vince Torello.

Dennis Farina, unknown to most everyone, was a Chicago Police Department officer for 18 years, from 1967 to 1985.

He first appeared in Michael Mann’s move “Thief” in 1981.

The facts:

Dennis Farina, the actor and former Chicago police officer who played coiled, hot-tempered characters in movies and on television, died Monday in Scottsdale, Ariz., from a blood clot in his lung, his publicist said. He was 69.

Farina also appeared as Det. Joe Fontana in 46 episodes of NBC’s Law & Order, added to the cast following the death of Jerry Orbach. That made him the only performer on the Dick Wolf series with an actual background in law enforcement. He left in 2006 to pursue film projects.

“I was stunned and saddened to hear about Dennis’ unexpected passing this morning,” Wolf said in a statement. “The Law & Order family extends sympathy and condolences to his family. He was a great guy.”

Hollywood’s Notable Deaths of 2013

Farina’s other small-screen credits include Michael Mann’s late 1980s NBC crime drama Crime Story; the private detective title character on his own 1998 CBS series, Buddy Faro, which only lasted eight episodes; hosting Unsolved Mysteries starting in 2008 after the death of original host Robert Stack; and, more recently, a stint as Dustin Hoffman’s right-hand man, Gus, in David Milch’s short-lived HBO horse-racing series Luck.

Farina also famously starred as a Chicago mob boss swindled by accountant Charles Grodin in Martin Brest’s Midnight Run (1988); an army colonel in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (1998); the retired lawman father of Jennifer Lopez’s character in Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight (1998); and a Jewish diamond merchant in Guy Ritchie’s Snatch. (2000).

If you wanted a character actor who dripped truth and verisimilitude, you chose Dennis Farina.

God bless you sir.  And thank you for your service.

BZ