Copping Attitudes

"I don’t have to show you any stinking badges."
- Gold Hat (Alfonso Bedoya) in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre"

At the age of 69, Dennis Farina’s life was cut short by a pulmonary embolism, a blockage of the main artery to the lungs. News reports and obituaries didn’t mention whether or not Farina was aware of any risk factors leading up to the fatal blockage. What they did mention was what a respected, likable, generous, and larger-than-life actor he was. Not faint praise for a man who spent two decades in law enforcement on the streets of Chicago before becoming, almost whimsically at first, a popular, in-demand screen and television actor.

Dennis Farina was the youngest of seven children. His mother was a Chicago homemaker, his father a Sicilian immigrant doctor. After a tour in the U.S. Army, Farina worked in Chicago’s historic South Water produce market. He passed the entrance exam for the Chicago Police Department to become a patrolman on the North Side. In four years, he became a detective.

In a 2001 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Farina "blamed" director Michael Mann for turning him into an actor. Mann, who would go on to make such major motion pictures as "The Last of the Mohicans," "Heat," "Collateral," "The Kingdom," and "Public Enemies," was in Chicago to make his first feature film, 1981’s "Thief," starring James Caan. Mann and Farina had a mutual friend, a retired cop and writer on "Thief," who initially recommended Farina as a consultant. "Michael (Mann) is a Chicago guy anyway," Farina recalled. "He says he wants to talk to some real-life characters. I talked to him, and he asked me to do a part in the movie. I said, yes, sure." The role was an enforcer for a crime boss.

Bitten by the acting bug, Farina began appearing in plays. He also took supporting roles on such TV shows as "Hunter" and "Remington Steele," as well as locally filmed movies like "Code of Silence," starring Chuck Norris. He was still a cop when Michael Mann cast him as a mob boss named Lombard on a couple episodes of his television series "Miami Vice," and as an FBI agent in the Mann-directed "Manhunter," with William Petersen (future star of TV’s "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation") and Scottish actor Brian Cox as the screen’s first Hannibal Lecter.

It wasn’t until Michael Mann gave him the starring role as Chicago Detective Mike Torello in the 1986 CBS series "Crime Story" that Farina finally turned in his real badge and retired from the police force.

This got us to thinking in the moviehouse that Dennis Farina’s fascinating life path couldn’t be unique. There have been publicized instances of actors who subsequently went into law enforcement. After establishing the benchmark as the creepiest neighborhood kid in the annals of TV sitcoms, actor Ken Osmond, who portrayed the unctuously polite Eddie Haskell for six seasons on "Leave It to Beaver," joined the Los Angeles Police Department in 1970. He sported a mustache in hopes of maintaining a degree of anonymity, which only prompted an urban legend that he was really porn star John Holmes (aka Johnny Wadd).

In September of 1980, Osmond was struck by three bullets in a foot pursuit of a car thief. Two slugs were embedded in his bulletproof vest, the third ricocheted off his belt buckle. While he was on disability, he returned to acting in 1983, reprising his role as the adult Eddie Haskell on the nostalgic series "Still the Beaver" (aka "The New Leave It to Beaver"), which ran until 1989. He had retired from the police force in 1988. Along with Barbara Billingsley (June Cleaver in the original series) and Frank Bank (Lumpy Rutherford), Osmond had a cameo in the 1997 big-screen reboot of "Leave It to Beaver," playing Eddie Haskell Sr.

The boys of "Adam-12" then and now...

Kent McCord, who "patrolled" the streets of LA in a black-and-white with costar Martin Milner for seven seasons on producer Jack ("Dragnet") Webb’s "Adam-12," retired in October of 2010 as a reserve officer from the Los Angeles School Police Department, in which he had attained the rank of lieutenant.

Most questionably, beefy action movie never-was Steven Seagal (who, unsurprisingly, was not invited to join the collection of ‘80s-’90s screen tough guys in Sylvester Stallone’s wistful slugfest, "The Expendables") is a Reserve Deputy Chief of the Sheriff’s Office in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, a position he finagled into his own reality series, "Steven Seagal: Lawman." That much is true, although his rank is purely ceremonial.

Allegedly, Seagal graduated from a police academy in Los Angeles over 20 years ago, and he claims to possess a certification from Peace Officer Standards & Training (POST), an organization that accredits California peace officers. Funny thing is, POST officials in California have no record of such a certification.

Gene Roddenberry in the United States Air Force

Gene Roddenberry, famous for creating the original "Star Trek" series, was the son of an LAPD officer. During World War II, Roddenberry flew several combat missions in the United States Air Force and afterward worked as a commercial pilot before he followed in his father’s footsteps when he joined the LAPD in 1949. He rose to sergeant in 1953 and became a speech writer for legendary LAPD Chief William H. Parker (depicted in movies by Bruce Dern in "Mulholland Falls" and by Nick Nolte in "Gangster Squad").

As a cop, Roddenberry began to focus on writing freelance scripts for television programs, using the pseudonym "Robert Wesley." He resigned from the LAPD in the summer of 1956 to concentrate on his writing career, a decision "made with considerable and genuine regret." In 1964, he created "Star Trek," which premiered in 1966. Roddenberry purportedly based Mr. Spock on Chief Parker for the latter’s no-nonsense, very rational and low emotional behavior.

(Left) LAPD Chief William H. Parker; (right) Leonard Nimoy
as Mr. Spock on "Star Trek"

But what we’re looking for in the moviehouse are law officers who turned their street savvy into screen cred. Or - at the onset of our journey - into stage presence, particularly on the floorboards of mid-19th century American theater.

Scout of the Plains

James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok was a Union Civil War veteran, stagecoach driver, scout, professional gambler, sometime-U.S. deputy marshal-city marshal-county sheriff-police detective, a lawless lawman and trouble-maker, unflinching gunfighter and unblinking killer. In Niagara Falls in 1867, thirty-year-old Hickok tried his hand at acting in a stage play called "The Daring Buffalo Chasers of the Plains." His acting was reportedly terrible, and he promptly headed back West to Kansas.

Wild Bill Hickok, Texas Jack Omohundro, Buffalo Bill Cody

In 1873, Hickok’s friend, Buffalo Bill Cody, along with frontier scout Texas Jack Omohundro, invited Hickok to join them in a new play produced by sensationalist journalist Ned Buntline called "Scouts of the Plains." Like most plays of its ilk, the performances were wooden and melodramatically over-the-top, and while critics regularly panned the shows, they were a big hit with audiences. Hickok toured with the play for several months but eventually left, as did Texas Jack. In 1882, Cody formed his world-famous "Buffalo Bill’s Wild West" show in 1882.

While touring in "Scouts of the Plains," Hickok met tightrope walker-lion tamer-circus equestrienne Agnes Thatcher Lake (above), whom he married on March 5, 1876, in Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory. She was 50, twelve years his senior. After a honeymoon in Cincinnati, Hickok soon left his new bride to seek his fortune in the gold fields of Dakota Territory, and less than five months after his wedding, he was killed in Deadwood on August 2, 1876. He was 39. Almost prophetically, Hickok had written a letter to his wife, declaring "if such should be we never meet again, while firing my last shot, I will gently breathe the name of my wife - Agnes…"

Hollywood's Resident Cop

Moving ahead in time about 100 years, we find Eddie "Popeye" Egan, a New York City Police Department detective who, along with his partner, Sonny Grosso, and other NYPD detectives, broke up an organized crime ring in 1961, resulting in the record seizure of 112 pounds of heroin (much of which was subsequently spirited out of the evidence room by corrupt cops, cut, and resold to mobsters from whom it was originally seized). The bust became the subject of the best-selling book The French Connection, which was adapted into a multi-Oscar-winning blockbuster movie.

A tough-talking Irish-American cop, Egan once had dreams of playing baseball in the majors. He was playing professional ball with the New York Yankees triple-A farm team when he joined the Marines. A young Mickey Mantle took his place in center field. Once out of the service, Egan became a New York City beat cop and climbed his way up to detective first class.

On-location for "The French Connection" (1971): Sonny Grosso, Roy Scheider,
Gene Hackman, Eddie "Popeye" Egan

The 1971 movie "The French Connection," which updated and highly fictionalized the historic bust, garnered five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (William Friedkin), Best Screenplay, Best Editing, and Best Actor, for Gene Hackman’s gritty portrayal of Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (a character based on Egan). Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso were not only technical advisors on the production, but Egan had a major supporting role as Hackman’s superior officer. Costar Roy Scheider’s Best Supporting Actor-nominated role as Hackman’s partner was based on Grosso, who also appeared in the film.

Tough guys Eddie Egan and Lee Marvin in "Prime Cut" (1972)

In 1972, Egan played the boss of a Chicago Irish-American mob in "Prime Cut," a not-so-serious shoot-em-up about rival gangsters Lee Marvin and Gene Hackman, featuring an eye-popping big screen debut by Sissy Spacek.

Sissy Spacek as the wide-eyed orphan Poppy in "Prime Cut"

The 1973 action flick "Badge 373," though not an official sequel to "The French Connection," was advertised as "inspired by the exploits of Eddie Egan." Egan’s badge number was 373, but that’s where any similarity to fact ends in the far-fetched melodramatics which include Robert Duvall (as Egan surrogate Eddie Ryan) commandeering a city bus in a meek attempt to recapture the excitement of the frenetic chase scene in "The French Connection." Once again, Eddie Egan appears onscreen as his alter ego’s superior. In his review of the movie, critic Roger Ebert remarked, "(Egan) plays a vice detective, and looks the part: beefy but swift, with a tough, Irish face. Fast on his feet and probably a boozer when the occasion required."

Eddie Egan and Robert Duvall face the press in "Badge 373" (1973)

After retiring from the NYPD, Egan became a full-time actor, appearing in over 20 movies and TV series as Hollywood’s resident cop. He retired from acting in 1984. At the age of 65, he succumbed to cancer on November 6, 1995. His longtime fiancee, Cheryl Kyle-Little, said, "In the end, he couldn’t understand what was happening. He was such a proud man, and tough. The toughest cop in New York City. He was so invincible for so long, he couldn’t understand."

"He was a bigger-than-life guy," Egan’s onetime partner, Sonny Grosso, noted. "Eddie was the best damn cop I ever worked with."

Sonny Grosso himself pursued a show business career after law enforcement, as a movie and television producer, as well as a sought-after technical advisor for several cop and crime thrillers, including 1973’s "The Seven-Ups" (based on a story by Grosso, who has a small role as a counterfeit money courier), which was "The French Connection" producer Philip D’Anotni’s attempt to repeat his success by recruiting a number of people who had worked on the earlier film, among them actors Roy Scheider and Tony Lo Bianco, music score composer Don Ellis, and car stunt coordinator Bill Hickman. Grosso continued to play small parts in a number of TV shows and movies, including "Kojak" and "The Godfather."

Interestingly, two attempts were made to bring Eddie Egan's legacy to television. In 1986, Ed O'Neill (best known for "Married...with Children" and "Modern Family") starred in a ninety-minute unsold TV pilot, "Popeye" (above). Thirteen years earlier, "Egan" was a half-hour pilot for a series that was never picked up, relocating the detective to Los Angeles and starring the unlikeliest of actors, Eugene Roche, who usually played the gosh-darn most likable characters you could find on television and movies, from the amiable dishwasher hawking Ajax in commercials to Billy Pilgrim's ill-fated friend Edgar Derby in "Slaughterhouse-Five."

One Tough Cop

Eyebrows were raised in the moviehouse when fast food chain Arby’s initially launched an ad campaign with commercials boasting the presence of "Legendary Detective" Bo Dietl. Who, we asked, is this short, stubby character desperately in need of a razor?

Our investigation turned up some interesting evidence. Since 2010, Richard "Bo" Dietl (born December 4, 1950) has served as Chairman of the New York State Security Guard Advisory Council. He is also the founder and CEO of Beau Dietl & Associates (which provides various investigative and security services to corporate and individual clients worldwide), as well as Beau Dietl Consulting Services (which recruits placements in IT, finance, and business verticals for global leaders and Fortune 500 companies). Dietl is also a Fox News business contributor and for the past 26 years has been a weekly guest on Don Imus’ radio show. And, oh, yeah, he was a storied NYPD officer and detective from January of 1970 until he retired in 1985.

Dietl was one of the most highly decorated detectives in the department, with numerous arrests to his credit, attaining the highest arrest record during a ten-year period. His finest moment in the spotlight occurred in the aftermath of what then-New York City Mayor Ed Koch deemed "the most vicious crime in New York City history," when a nun was repeatedly raped and tortured in an East Harlem convent. Twenty-seven crucifixes were literally carved into her flesh by two men. Dietl was instrumental in the arrest of the suspects, who later confessed and were convicted. Although there were rumors that Dietl was only able to close the case with the cooperation of friendly mob informants, the horrendous crime inspired two movies, "Bad Lieutenant" and "One Tough Cop."

Critic Leonard Maltin: "At the very least, this is
the first movie that offers full-frontal Keitel and
a cameo by Jesus."

In "Bad Lieutenant," Harvey Keitel gave an acclaimed tour de force performance as a tormented Bronx detective, addicted to drugs, alcohol, and gambling (to name only three of his vices), who ultimately strives for but falls short of redemption. The 1992 film was co-written and directed by Abel Ferrara, described by Roger Ebert as "a gritty New Yorker who has come up through the exploitation ranks to low-budget but ambitious films." He has also been called a "scuzzy Martin Scorsese." Ferrara originally intended the film to star Christopher Walken, whom the director cast in a number of his pictures, including "King of New York" and "The Addiction."

Harvey Keitel, Bo Dietl in "Bad Lieutenant" (1992)

Like the nameless protagonist played by Keitel (referred to only as "Lieutenant"), Bo Dietl, who appears in the film as an investigating detective, dealt with his own addictions to cocaine and alcohol during his law enforcement career, although hopefully not to the nightmarish extents displayed onscreen.

In 1998, Bo Dietl’s autobiography, One Tough Cop, was made into a film featuring Stephen Baldwin as Dietl and costarring Chris Penn, Gina Gershon, Luis Guzman, and Amy Irving (who was married at the time to the movie’s director, Brazilian-born Bruno Barreto). Dietl, who portrays a detective, was the picture’s executive producer.

(Left) Bo Dietl as himself; (right) Stephen Baldwin as Bo Dietl
in "One Tough Cop" (1998)...See the resemblance? We don't.

Stephen is the youngest (and dorkiest) of the acting Baldwin brothers. A familiar face on SyFy Channel flotsam like "The Snake King," "Dark Storm," "Earthstorm," and "Harpies," his droopy-eyed countenance is equally familiar from such reality TV jetsam as "The Celebrity Apprentice," "Celebrity Big Brother," "All Star Celebrity Apprentice," and "I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!" (Okay, he was good in "The Usual Suspects.") In March of 2013, Baldwin, a loudmouthed born-again Christian, pleaded guilty to failing to pay income taxes for 2008 to 2010.

In his review of "One Tough Cop," Roger Ebert commented, "This Bo Dietl is apparently a real person, an ex-cop who reviews movies on the Don Imus radio program. ‘One Tough Cop’ is based on a book that is somewhere between memoir and fiction. The movie ends with its only laugh, a title card that informs us: ‘Except for the character of Bo Dietl, all characters and events in this movie are fictional.’ How real can a character be, you ask, in a totally fictional story?"

Robert Z'Dar waits for his close-up in "Maniac Cop 2" (1990),
Bo Dietl's first motion picture.

As an actor, Dietl made his film debut playing (what else?) a detective in 1990’s "Maniac Cop 2," a deliriously bloody cult flick, written by B-movie auteur Larry Cohen (of "It’s Alive" renown), directed by William Lustig, and featuring genre favorites Robert Davi (Bond villain Franz Sanchez in "Licence to Kill"), Claudia Christian (the alien-possessed stripper in "The Hidden"), Michael Lerner (Mayor Ebert in "Godzilla"), Bruce Campbell (the chainsaw-wielding Ash in "Evil Dead II" and "Army of Darkness"), Clarence Williams III (Linc Hayes in "The Mod Squad"), Laurene Landon (the blond Amazon warrior in "Hundra"), Charles Napier (the duplicitous Murdock in "Rambo: First Blood Part II"), and Robert Z’Dar as the unstoppable undead policeman.

Ray Liotta (as Henry Hill), Bo Dietl in "Goodfellas" (1990)

That same year, Dietl appeared in director Martin Scorsese’s "Goodfellas" as the narc who arrests Henry Hill (Ray Liotta). He also had roles in director Brian De Palma’s "Carlito’s Way" and a couple of episodes of  the TV series "Law & Order." In 1998, he was an associate producer for the crime thriller "The Bone Collector," starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. Dietl will portray himself in Scorsese’s upcoming "The Wolf of Wall Street," starring Leonardo DiCaprio (Scorsese’s Robert De Niro for the 21st century) as Jordan Belfort, the real-life notorious stockbroker who was indicted in 1998 for securities fraud and money laundering.

Real-life Character

Produced by Michael Mann, "Crime Story" was an anomaly in its time, a weekly TV series with a serialized format and scripts that adhered to a continuing story arc, rather than self-contained episodes that were wrapped up tidily within an hour (like Mann’s hit series "Miami Vice") - relatively unheard-of then, but now the norm, in series like "The Sopranos," "24," "Breaking Bad," "The Walking Dead," "The Killing," and "Dexter." (The two-hour pilot movie for "Crime Story" was directed by Abel Ferrara, of "Bad Lietuenant" notoriety.)

What made "Crime Story" remarkable was its eye-dazzling 1960s-period art direction (first in its Chicago locations, followed by a relo to Las Vegas) and the pulse-pounding antagonism between Dennis Farina as the obsessive Lt. Torello, head of a special organized crime strike force (not unlike "The Untouchables" of the golden age of television), and Anthony Denison as the equally obsessive mobster-on-the-rise Ray Luca.

Anthony Denison, John Santucci, Dennis Farina

Incidentally, Luca’s dimwitted sidekick, Pauli Taglia, was played by another Chicago "real-life character," John Santucci, a former convicted jewel thief, who, like Dennis Farina, made his screen debut in 1981’s "Thief." (Not coincidentally, Farina had once actually arrested Santucci.) Unfortunately, as Santucci’s acting career waned after "Crime Story," he returned to crime in Chicago. He was charged with multiple counts of theft by deception in the early 1990s and pleaded guilty in 1994 after being caught holding 100 items classified as burglary tools. Santucci died of cancer in 2004.

Sadly, like so many other examples of challenging and intelligent television programming, "Crime Story" was shortlived, canceled after its second season in 1988. At least, the show went out with panache in a slam-bang cliffhanger that literally threw the two mad-dog adversaries at each other’s throats in a final knockabout donnybrook aboard an out-of-control plane pitching into the ocean.

Dennis Farina in "Midnight Run" (1988), "Get Shorty" (1995), "Snatch" (2000)

Afterward, Farina was often cast as a tough guy who still managed to be likable: Chicago mob boss Jimmy Serrano in 1988’s "Midnight Run," starring Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin, mobster Ray "Bones" Barboni in 1995’s "Get Shorty" (which also featured the late James Gandolfini and garnered Farina praise from The New York Times critic Janet Maslin for his "funny deadpan performance"), and gangster-jeweler "Cousin Avi" Denovitz in 2000’s "Snatch." Writer William Yardley’s obituary for Farina in The New York Times praised the actor for "infusing dozens of roles with world-weary credibility and a convincing nexus of nose and mustache," while a writer for the Chicago Tribune pointed out, "Dennis Farina had the sort of Chicago neighborhood face you’d find behind the tap at a corner tavern, standing at first base on a softball diamond or lugging your new icebox up the stairs."

In 1998, Farina visibly enjoyed the role of a lifetime, starring in the TV series "Buddy Faro" (above) as a legendary swingin' ‘60s detective who disappeared in 1978 and is tracked down a couple decades later by a young private investigator (Frank Whaley) and reopens his agency. Farina was one of the show’s executive producers. Like "Crime Story," this series was so hip and clever (with delightful references to the Rat Pack) that it was abruptly canceled, airing only eight of its thirteen first season episodes.  (It was a good-looking show, winning an Emmy for Outstanding Art Direction.)

Dennis Farina, Bette Midler in "That Old Feeling" (1997)

Dennis Farina didn’t want to be typecast, and he proved himself a versatile character actor, playing Jennifer Lopez’s father in 1998’s "Out of Sight," starring George Clooney, Bette Midler’s ex-husband in director Carl Reiner’s 1997 romantic comedy "That Old Feeling," and Lt. Col. Walter Anderson in Steven Spielberg’s 1998 war epic "Saving Private Ryan." "I think it would be boring to do the same things," Farina once said. "I think the idea of acting is to spread your wings a little bit. I was so grateful for ‘Saving Private Ryan’…and things like that." On being called a character actor, he said, "I think it’s a nice compliment. I accept it with all humility."

Dennis Farina, Tom Hanks in "Saving Private Ryan" (1998)

"When I first got into acting." Farina told the Chicago Tribune in 1988, "I never had any long-term goals, never had any plan. I just thought it would be a good way to make some extra money." Twenty-two years later, he told the newspaper, "I know guys who look at themselves on TV, in movies. Not me. I’m afraid if I ever did, I’d sit there saying, ‘Why the hell did they ever hire me?’"

Farina admitted, "I always thought of myself as being fortunate to have the life I have," telling the Chicago Tribune in 1995, "Sometimes I do pinch myself about the life I’ve had." He reflected, "I was always a movie fan. As a kid, we would go to the neighborhood theater and watch Bogart movies and Cagney movies…I never thought I would be doing what I’m doing."

In 2004, the producers of the long-running series "Law & Order" brought Farina onboard after the popular character played by Jerry Orbach was retired. For two years, Farina portrayed the flamboyant, fashion-conscious Detective Joe Fontana.

By then, ex-cop Farina was amused by the increasing number of TV crime shows that emphasized the importance of scientists in solving cases. He told The New York Times in 2004, "While forensics plays a huge part in law enforcement nowadays, you still need the foot soldiers. You still need the guy who can knock on the door, you still need the guy who can write down the license plate number."

Early in his acting career, he noted, "Police work, for the most part, is pretty boring. You don’t get up every day, walk out of the house and get in a car chase, shoot five people, and make twenty arrests…Sometimes I gotta remember, ‘This is TV, not the street!’" Farina had little patience for questions about his past. He recalled, "One interviewer asked me how many people I had to kill when I was a cop. Can’t anybody understand that that life is over?"

Dustin Hoffman, Dennis Farina in "Luck" (2012)

On the small screen, Farina’s last role was in "Luck," a 2012 HBO series about the impact of organized crime on horse racing, created by David Milch (who created "Deadwood" and co-created the series "NYPD Blue"). Dustin Hoffman starred in a cast that included Nick Nolte as an aging horse trainer. The series, which was co-executive-produced by Michael Mann (who directed the pilot episode), was canceled after its first season, after three horses had been injured and were euthanized.

Dennis Farina’s final big screen appearance was the starring role in the 2011 independent drama "The Last Rites of Joe May." The movie’s co-producer, Tim Evans, remembered Farina as "one of those larger-than-life guys you just wanted to be around…He was an old-fashioned guy…sentimental, romantic, told great stories."

Throughout his life, it was Chicago that called Farina home. "I spend all day walking around this city," he would say. "I always come back here. This is where I’m comfortable."

Three Chicago guys: Dennis Farina, Joe Mantegna, Dennis Franz

Chicago Police Superintendent Garry F. McCarthy recalled that Farina was "a true-blue Chicago character" who "never forgot where he came from." In 1999, Farina told Cigar Aficionado magazine, "My personality was formed by Chicago. It’s very American, very straightforward. If you can’t find it, or make it there, you won’t make it anywhere. It’s a very honest place."