OHMYGOSSIP — Dennis Farina, one of Hollywood’s most successful character actors, died Monday (22 July) in Scottsdale, Arizona, of a pulmonary embolism, his publicist said.
Farina was 69-years-old (February 29, 1944 – July 22, 2013). Farina was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Sicilian-American parents Jolanda, a homemaker, and Joseph Farina, a Sicilian immigrant doctor. He was raised in a large family and had three brothers and three sisters.
The actor, well-known for the thick moustache he almost always wore for his roles, was part of films such as Snatch (2000), Saving Private Ryan (1999), Get Shorty (1995), Out of Sight (1998) and Midnight Run (1988).
A Chicago native, Farina worked in the burglary division of the Chicago Police Department from 1967 to 1985. Beginning in the 1980s, he worked as a police consultant for director Michael Mann, who later cast Farina in Crime Story and Miami Vice. In 1994, he joined the cast of Law & Order as Det. Joe Fontana, a role he played for two years. In 2008, he became the host of Unsolved Mysteries. Farina is survived by “the love of his life of 35 years, Marianne Cahill,” according to his publicist, as well as three sons from his marriage to Patricia Farina, which ended in divorce in 1980, and six grandchildrenl.