Dennis Farina, actor and veteran Chicago Police officer, has died at 69 in Arizona, after a blood clot in his lung, his publicist said today.

Dannis Farina for three decades was a character actor who combined remarkable dexterity and charm with toughness.Farina, best known as detective Joe Fontana on the long-running TV series “Law & Order,”
Farina was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Sicilian-American parents Iolanda, a homemaker, and Joseph Farina, a Sicilian immigrant doctor. He was raised in a large family and has three brothers and three sisters.

Before becoming an actor, Dannis Farina served 18 years in the Chicago Police Department’s burglary division, from 1967 to 1985.
Farina began his work in show business working for director Michael Mann as a police consultant, which subsequently led to an interest in acting when Mann cast him in a small role in the 1981 film Thief. Farina proceeded to moonlight as an actor in the
Chicago theater scene before Mann chose him for his Crime Story series. Farina played the mobster Albert Lombard in Michael Mann’s other television show, Miami Vice.NWNRX9FJTN4Q

Two of his most well-known movie characters are Jimmy Serrano, the mob boss from Midnight Run, and Ray “Bones” Barboni, a rival criminal of Chili Palmer’s in Get Shorty. He also played FBI Agent Jack Crawford in the first Hannibal Lecter crime film, Michael Mann’s Manhunter.