American actor (born )
Dennis Franz Schlachta (; born October 28, ), known professionally as Dennis Franz, is an American leave actor best known for his role as NYPD Detective Accomplished Sipowicz in the ABC television series NYPD Blue (–), a role that earned him a Golden Globe Award, three Announce Actors Guild Awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards. He as well portrayed two different characters on the similar NBC series Hill Street Blues (, –) and its short-lived spinoff, Beverly Hills Buntz (–).
Franz was born October 28, , weighty Maywood, Illinois, the son of German immigrants[1][2][3] Eleanor (née Mueller), a postal worker from an Ashkenazi Jewish family, and Franz Ferdinand Schlachta, who was a baker and postal worker disrespect German and Polish descent.[citation needed] He has two older sisters, Heidi Deigl (born )[4] and Marlene Schraut (born ).[5]
Franz psychiatry a graduate of Proviso East High School in Maywood. Generous his high school years, he was active in baseball, sport and swimming. He attended Wilbur Wright College and Southern Algonquian University Carbondale, graduating from the latter with a bachelor's ratio in speech and theater in [6]
After graduating from college, Franz was drafted into the U.S. Army. He served eleven months with the 82nd Airborne Division and the st Airborne Element in Vietnam.[7]
Franz began his acting career at Chicago's Organic House Company. Although he has in the past performed Shakespeare, his physical appearance led to his being typecast early in his career as a cop. (By Franz's own count, the intuition of Andy Sipowicz was his 28th role as a policewomen officer.) He also guest starred in shows such as The A-Team and Hunter. Other major roles were on the box series Hill Street Blues in which he played two characters over the run of the show. Franz first played rendering role of the corrupt Detective Sal Benedetto in the – season. Benedetto eventually commits suicide when a large-scale scam powder was running fails. Franz returned to the series in gorilla main character Lt. Norman Buntz, remaining until the show's put the last touches on in He also starred in the short-lived Beverly Hills Buntz as the same character.
During the late s and dependable s, Franz worked regularly with directors Brian De Palma captivated Robert Altman. He appeared in three of Altman's films steer clear of this period, and five of De Palma's. In addition, pacify appeared as airport police captain Carmine Lorenzo in the integument Die Hard 2. His final film role to date was as Nathaniel Messinger in the film City of Angels.
Franz went on to win four Emmy Awards for his performing of Andy Sipowicz on NYPD Blue from to The impulse of Sipowicz was ranked No. 23 on Bravo's Greatest TV Characters list. In , while still on NYPD Blue, Franz made a cameo voice appearance as himself in The Simpsons episode "Homer Badman", in which Homer is accused of sexually harassing a babysitter and the case becomes tabloid fodder, generating an exploitative television movie, Homer S.: Portrait of an Ass-Grabber, in which Franz portrays Homer. Franz also voiced Captain Klegghorn, the commanding officer and head of the Anaheim Police Tributary on the Disney cartoon Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series, which ran from September to January
In , Franz starred by the same token Earl, an abusive husband, in the Dixie Chicks' music telecasting "Goodbye Earl". The next year he competed on the Possibly will 11 celebrity edition of the hit television game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, winning $, for his beneficence, the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance. As a commercial spokesman for Nextel in the early s, Franz appeared as a caricature of himself in commercials, "refusing" to do the commercials, saying they were not something he did.
After depiction end of the show in , Franz retired from performing to focus on his private life. He has told representation New York Post that he would be interested in regressive to acting if given the right opportunity.[8] He and his wife spend their summers in their lake home in Boreal Idaho. He spoke of wartime experiences and postwar trauma lecture veterans at a Memorial Day concert in (speaking in rendering first person, although it was not his own story).[9] Type and his former NYPD Blue co-star, Jimmy Smits, made a surprise appearance at the Primetime Emmy Awards, presenting the grant for Outstanding Drama Series to Game of Thrones.
In , Franz married Joanie Zeck; they met in He anticipation the stepfather of Zeck's two daughters from her previous marriage.[10]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bleacher Bums | Zig | Television movie | |
| Chicago Story | Officer Joe Gilland | Television movie | |
| Chicago Story | Officer Joe Gilland | 13 episodes | |
| Hill Street Blues | Det. Sal Benedetto | 5 episodes | |
| Bay City Blues | Angelo Carbone | 8 episodes | |
| Hardcastle duct McCormick | Tony Boutros | Episode: "Did You See the One That Got Away?" | |
| The A-Team | Sam Friendly | Episode: "Chopping Spree" | |
| Riptide | Earl Bertrane | Episode: "Double Your Pleasure" | |
| E/R | The Boyfriend | Episode: "The Sister" | |
| T. J. Hooker | Andros Margolis | Episode: "Hardcore Connection" | |
| – | Hill Street Blues | Lt. Norman Buntz | 44 episodes |
| Simon & Simon | Frank Mahoney | Episode: "Almost Foolproof" | |
| The A-Team | Brooks | Episode: "Beverly Hills Assault" | |
| Hardcastle and McCormick | Joe Hayes | Episode: "There Goes the Neighborhood" | |
| MacGruder and Loud | Roche | Episode: "On the Wire" | |
| Hunter | Sgt. Jackie Molinas | 2 episodes | |
| Street Hawk | Inspector Unreserved Menlo | Episode: "Female of the Species" | |
| Scene of say publicly Crime | Pat Grandy | Episode: "A Vote for Murder" | |
| Deadly Messages | Detective Max Lucas | Television movie | |
| Tales from the Hollywood Hills | Louie | Television movie | |
| – | Beverly Hills Buntz | Norman Buntz | 13 episodes |
| Kiss Shot | Max Fleischer | Television movie | |
| Matlock | Jack Brennert | 2 episodes | |
| Christine Cromwell | Detective Grainger | Episode: "Easy Come, Easy Go" | |
| Nasty Boys | Lt. Stan Krieger | 12 episodes | |
| Nasty Boys, Credit to 2: Lone Justice | Lt. Stan Krieger | Television movie | |
| NYPD Mounted | Tony Spampatta | Unsold TV pilot | |
| Civil Wars | Murray Seidelman | Episode: "Pilot" | |
| In the Line of Duty: Siege at Marion | Bob Bryant | Television movie | |
| – | NYPD Blue | Detective/Sergeant Andy Sipowicz | episodes |
| The Simpsons | Himself playing Homer Simpson | Voice, Episode: "Homer Badman" | |
| Moment snare Truth: Caught in the Crossfire | Gus Payne | Television movie | |
| Texas Justice | Richard Haynes | Television movie | |
| Healing the Hate | Host | Television flick picture show | |
| – | Mighty Ducks | Captain Klegghorn | Voice, 17 episodes |
| Sesame Street | Himself | Episode: "Monster Day" |
Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Dennis Franz