This TV season there is not a single crime drama set in Chicago. And yet, a startling number of actors with local connections dominate the genre, a fact that becomes blatantly obvious with the addition of Dennis Farina to the cast of NBC’s “Law & Order.” The show begins its 15th season with back-to-back episodes Wednesday at 8 p.m. (WMAQ-Ch. 5).
If there is one actor working today who epitomizes Chicago, it is Farina, with that distinctive mug and no-baloney talk. Or, to put it in the words of director and fellow Chicago-native Michael Mann: “Dennis Farina is the pope of old-school Chicago.”
This year Farina joins “Law & Order” as Detective Joe Fontana, stepping into the shoes vacated by Jerry Orbach’s Detective Lennie Briscoe. Orbach, in turn, will star in the fourth “Law & Order” spinoff, “Trial By Jury,” set to debut in 2005.
“Jerry is the no-risk person, the familiar face from the mother ship,” says series creator and executive producer Dick Wolf. “I don’t know if I would have moved him if Dennis hadn’t said yes.”
The seed was planted years ago on “Miami Vice,” the pastel suit, two-day stubble cop show from Mann. Wolf worked as a writer, Farina a recurring guest star.
“He was in the office a lot,” Wolf says. “I remember we were talking about a ‘Vice’ episode and he started pointing out everything that was wrong with it, in terms of police work.”
Former cop. It is a moniker that sticks to 60-year-old Farina despite efforts to distance himself from the nearly two decades he served with the Chicago Police Department.
“The perception is that I always play cops,” Farina says from New York, where he has been shooting “Law & Order” for the past two months. “I’ve probably played more non-police roles than people realize.”
Of Farina’s 52 credits listed on the Internet Movie Database, at least 11 characters are law enforcement types — far from a majority, but still, a good chunk. His role on “Law & Order” won’t do much to dispel interest in his former life.
Not one for introspective interviews — “I don’t want anyone to know anything,” he says, only half-joking — Farina presents himself as a what-you-see-is-what-you-get type of guy. “I like working. I like getting up every morning and going somewhere. Where I do it or what form doesn’t matter.”
But presumably, there is an aspect to Farina’s personality — and his acting — that was shaped by his time with the police department. Chuck Adamson, a retired police sergeant, was Farina’s supervisor when the two worked midnight shifts in the burglary squads.
“That’s where all the action is and he liked to be aggressive on the streets,” Adamson says.
“As he started making a name for himself as an actor, I think he wanted to bury his background a little. The stuff we did, he didn’t want to mention it in public. It’s an interesting thing. I really don’t know why. Dennis just underwent a change in one respect. The Hollywood Dennis is different, a more austere personality. He’s more refined.”
The Farina of today is a natty dresser. “The manicured fingernails, the yellow pocket square,” jokes Mann.
Perhaps more than anyone, Adamson had a unique opportunity to witness the evolution.
The 68-year-old, who now lives in Roseburg, Ore., made the Hollywood jump himself, working as a technical consultant on the 1981 crime thriller, “Thief.” The film was based on the book “The Home Invaders,” about a series of burglary cases handled by Adamson.
The movie was Mann’s directorial debut and Farina’s first acting job at age 36.
“Michael was looking for a couple of rough, ugly guys to play henchmen,” Adamson says, “and I was like, `I got just the guy.’ I called Dennis and said, `You gotta get down here.'”
Farina remembers “a girl calling me saying Michael wanted to see me at the hotel. I thought they were fooling around with me and I didn’t go. She called me two or three times before I finally went down there. They asked me to do the movie and I was like, `Well, OK fine.'”
Acting ambitions
It all seems so casual. Take it or leave it. But Adamson says Farina’s acting ambitions were evident early on.
“I remember this one conversation,” he says. “This was probably 1967 or ’68, and I asked Dennis, `What would you like to do besides being a detective?’ And he told me, `I would like to be an actor.’ And I said, `You know what? I’d like to be a writer.’ And Dennis says, `Well, what’s the difference? It’s mental masturbation — we’ll always be cops.'”
A little more than 10 years later, Farina was acting and Adamson was writing for TV.
“Law & Order” creator Wolf describes Farina’s new character as “a cop originally from Chicago who has moved to New York . . . he’s the kind of a cop people are a little suspicious of — he’s a guy who wears Brioni suits and drives a Corvette. There’s a scene where he’s in a bar after work and he’s drinking a martini straight up and pulls out a wad of cash that would choke a horse.
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“It’s always a transition period when a new cast member comes on the show,” Wolf adds. “Not to say anything negative about anyone in the past, but I’ve never had a cast change where people were so blown away. He’s one of those people who makes people feel good on the set. He’s very funny and a great raconteur. The dynamic has remained the same, which is a huge source of relief. Dennis is a total pro. He’s not good. He’s great.”
No complaints
A few weeks ago, during a nighttime outdoor shoot, Farina had no complaints, says Wolf. “He told me, `Dick, this is better than sitting in a Crown Royal at 3 a.m. on stakeout in February when it’s freezing.'”
Chicago’s harsh winter weather aside, to hear Adamson describe it, Farina’s last few years with the police department were a tad uncomfortable.
After his role in “Thief,” Farina juggled acting gigs with his police work until 1985, when Mann cast him in “Crime Story.” But during those overlapping years, Farina’s co-workers gave him plenty of grief about his acting.
“They never let up on him. That was the beautiful part of it,” says Adamson.
“The guys were constantly calling him up and saying, `I came to see your play. Don’t quit your day job.’ Dennis was the kind you ripped, even if you thought you shouldn’t. He could take it — and he would give it right back to you too.”
He could roll with the jokes, Adamson says, but “I think he had a tough time in the police department with the guys he was working with. He was doing theater or making movies and he couldn’t do a regular schedule, so Sam [Cirone, chief of detectives] made a secretary out of him. Desk work. The guys started calling him Margaret and asking him to make coffee for them.”
Who’s laughing now?
Farina says it was a little awkward at the time, “but everybody was very accommodating. They went out of their way to support me. And then when I got `Crime Story,’ I didn’t actually resign. I took a leave of absence. I didn’t want to be without a job. But after I made up my mind, I never wanted to go back.”
`Eyedroppers’
And in some small sense, he’s returning to the fold with his role on “Law & Order.”
“I just kind of walk in and go, `Hi, I’m Joe Fontana,’ and we hit the road running with a case,” says Farina.
“Little by little you find out about my character. Dick likes to say we’re using eyedroppers not ladles.”
Despite the long months in New York working on the show, Farina says he has no plans to move. He’s staying in a hotel.
“People are always telling me to shut up about Chicago,” he says. “But Chicago is the exception to a lot of things. I live my life. And the best place to do that is Chicago.”
– – –
The 11 degrees of Dennis Farina
For Dennis Farina, it appears that all roads lead back to Chicago.
1. “Thief” (1981) was the first film from director and Humboldt Park native Michael Mann. It was also the first movie roles for Chicagoans Farina, Jim Belushi and William Petersen. Farina’s partner, Nick Nickeas, who recently retired as commander of the homicide division, was in the movie as well.
2. The Farina role on Mann’s mid-1980s TV series “Crime Story” was based on Chuck Adamson and William Hanhardt, a former chief of detectives who was a consultant on the TV show. Hanhardt is now serving time in federal prison, convicted of a multimillion-dollar jewelry theft racketeering conspiracy.
3. Adamson’s longtime partner on the force, Sam Cirone (who has since died) also had a small role in “Thief.” Cirone’s youngest daughter, Gina, married Petersen last year.
4. In Mann’s 1986 thriller, “Manhunter,” Farina coaxes out of retirement a criminologist, played by Petersen, who portrays criminologist Gil Grissom on the CBS series “CSI.”
5. Kathryn Erbe, who stars as Detective Alexandra Eames on “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” is married to Steppenwolf co-founder Terry Kinney, who directed Farina in a production of “Streamers” alongside Gary Sinise, who stars in the new CBS series “CSI: NY.”
6. David Caruso, Lt. Horatio Caine on “CSI: Miami,” had a guest-starring role with Farina on “Crime Story.” Caruso also starred for one season on “NYPD Blue” opposite Chicago actor Dennis Franz.
7. Ted Levine, who plays Police Capt. Leland Stottlemeyer on USA’s “Monk,” is a former Chicago actor and member of Petersen’s now-defunct local theater company, the Remains Ensemble. Both Levine and Farina appeared in “Crime Story” and the 1983 TV movie “Through Naked Eyes,” which also featured John Mahoney.
8. Farina met John Malkovich on an episode of the TV series “Chicago Story” and shortly thereafter Malkovich cast Farina opposite Mahoney in “A Prayer for My Daughter” at Steppenwolf.
9. 1995’s “Heat,” directed by Mann, was inspired by a real-life incident involving “Crime Story” co-creator Adamson, who was Farina’s sergeant in the Chicago Police Department. Evanston-native Jeremy Piven also had a small role in the film.
10. Farina was originally cast in Mann’s “Collateral” as the FBI agent Pedrosa. Shortly before filming, Farina’s car caught fire on a Los Angeles highway. He suffered minor burns and was not able to play the part. Bruce McGill was brought in as a replacement.
11. This season Farina replaces Jerry Orbach on “Law & Order.” Orbach is a Northwestern University alum.
— Nina Metz
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