Facts about Dennis Franz

Dennis Franz is 80 years old
Best known as: Detective Sipowicz on TV's NYPD Blue

     

     

Dennis Franz Biography

Name at birth: Dennis Franz Schlacta

Dennis Franz is an actor most closely associated with his television role as Detective Andy Sipowicz on the long-running ABC drama NYPD Blue (1993-2004).

Franz has been a character actor in the movies and on TV since the late 1970s. Frequently cast as a cop, he became a TV star during the run of the police drama Hill Street Blues in the 1980s.

Both Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue earned numerous Emmy nominations, and Franz himself was nominated eight times (he won four time). After the show’s run of twelve seasons, Franz retired from acting for a short time, which then became a long time.

Franz’s movies include Body Double (1984), Die Hard 2 (1990, starring Bruce Willis) and American Buffalo (1996, with Dustin Hoffman).

Extra credit

Dennis Franz (pronounced “fronz”) has also done cartoon voice work, including for The Mighty Ducks (1996)… In the early episodes of Hill Street Blues, he played Sal Benedetto; that character was killed off and Franz returned to the show as Lt. Norman Buntz… Franz also starred in a Hill Street Blues spin-off series, Beverly Hills Buntz (1987).


     

Related Biographies

Something in Common with Dennis Franz