Dennis Farina

Born: February 29 1944
Where: Chicago, Illinois, USA

The ex-Chicago policeman didn't even consider an acting career until the age of 37 when director Michael Mann cast him in Thief.

As a cop, rumour has it he was such a bad shot that he was nickhamed The Great Wounder.

After the role in The Thief - opposite James Caan and Willie Nelson - he picked up more tough guy roles and in 1986 Mann made him the co-star of the critically acclaimed TV series, Crime Story.

A TV mainstay, he also took time out to appear in Mann's Hannibal Lecter outing Manhunter (remade as Red Dragon).

In 1988, he starred alongside Robert De Niro in Midnight Run and went on to appear in the crime thriller Another Stakeout.

Director Barry Sonnenfeld cast him as Ray "Bones" Barboni in the mobster comedy Get Shorty with John Travolta.

In 1998, Farina played Jennifer Lopez's father in the taut thriller Out Of Sight and Lt Col Walter Anderson in Steven Spielberg's WWII drama Saving Private Ryan.

He appeared in the thriller Reindeer Games and memorably played Cousin Abraham 'Avi' Denovitz in Guy Ritchie's Snatch with Brad Pitt as well as the independent Sidewalks of New York.

Farina appeared in the lame comedy Stealing Harvard with Jason Lee and played a Columbo-style cop in the woeful Paparazzi.