Dennis Farina, one of the great modern tough guy character actors with the unmistakable mustache and Chicago accent, has passed away at the age of 69 at a hospital in Scottsdale, Arizona. The cause of death was a blood clot in his lung.

Farina was born on February 29, 1944 to Sicilian immigrant parents in Chicago, Illinois. From 1967 to 1985 he worked as a detective in the burglary division in the Chicago Police Department. It was through his work as a cop that Farina met director Michael Mann, who would cast Farina in a small role as a hood in his 1981 feature directorial debut Thief. Following his retirement from the Chicago Police in 1985 Farina began pursuing an acting career with some local theater work in Chicago and a small role in the Chuck Norris action film Code of Silence. Mann cast him as a mob boss on a episode of Miami Vice, and in 1986 Farina became the first actor to portray F.B.I. Agent Jack Crawford in Manhunter, an adaptation of Thomas Harris’ 1981 novel Red Dragon directed by Mann that is best known as featuring the first appearance of Dr. Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter. The role was played in subsequent films by Scott Glenn (The Silence of the Lambs) and Harvey Keitel (2002’s Red Dragon, directed by Brett Ratner) and on television in the recent hit NBC series Hannibal by Laurence Fishburne.