Dennis Franz (born October 28, 1944) is an American actor best known for his role as Andy Sipowicz, a hard-boiled police detective, in the television series NYPD Blue. He previously appeared as Lt. Norman Buntz on Hill Street Blues, and earlier played Detective Benedetto on the same show.
Franz was born Dennis Franz Schlachta in Maywood, Illinois, the son of German immigrants Eleanor, a postal worker, and Franz Schlachta, who was a baker and postal worker. Franz is a graduate of Proviso East High School (in Maywood) and Southern Illinois University Carbondale. After graduating from college, Franz was drafted into the United States Army. He served eleven months with the 82nd Airborne Division in Vietnam.
Franz began his acting career at Chicago's Organic Theater Company. Although he has in the past performed Shakespeare, his "look" led to his being typecast early in his career as a police officer. (By Franz' own count, the character of Detective Andy Sipowicz was his 27th role as a police officer). He has also guest-starred in shows such as The A-Team. Other major roles were on the television series Hill Street Blues in which he played two characters over the run of that show. Franz first played the role of Officer Sal Benedetto, a corrupt cop in the 1983 season, who later kills himself. Due to his popularity with fans, he returned in 1985 as Lt. Norm Buntz, remaining until the show's end in 1987. He starred in the short-lived Beverly Hills Buntz as the morally questionable Norman Buntz.
Sammo Hung (born Hung Kam Po, 7 January 1952) is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist, film producer and director, known for his work in many martial arts films and Hong Kong action cinema. He has been a fight choreographer for, amongst others, Jackie Chan, King Hu, and John Woo.
Hung is one of the pivotal figures who spearheaded the Hong Kong New Wave movement of the 1980s, helped reinvent the martial arts genre and started the vampire-like Jiang Shi genre. He is widely credited with assisting many of his compatriots, giving them their starts in the Hong Kong film industry, by casting them in the films he produced, or giving them roles in the production crew.
In East Asia, it is common for people to address their elders or influential people with familial nouns as a sign of familiarity and respect. Jackie Chan, for example, is often addressed as "Dai Goh" (Chinese: 大哥; pinyin: dà gē), meaning Big Brother. Hung was also known as "Dai Goh", until the filming of Project A, which featured both actors. As Hung was the eldest of the kung fu "brothers", and the first to make a mark on the industry, he was given the nickname "Dai Goh Dai" (Chinese: 大哥大; Mandarin Pinyin: dà gē dà; Jyutping: daai6 go1 daai6), meaning, Big, Big Brother or Biggest Big Brother.
Jimmy Smits (born July 9, 1955) is an American actor. Smits is perhaps best known for his roles as attorney Victor Sifuentes on the 1980s legal drama L.A. Law, as NYPD Detective Bobby Simone on the 1990s police drama NYPD Blue, and as Congressman and then President Matthew Vincente Santos on The West Wing. He is also notable for his portrayal of Bail Organa in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, and Miguel Prado in Dexter. In the fall of 2010, he starred in NBC's short-lived series Outlaw, about a U.S. Supreme Court justice who leaves the bench to return to practicing law.
Smits was born in Brooklyn, New York. His father, Cornelius Smits, was a Surinamese immigrant of Dutch descent who managed a screen-printing factory. His mother, Emilina, was a Puerto Rican who worked as a nurse. Smits was raised in a strict devout Roman Catholic family. "Jimmy" is actually the name on his birth certificate, rather than "Jim" or "James." He has two sisters, Yvonne and Diana. He grew up in a working-class neighborhood and spent time in Puerto Rico during his childhood. Smits earned a bachelor's degree from Brooklyn College in 1980 and an MFA from Cornell University in 1982. Though born in New York, Smits has deep Puerto Rican roots and frequently visits the island. In 2001, he was arrested for his participation in protests against U.S. Navy bombing practices on the Puerto Rican offshore island of Vieques.
Shaun Baker is a DJ from the north of England but has for over 20 years been based in Paderborn, Germany. He has been playing the worldwide club scene over 20 years. Together with his friend and partner Sebastian Wolter he also produces music. This musical partnership has over the past few years given the dance scene some great tracks to dance to, for example "Xplode 2" which hit the number 1 position in every German dance chart at the same time.
Other singles are "Push" (also a dance chart & sales hit) and "Bakerman", a co-op with the cult stars Laid Back from Denmark. Laid Back were so impressed with the new version of Bakerman they hooked Shaun Baker & Sebastian Wolter up with Lars von Trier, the world-famous film director from Denmark who has produced the video clip for the original version of Bakerman. He gave permission to use the original video for their version. It was #1 in most German dance charts again and the peak position in the German sale charts was 39. The next single “V.I.P.” released February 2007 performed well in Germany but received fantastic results in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. ” V.I.P.” hit the #1 position in the dance, radio and sale charts in both countries. Late summer 2007 he and Sebastian Wolter found their own record label called Uptunes. The debut release from Uptunes was his next single “Power” which is based on the very popular “Xplode” sound, but this time featuring singing vocals made the peak positions in various dance charts in Germany, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. “Power” also led the German dance download charts. According to Uptunes the album is being prepared and the expected release date is planned for summer 2008. The next single “Hey Hi Hello” features a remix from Alex Christensen and will be released first in Slovakia and the Czech Republic this spring and later in Germany and elsewhere.
David Stephen Caruso (born January 7, 1956) is an American actor and producer. He may be best known for portraying Lieutenant Horatio Caine on the TV series CSI: Miami. The role that gained him initial significant recognition was the role of Detective John Kelly on the ABC crime drama NYPD Blue.
Caruso was born in Forest Hills Gardens, Queens, New York, New York, the son of Joan, a librarian, and Charles Caruso, a magazine and newspaper editor. He is of Irish and Italian (Sicilian) descent. His father left when he was two years of age, forcing him to "end up fathering myself", as he put it. Raised as a Roman Catholic, Caruso attended Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Catholic School in Forest Hills. He later attended Archbishop Molloy High School in nearby Briarwood, graduating in 1974.
He worked as a cinema usher, where he would see up to eighty movies a week. He said they would act out scenes from some of these movies while they were up the back. It was in this job he found his role models in Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney and Edward G Robinson. He said: