Joe Spano

Boyish-looking actor 'Joe Spano' (qv), best known for his sympathetic detective role on the grim 1980's police series _Hill Street Blues (1981)_ (qv), was born Joseph Peter Spano on July 7, 1946, in San Francisco, the son of a doctor. A Bishop Riordan High School and University of California-Berkeley graduate, his original intention was to be a pre-med major, but that dissipated with the growing interest of acting.Joe gained experience working with a San Francisco improv group called The Wing. While at college he made his debut as Paris in a production of "Romeo and Juliet" in 1967 and the very next year helped founded the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, appearing in its very first first production of "Woyzek." He stayed with the company for 10 years and appeared in many of its plays including "Hamlet" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."In the 1970's, Joe decided to give Hollywood a try. Playing a seductive vampire in the cult musical "Dracula: A Musical Nightmare" in a small LA theatre, he pursued film and TV at the same time. In between small parts on TV ("Streets of San Francisco," "Lou Grant," "Trapper John"), he earned bit roles as hoodlums and other assorted urban troublemaker types in such films as _American Graffiti (1973)_ (qv) and _The Enforcer (1976)_ (qv). He was also given the romantic cub reporter lead in the obscure supernatural horror movie _Warlock Moon (1973)_ (qv) and, later, co-starred in the equally obscure low-budget political drama _Northern Lights (1978)_ (qv).After his Emmy-nominated success playing junior officer Harry Goldblume on _Hill Street Blues (1981)_ (qv), Joe appeared here, there and everywhere but to somewhat less notoriety. He managed to cop recurring roles in several other series: _Amazing Grace (1995)_ (qv), again as a detective, _Murder One (1995)_ (qv), and as a doctor in _Mercy Point (1998)_ (qv). He also appeared in assorted TV movies and mini-series including _Disaster at Silo 7 (1988)_ (qv), _Blind Faith (1990)_ (qv), _The Summer My Father Grew Up (1991)_ (qv), the starring role in _Tödliche Fluten - Rettet unsere Kinder (1993)_ (qv), and _From the Earth to the Moon (1998)_ (qv), not to mention guest parts on "Valerie," "Civil Wars," "Reasonable Doubts," "The X Files," "Profiler," "JAG," Nash Bridges" and "Touched by an Angel."Joe made his Broadway bow in 1992 as Walter in a revival of 'Arthur Miller' (qv)'s "The Price" starring 'Eli Wallach' (qv). West coast stage credits have included "Speed-the-Plow" and "American Buffalo," the latter earning him a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award. In films, Spano worked alongside 'Tom Hanks' (qv) in _Apollo 13 (1995)_ (qv) and 'Richard Gere' (qv) and 'Edward Norton' (qv) in _Primal Fear (1996)_ (qv), among others.Into the millennium, Joe returned to another recurring detective role with the hit police series _NYPD Blue (1993)_ (qv). More recently, Spano had the frequent role of FBI Special Agent Tobias Fornell in _NCIS (2003)_ (qv) in between featured roles in such movies as _Ticker (2001)_ (qv), in which he played a character named Captain Spano, _Hart's War (2002)_ (qv), _Hollywoodland (2006)_ (qv), _Fracture (2007)_ (qv) and _Frost/Nixon (2008)_ (qv)Spano and his wife Joan, a therapist, have adopted two daughters. His credits are often confused with Australian actor 'Joseph Spano' (qv). They are not related.::Gary Brumburgh / [email protected]