Dennis Farina

Having been handpicked by such of-the-moment directors as Steven Soderbergh for Out of Sight, Guy Ritchie for Snatch and now Edward Burns for Sidewalks of New York, Dennis Farina is undergoing a career resurgence at age 57.

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As it was, the ex-Chicago cop got a late start in the Industry 20 years ago when director Michael Mann tapped him to I appear in 1981's Thief, then went back to I him five years later for Manhunter and the exceptional 1986 TV series "Crime Story." "Yeah," he quips, "I blame everything on Michael." Thanks to his tough-guy looks and affect of street-smart savvy, Farinas I been portraying cops and crooks with suave, often comic aplomb for two I decades. And all this underworld experience has qualified him to judge Hollywood's grasp of Mafia matters as somewhat lacking. "I think 'gangster' and 'mobster' are terms thrown around a lot by people who never met one," he laughs. "In Chicago, they call 'em 'oufit guys'they don't say 'mobster.'" This fall, Farina will be back on the big screen as a TV anchorman who's commitment-phobic in the ensemble romantic comedy Sidewalks of New York, a positive experience he credits directly to his director (and costar) Edward Burns. "They're starting to talk about Ed Burns and Woody Allen in the same breath. Ed's got a great sense of humor, he's a good director and--even more important--he's a good writer." Also in the fall, I Farina returns to familiar mob turf as a New Jersey hit man in the crime caper Big Trouble, with Tim Allen and Rene Russo, under the tutelage of his Get Shorty director, Barry Sonnenfeld. "I don't think I said the F-word too much in this movie," he jokes, "although Barry always wants me to say it." As a seasoned cool guy himself, Farina has a very specific notion of the ultimate standard for cool: "Dean Martin was the coolest guy I ever met, the coolest guy in the world. He was very good-looking, he looked great in clothes, he was the complete package movies, TV, records. Dean made it all look like he was havin' fun."

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Wolf Schneider