1. Dennis Franz Schlachta, known professionally as Dennis Franz, is an American retired actor best known for his role as NYPD Detective Andy Sipowicz in the ABC television series NYPD Blue, a role that earned him a Golden Globe Award, three Screen Actors Guild Awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards.
Dennis Franz portrayed two different characters on the similar NBC series Hill Street Blues and its short-lived spinoff, Beverly Hills Buntz.
Franz was born October 28,1944, in Maywood, Illinois, the son of German immigrants Eleanor, a postal worker from an Ashkenazi Jewish family, and Franz Ferdinand Schlachta, who was a baker and postal worker of German and Polish descent.
Dennis Franz is a 1962 graduate of Proviso East High School in Maywood.
Dennis Franz attended Wilbur Wright College and Southern Illinois University Carbondale, graduating from the latter with a bachelor's degree in speech and theater in 1968.
Dennis Franz served eleven months with the 82nd Airborne Division and the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam.
Dennis Franz began his acting career at Chicago's Organic Theater Company.
Dennis Franz returned to the series in 1985 as main character Lt.
Dennis Franz starred in the short-lived Beverly Hills Buntz as the same character.
Dennis Franz appeared in three of Altman's films from this period, and five of De Palma's.
Dennis Franz went on to win four Emmy Awards for his portrayal of Andy Sipowicz on NYPD Blue from 1993 to 2005.
Dennis Franz voiced Captain Klegghorn, the commanding officer and head of the Anaheim Police Department on the Disney cartoon Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series, which ran from September 1996 to January 1997.
In 2000, Dennis Franz starred as Earl, an abusive husband, in the Dixie Chicks' music video "Goodbye Earl".
Dennis Franz has told the New York Post that he would be interested in returning to acting if given the right opportunity.
Dennis Franz spoke of wartime experiences and postwar trauma of veterans at a Memorial Day concert in 2012.
In 1995, Dennis Franz married Joanie Zeck; they met in 1982.
Dennis Franz is the stepfather of Zeck's two daughters from her previous marriage.