He was one of my favorite actors, and he may have played a similar role many times, like many great actors, but he was so good at it.

Dennis Farina has his appeal, I believe, because of the time he spent working as a police officer in Chicago. Starting with "Crime Story," audiences like the guy, even when he played rough characters.

In "Snatch," the Guy Ritchie movie starring Brad Pitt and Jason Statham, he played one of my favorite characters, a loud, profane American gangster stuck trying to find his missing diamond in England.

Here's a sampling of Farina shining on camera: