Joe Santos
Birthday:
Birthplace:
Not Available
When asked why he decided upon becoming an actor, Joe Santos tended to trot out the tried-and-true rationale "because I failed at everything else." While attending Fordham University, Santos excelled at football, but lost interest in the sport after a few semi-pro years. By the time he was 30, Santos had been remarkably unsuccessful in a variety of vocations, including railroad worker, tree cutter, automobile importer and tavern owner. While working a construction job in New York, Santos was invited by a friend to sit in on an acting class. This seemed like an easy way to make a living, so Santos began making the audition rounds, almost immediately landing a good part on a TV soap opera. This gig unfortunately led nowhere, and for the next year or so Santos drove a cab for 10 to 11 hours a day. The novice actor's first big break was a part in the 1971 film Panic in Needle Park, which he received at the recommendation of the film's star (and Santos' frequent softball partner) Al Pacino. With the plum part of Sergeant Cruz in the four-part TV drama The Blue Knight (1973), Santos inaugurated a fruitful, still-thriving career in "cop" roles, the best and longest-lasting of which was detective Dennis Becker on the James Garner series The Rockford Files (1974-80). Joe Santos' other series-TV credits include the top-billed part of deadbeat dad Norman Davis in Me and Maxx (1980), Hispanic nightclub comic Paul Rodriguez' disapproving father in AKA Pablo (1984), and Lieutenant Frank Harper in the 1985-86 episodes of Hardcastle and McCormick. One of his final roles was a recurring gig on The Sopranos. Santos died in 2016, at age 84.
Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
MOVIES
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | BOX OFFICE | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet | Proximity |
|
— | 2001 |
54% | Auggie Rose |
|
— | 2001 |
No Score Yet | Hammerlock |
|
— | 2000 |
8% | The Postman |
|
— | 1997 |
8% | Trial by Jury |
|
— | 1994 |
No Score Yet | Sinatra |
|
— | 1992 |
16% | Mo' Money |
|
— | 1992 |
No Score Yet | The Education of Allison Tate |
|
— | 1992 |
47% | The Last Boy Scout |
|
— | 1991 |
No Score Yet | Deadly Desire |
|
— | 1991 |
No Score Yet | The Old Man and the Sea |
|
— | 1990 |
33% | Revenge |
|
— | 1990 |
No Score Yet | Good Cops, Bad Cops |
|
— | 1990 |
No Score Yet | Beverly Hills Brats |
|
— | 1989 |
No Score Yet | The Ratings Game |
|
— | 1984 |
64% | Fear City |
|
— | 1984 |
78% | Blue Thunder |
|
— | 1983 |
No Score Yet | Zandy's Bride (For Better, for Worse) |
|
— | 1974 |
No Score Yet | Blade |
|
— | 1973 |
No Score Yet | The Don Is Dead |
|
— | 1973 |
100% | The Friends of Eddie Coyle |
|
— | 1973 |
33% | Shamus |
|
— | 1973 |
No Score Yet | The Blue Knight |
|
— | 1973 |
58% | Shaft's Big Score! |
|
— | 1972 |
No Score Yet | The Legend of Charley |
|
— | 1972 |
0% | The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight |
|
— | 1971 |
85% | The Panic in Needle Park |
|
— | 1971 |
No Score Yet | My Body Hungers |
|
— | 1967 |
No Score Yet | Moonlighting Wives |
|
— | 1966 |
TV
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet |
MacGyver
2016
|
|
|
92% |
The Sopranos
1999-2007
|
|
|
83% |
NYPD Blue
1993-2005
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Hunter
1984-1991
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Quantum Leap
1989-1993
|
|
|
72% |
Miami Vice
1984-1990
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Murder, She Wrote
1984-1996
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Magnum, P.I.
1980-1988
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
MacGyver
1985-1992
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
T.J. Hooker
1982-1986
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Remington Steele
1982-1987
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The A-Team
1983-1987
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Rockford Files
1974-1980
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Kung Fu
1972-1975
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Streets of San Francisco
1972-1977
|
|
|
Quotes from Joe Santos' Characters
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