Obituaries
'Rockford Files' Star Joe Santos Dead at 84
Santos made a career of playing good cops in a string of television shows in the '70s and '80s.
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SANTA MONICA, CA - Actor Joe Santos, who appeared on the 1970s TV show "The Rockford Files" with James Garner, died Friday in a Santa Monica hospital, TMZ.com reported. He was 84.
Born as Joseph Minieri on June 9, 1931 in Brooklyn, N.Y., Santos played football at Fordham University and was a semi-professional player before finding success as an actor.
He made a career of playing good cops in a string of television series in the 1970s and '80s. Santos played Lt. Dennis Becker on the NBC show, which ran from 1974-80. He also had roles on "Magnum, P.I." and, more recently, on HBO's "The Sopranos."
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His last role was in 2015 as a terminally ill patient in the movie "Chronic."
Santos had a heart attack at his Los Angeles home on Wednesday and was put on life support, according to TMZ.
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He is survived by his wife, daughter and two sons, one of whom is writer-producer Perry Santos.
--City News Service contributed to this story. Photo courtesy of NBC
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