Characters Old & New - Actors

MCU/STRIKE FORCE SQUAD

Dennis Farina (Lieutenant Michael Torello) Michael Torello is a Detective Lieutenant in charge of the Chicago Police Department's Major Crimes Unit (MCU) which specializes in investigating and prosecuting gangs of professional thieves and members of the Organized Crime Syndicate. Torello is characterized by a deep compassion for victims of crime and a hair-trigger temper against all criminals and authority figures who misuse their power. Sometimes, his anger will temper his better judgement. He's also known to use brute-force tactics to threaten criminals, coerce a confession or get vital information. His weapon of choice is a 1911-style .45 Automatic pistol which usually has tape and rubber bands wrapped around the handle and trigger to give him a firmer grip on his weapon.

Darlanne Fluegel (Julie Torello) She was Torello's wife and they were happy married for yrs. They were going to have a baby but she lost it. That's when the marriage started going down hill. Julie would join her husband on his cop functions every now and again. But Julie couldn't be around her husband lifestyle anymore it was too much for her not knowing if he will get shot or not on the job.So in the end she got could cheating on him, and Torello wasn't having it. So they both decide to divorce and go their separate ways. Julie later gets remarried to a nice doctor played by David Soul, who is taken hostage in a bank robbery. Julie asks Mike to rescue him and Mike, being a nice guy, does. But they also sleep together one last time and she says goodbye. BTW like Krychek she speaks Polish.

Bill Smitrovich (Detective Danny Krychek) Danny Krychek is Torello's right-hand man in the MCU/Strike Force. He speaks Polish. And has a sensitive side: his girlfriend Ann is a librarian who plays the cello.

Paul Butler (Detective Walter Clemmons) Walt is a good friend and loyal to the MCU/Strike Force but believes black folks should stick together. He looks like he's out of the 1940s with his wide ties but is more radical in his views and reading than you might think.

Steve Ryan (Detective Nate Grossman) Nate Grossman his ones of Torello's good men who solves a lot of problems and clues. He took Wes Connelly's place in the MCU after Luca killed Connelly. Nate's always had a gambling problem and he couldn't stop at one point.

Bill Campbell (Detecrive Joey Indelli) Joey is the youngest guy in the MCU/Strike Force, going to law school. He had a girlfriend from high school, Doreen, who'd fallen into prostitution in Vegas.

Stephen Lang (Atty. David Abrams) Part idealistic Kennedy liberal, part tough guy, Abrams was the prosecutor for the state, and loved being a laywer, fighting for justice and for what he believes in. He was a very smart man who took no bull from anyone. He eventually, quit being a prosecutor and joins up with Mike Torello of the MCU squad to go after Ray Luca and his guys. Abrams' dad Izzy was an old mobster Luca has killed to get back at Abrams. Down the road he left the MCU squad and joined Torello's bad enemy Ray Luca and does his dirty work. He dated reporter Suzanne Terry for awhile.

RAY LUCA & COMPANY

Anthony Denison (Ray Luca) A cold-blooded killer and opportunist, in only about two years he moves up from being in charge of Chicago crews robbing homes and stores to being a Las Vegas casino owner and then an international drug lord. Survives an atomic-bomb blast. Very intelligent with good business, he looks down on the "dumb mustaches" from old-time street crime like Phil Bartoli. In the mob tradition he sleeps around but seems fairly happily married with children. Loves old mob boss Manny Weisbord like a father.His only true friends who stick by him in time of need is Pauli Taglia. He ray's right hand man and friend. He takes anything and everything from people who don't deserve that. He will sell you out in a minute. Betrays associates, sometimes killing them if he's told to or they get in his way.

John Santucci (Pauli Taglia) Clownish and outwardly not very bright, like a non-threatening-looking version of Joe Pesci's characters but almost as dangerous, he's Luca's sidekick and seemingly his only real friend besides Weisbord. Rescuing him from a gunfight on a Vegas street with Torello (in which both shoot each other), he hides himself and Luca out in what turns out to be an atomic-bomb test target. Amazingly they escape the center of the blast and live. He's had at least two girlfriends, both of whom he seems to really care about. Luca rapes one of them.

Andrew Dice Clay (Max Goldman) A mobster coming into his own, he had been working with Phil Bartoli and Manny Weisbord. He was second in command under them. He wasn't the smartest guy in the organization but he had good ideas from time to time. Max Goldman was a married man somewhat happy; he had a nice home.He and his wife had no kids. He loves what he does for the mob. He smokes and drinks has good times with the boys.

Jon Polito (Phil Bartoli) He's an old-fashioned "mustache" mobster in Chicago, overseeing an illegal casino and also doing some jewel heists and store robberies. Lives in an ultra-modern 1950s house. Likes to bet on the horses. Bosses Luca around, then when he crosses Weisbord, Luca and Kordo about the proposed move to Las Vegas and away from street crime, Luca pretends to have a friendly chat with him at his house and then shoots him, killing him as he's crawling on the floor.

Jay O. Sanders (Steve Kordo) A son of Kansas City's Jewish mob, Kordo is usually non-violent but is secretly perverted, attacking women. He is the business brain behind the Outfit, proposing a shift in operations from Chicago to Las Vegas, into legal gambling, saying it could be a completely legitimate business by 1983. But all that ends when Manny Weisbord has a heart attack and Torello turns the Outfit men on each other. Goldman talks Kordo into trying to assassinate Luca, then when Goldman finds out Weisbord is alive (from Torello) he pushes Kordo out of the way as soon as he pulls out a gun... and shoves Kordo through a high-rise window to his death.

Joseph Wiseman (Manny Weisbord) An old-school mobster with a keen business sense, Weisbord has a Yiddish accent. He was probably born in Russia and came to America around the turn of the century. His dream was to take organized crime out of the streets and make it "an American business." Ray Luca loves him like a father and even got him (the first-ever, illegal) heart transplant. He's probably based on real mobster Meyer Lansky. Like "The Godfather" Weisbord doesn't want to sell drugs. "They're for dirty people."