Daniel J. Travanti

Daniel J. Travanti (born Danielo Giovanni Travanti; March 7, 1940) is an American actor. He is best known for playing police captain Frank Furillo in the television drama series Hill Street Blues (1981–1987) for which he received a Golden Globe Award and two consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards from many nominations. Biography Travanti, one of five children, was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to Italian immigrant parents John and Elvira Travanti. His father worked at the American Motors assembly plant in that city. He attended Mary D. Bradford High School, where he was an all-star football player; he received athletic scholarship offers to several colleges, but decided he wanted to be an actor rather than an athlete. A good student, he was offered scholarships to Harvard University, Princeton University, and the Alfred P. Sloan Scholarship to Dartmouth College, although he eventually took the General Motors Scholarship to attend the University of Wisconsin–Madison, from which he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1961. After that, he attended the Yale School of Drama on a Woodrow Wilson fellowship. In 1978, he graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a master's degree in English. His first credited role was in an episode of Route 66 called "Child of a Night". In 1964, Travanti guest-starred in the episode "Murder by Scandal" of CBS's drama about newspapers, The Reporter. He made his feature film debut in 1965 (credited as "Dan Travanty") playing a deaf mute nightclub bouncer in the psychological thriller Who Killed Teddy Bear? starring Sal Mineo and Juliet Prowse. In 1965, he appeared in an episode of Gidget as a photographer. In 1966, he played the role of radio talk show host Barney Austin in the Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Midnight Howler". He (credited as Dan Travanty in all four) was the lead guest star in the Season 3 episode "Collision of Planets" of Lost in Space in 1967, appeared in the episode "The Octopus" of the single-season crime drama The Silent Force in late 1970, was featured in the Season 5 episode "Murder Times Three" of Mannix in late 1971, and appeared in the Season 6 episode "Image" of Mission: Impossible in early 1972. Also in 1972, he played a fugitive in the episode "The Devil's Playground" of Cannon with future Hill Street co-star James B. Sikking. In 1974, Travanti appeared briefly in The Bob Newhart Show episode "The Battle of the Groups".