Dennis Farina, RIP; Die Hard & Midnight Run Both Turn 25 Years Old

I remember the week both of these immortal films came out.  Did you remember that?  Die Hard released July 15, 1988; Midnight Run five days later, July 20, 1988. Without question, July 15-20, 1988 was the greatest five day period in the history of the action-comedy.

Alas, Dennis Farina — real-life Chicago cop turned actor — just died at age 69. I never saw a movie in which he wasn’t riveting. People mention his work in Die Hard as well as in Law & Order, but no one’s mentioning a really great turn he had in Get Shorty, in which he played an idiot. Something he didn’t do too frequently, as he appears to be a bright man, but when the script called for an idiot, damnit, he gave an idiot performance.