Joe Santos

Joe Santos (born Joseph John Minieri Jr.; June 9, 1931 – March 18, 2016) was an Italian-American film and television actor, best known as Sgt. Dennis Becker, the friend of James Garner's character, on the NBC crime drama, The Rockford Files. 2Life and career Born in Brooklyn on June 9, 1931, the same day his father died. His mother Rose (née Sarno), sold olive oil and eventually became a nightclub owner and singer in New York City and Havana. She later married Puerto Rican-born Daniel Santos, and Joe took his name. Santos was a football player at Fordham University, and even turned semi-pro, before finding a new avenue in acting. He struggled in show business, and worked blue-collar jobs until his friend Al Pacino helped him get a role in the 1971 movie The Panic in Needle Park. From 1974–1980, Santos played LAPD Sergeant (later Lieutenant) Dennis Becker, the friend of the easy going ex-convict-turned-private investigator Jim Rockford (played by James Garner) in The Rockford Files, and Lt. Frank Harper in the TV series Hardcastle and McCormick (1985–86). He had brief parts in several lesser-known films, and made a number of guest appearances on television shows throughout his acting career, frequently in the stock character role of a police office