Andy Sipowicz
Encyclopedia
Andy Sipowicz is a fictional character
and protagonist
on the popular ABC
television series NYPD Blue
. Dennis Franz
portrayed the character for its entire run.
Sipowicz was a New York City
police detective working in a fictionalized version of the NYPD 15th Precinct, placed on the lower east side of Manhattan
. He was the central character of the show during its twelve-year run, and the only one to have been a regular cast member in every episode. (Detective Greg Medavoy
(Gordon Clapp
) did not appear until Episode 3 of the first season and did not become a regular until the start of Season 2.)
Jason Gay of The Boston Phoenix described Sipowicz as a "drunken
, racist goon with a heart of gold" who was "the moral core" of NYPD Blue. In 1997, he described Sipowicz as becoming "sobered up" and that Sipowicz "won't ever go totally soft." Gay describes Dennis Franz as adding "underrated, edgy mixture of grit and sensitivity" to Sipowicz.
According to a second season episode aired in 1995, Sipowicz was about to celebrate his 47th birthday on April 7, implying he was born in 1948. (This would make the character three and a half years younger than the actor.) His place of birth was Brooklyn
where he worked in a local candy store as a boy, later returning under sad conditions when a son of the shop owners organized a robbery that led to his mother's death. Both his mother and father were of Polish
origin and had blue-collar backgrounds. Andy's father suffered from alcoholism
and lost his job as a meter reader because of this. He defiantly returned to finish his route after dark, but was stabbed in the eye by a black citizen who mistook him for a robber. The twisting of this story to make his father appear as the victim was the basis for Andy's racism; a major turning point for Andy came in Season 6 when he realized his father had lied about being an innocent victim of a black criminal when in fact his father was a racist liar.
Before becoming a policeman, Sipowicz served in the Army
, serving an 18-month tour in Vietnam
that he did not talk much about. He once became incensed when an obnoxious fellow cop lied about being a combat veteran in the Vietnam War
, and told the man that he could lie to his heart's content about anything else, but he would not let anyone lie about serving in the Vietnam War. Although it is unclear at what point he joined the NYPD, it is most likely in the early 1970s. One of his early police assignments was infiltrating the Black Panthers organization and posing as a white leftist radical (this is probably derived from real-life experiences of NYPD Blue writer Bill Clark, retired NYPD detective). These events accentuated his already-developing racist tendencies.
At some point in his police career, Sipowicz worked in the Robbery Squad, but he transferred to the 15th by the mid-1980s, since he was already well established there by 1993 when NYPD Blue began to air. He received the gold shield of Detective Third Grade (the "beginning" rank) in 1978.
Andy was married to Katie Sipowicz for twelve years and they had a son, Andy Jr. (born 1973). However, by 1993 both his ex-wife and son were estranged from him, due to Andy's heavy drinking. After being shot six times in an ambush by a mobster named Alphonse Giardella and almost dying, Sipowicz decided to change his life. He stopped drinking, focused on the job, and rebuilt his relationship with his son.
When NYPD Blue premiered, Sipowicz's partner was John Kelly
, who left the force in 1994 after withholding evidence in a murder investigation of his lover Janice Licalsi
. After Kelly's resignation, Bobby Simone
became Sipowicz's partner. They soon became best friends; Andy was devastated when Simone died of a heart infection in 1999. In 1994, Andy began to date Assistant District Attorney Sylvia Costas
, with whom he previously clashed due to professional differences (Andy called her a "pissy little bitch" in the series premier). They were married in 1995 and had a son, Theo, in 1996.
On his route to becoming a better man, Sipowicz struggled to overcome his bigotry with the help of his African-American precinct chief, Lt. Arthur Fancy
. He also eventually came to terms with his prejudice towards homosexuals
, mainly due to his initially-grudging friendship with precinct receptionist John Irvin. With the birth of his second son, Sipowicz's life seemed to be going well. However, a series of devastating personal tragedies over the next few years arose. Andy Jr., who was about to start work as a police officer in Hackensack
, New Jersey
was shot and killed while trying to stop a robbery, which sent him into an alcoholic relapse and caused Sylvia to throw him out of the house temporarily. In 1998, Bobby Simone died of heart failure, and in 1999, Sylvia was killed by a mad gunman in a courtroom, followed by the disappearance and subsequently revealed murder of partner Danny Sorenson
. He also survived a serious bout with prostate cancer
in 1998. With the exception of Andy Jr.'s death, however, Sipowicz remained sober.
Sipowicz came out of these tragedies stronger than ever, and continued to be a decent man, mostly due to his love for and responsibility to his son, Theo. In 2003, he married for the third time, this time to a fellow detective named Connie McDowell, who had recently joined the squad. In 2004, Connie's pregnant sister was killed by her abusive husband. The baby survived, so Connie and Andy took custody of the child and named her Michelle, after her mother. Soon after, Connie, who had believed she could not have children due to scarring of her Fallopian tubes, became pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy named Matthew. With two infants to raise, Connie resigned from the police force to be a stay-at-home mother. Later that year, Sipowicz, after overcoming a personality clash with new Lt. Thomas Bale
, was promoted to the rank of sergeant
, becoming the new squad commander at the 15th as the series came to a quiet and dignified finale.
Sipowicz's blue-collar conservativism never changed, leading him to often mock President Bill Clinton
, of whom he once said, "A guy gets over like that on your daughter, you'd give him the beating of his life. Here we got him running the country!" and whom he also referred to as a blowhard, which the more liberal Simone did not agree with. He called New York Governor George Pataki
"my hero" because of his support for capital punishment
.
Sipowicz was often shown dressed in a tie and short sleeved shirt, coining the term "The Sipowicz" to describe such attire
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
and protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
on the popular ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
television series NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue is an American television police drama set in New York City, exploring the internal and external struggles of the fictional 15th precinct of Manhattan...
. Dennis Franz
Dennis Franz
Dennis Franz is an American actor best known for his role as Andy Sipowicz, a hard-boiled police detective in the television series NYPD Blue. He previously appeared as Lt...
portrayed the character for its entire run.
Sipowicz was a New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
police detective working in a fictionalized version of the NYPD 15th Precinct, placed on the lower east side of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. He was the central character of the show during its twelve-year run, and the only one to have been a regular cast member in every episode. (Detective Greg Medavoy
Greg Medavoy
Gregory Medavoy was a fictional character as well as a protagonist in the television series NYPD Blue. He was played by Gordon Clapp from the third episode of the first season to the second to last episode of the series, when he retired...
(Gordon Clapp
Gordon Clapp
Gordon Clapp is an American actor, best known for portraying the role of Det. Greg Medavoy for all 12 seasons on the television series NYPD Blue, winning an Emmy Award in 1998.-Early and personal life:...
) did not appear until Episode 3 of the first season and did not become a regular until the start of Season 2.)
Jason Gay of The Boston Phoenix described Sipowicz as a "drunken
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
, racist goon with a heart of gold" who was "the moral core" of NYPD Blue. In 1997, he described Sipowicz as becoming "sobered up" and that Sipowicz "won't ever go totally soft." Gay describes Dennis Franz as adding "underrated, edgy mixture of grit and sensitivity" to Sipowicz.
According to a second season episode aired in 1995, Sipowicz was about to celebrate his 47th birthday on April 7, implying he was born in 1948. (This would make the character three and a half years younger than the actor.) His place of birth was Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
where he worked in a local candy store as a boy, later returning under sad conditions when a son of the shop owners organized a robbery that led to his mother's death. Both his mother and father were of Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
origin and had blue-collar backgrounds. Andy's father suffered from alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
and lost his job as a meter reader because of this. He defiantly returned to finish his route after dark, but was stabbed in the eye by a black citizen who mistook him for a robber. The twisting of this story to make his father appear as the victim was the basis for Andy's racism; a major turning point for Andy came in Season 6 when he realized his father had lied about being an innocent victim of a black criminal when in fact his father was a racist liar.
Before becoming a policeman, Sipowicz served in the Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
, serving an 18-month tour in Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
that he did not talk much about. He once became incensed when an obnoxious fellow cop lied about being a combat veteran in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, and told the man that he could lie to his heart's content about anything else, but he would not let anyone lie about serving in the Vietnam War. Although it is unclear at what point he joined the NYPD, it is most likely in the early 1970s. One of his early police assignments was infiltrating the Black Panthers organization and posing as a white leftist radical (this is probably derived from real-life experiences of NYPD Blue writer Bill Clark, retired NYPD detective). These events accentuated his already-developing racist tendencies.
At some point in his police career, Sipowicz worked in the Robbery Squad, but he transferred to the 15th by the mid-1980s, since he was already well established there by 1993 when NYPD Blue began to air. He received the gold shield of Detective Third Grade (the "beginning" rank) in 1978.
Andy was married to Katie Sipowicz for twelve years and they had a son, Andy Jr. (born 1973). However, by 1993 both his ex-wife and son were estranged from him, due to Andy's heavy drinking. After being shot six times in an ambush by a mobster named Alphonse Giardella and almost dying, Sipowicz decided to change his life. He stopped drinking, focused on the job, and rebuilt his relationship with his son.
When NYPD Blue premiered, Sipowicz's partner was John Kelly
John Kelly (NYPD Blue)
John Kelly is a fictional character in the television series NYPD Blue. He was portrayed by David Caruso in the first season and the first four episodes of the second season of the series....
, who left the force in 1994 after withholding evidence in a murder investigation of his lover Janice Licalsi
Janice Licalsi
Janice Licalsi formerly Gennaro was a fictional character portrayed by Amy Brenneman on the television series NYPD Blue. She appeared in 18 episodes during the first two seasons of the show...
. After Kelly's resignation, Bobby Simone
Bobby Simone
Bobby Simone was a fictional character in the television series NYPD Blue. He was played by Jimmy Smits from near the start of the second season until the beginning of the sixth....
became Sipowicz's partner. They soon became best friends; Andy was devastated when Simone died of a heart infection in 1999. In 1994, Andy began to date Assistant District Attorney Sylvia Costas
Sylvia Costas
Sylvia Costas-Sipowicz, ADA, was a fictional character on NYPD Blue. She was played by Sharon Lawrence.Sylvia Costas was an elegant, beautiful ADA who began an affair with the older and tough Detective Andy Sipowicz, played by Dennis Franz...
, with whom he previously clashed due to professional differences (Andy called her a "pissy little bitch" in the series premier). They were married in 1995 and had a son, Theo, in 1996.
On his route to becoming a better man, Sipowicz struggled to overcome his bigotry with the help of his African-American precinct chief, Lt. Arthur Fancy
Arthur Fancy
Capt. Arthur Fancy was a fictional character and protagonist in the television series NYPD Blue. He was played by James McDaniel from Season 1 through Season 8.-Background:...
. He also eventually came to terms with his prejudice towards homosexuals
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
, mainly due to his initially-grudging friendship with precinct receptionist John Irvin. With the birth of his second son, Sipowicz's life seemed to be going well. However, a series of devastating personal tragedies over the next few years arose. Andy Jr., who was about to start work as a police officer in Hackensack
Hackensack, New Jersey
Hackensack is a city in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States and the county seat of Bergen County. Although informally called Hackensack, it was officially named New Barbadoes Township until 1921. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 43,010....
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
was shot and killed while trying to stop a robbery, which sent him into an alcoholic relapse and caused Sylvia to throw him out of the house temporarily. In 1998, Bobby Simone died of heart failure, and in 1999, Sylvia was killed by a mad gunman in a courtroom, followed by the disappearance and subsequently revealed murder of partner Danny Sorenson
Danny Sorenson
Danny Sorenson was a fictional detective on the popular TV series, NYPD Blue, appearing from season six through season eight. The character was played by actor Rick Schroder....
. He also survived a serious bout with prostate cancer
Prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly...
in 1998. With the exception of Andy Jr.'s death, however, Sipowicz remained sober.
Sipowicz came out of these tragedies stronger than ever, and continued to be a decent man, mostly due to his love for and responsibility to his son, Theo. In 2003, he married for the third time, this time to a fellow detective named Connie McDowell, who had recently joined the squad. In 2004, Connie's pregnant sister was killed by her abusive husband. The baby survived, so Connie and Andy took custody of the child and named her Michelle, after her mother. Soon after, Connie, who had believed she could not have children due to scarring of her Fallopian tubes, became pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy named Matthew. With two infants to raise, Connie resigned from the police force to be a stay-at-home mother. Later that year, Sipowicz, after overcoming a personality clash with new Lt. Thomas Bale
Lt. Thomas Bale
Thomas Bale was a character on the long running police drama NYPD Blue. He was played by Currie Graham.An officer with the rank of Lieutenant, he joined the squad at the beginning of the twelfth and final season, replacing Sgt. Eddie Gibson as the squad commander...
, was promoted to the rank of sergeant
Sergeant
Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....
, becoming the new squad commander at the 15th as the series came to a quiet and dignified finale.
Sipowicz's blue-collar conservativism never changed, leading him to often mock President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, of whom he once said, "A guy gets over like that on your daughter, you'd give him the beating of his life. Here we got him running the country!" and whom he also referred to as a blowhard, which the more liberal Simone did not agree with. He called New York Governor George Pataki
George Pataki
George Elmer Pataki is an American politician who was the 53rd Governor of New York. A member of the Republican Party, Pataki served three consecutive four-year terms from January 1, 1995 until December 31, 2006.- Early life :...
"my hero" because of his support for capital punishment
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
.
Sipowicz was often shown dressed in a tie and short sleeved shirt, coining the term "The Sipowicz" to describe such attire