Joe Spano
Encyclopedia
Joseph Peter "Joe" Spano (born July 7, 1946) is an American
actor who came to prominence through his role as Lt. Henry Goldblume on Hill Street Blues
and is now well known for his work in NCIS
as FBI Special Agent Tobias Fornell.
, the son of Virginia Jean (née
Carpenter) and Vincent Dante Spano, a physician
.
in 1967. In 1968 and he helped found the Berkeley Repertory Theatre
, appearing in its first production, and stayed with the company for 10 years. He moved to Hollywood in the late 1970s, landing guest shots on TV and bit roles in American Graffiti
(1973) and The Enforcer
(1976/I).
In Hill Street Blues he played Henry Goldblume during the entire seven-year run of the series, first as a detective sergeant, later as a lieutenant. Goldblume was one of Hill Street Precinct Captain Frank Furillo's trusted junior officers, serving at times as a hostage negotiator and gangs relations officer. The character was sympathetic to crime victims, sometimes coming in conflict with his duties as a police officer. Spano was one of many actors appearing through each episode, which typically had several interwoven story lines.
After Hill Street Blues ended, Spano won recurring roles in television police shows Murder One
(1995) and NYPD Blue
(1993), again as a detective, and has appeared regularly in 27 television movies and 20 television shows like The X-Files
(episodes Tempus Fugit
and Max
), Mercy Point
and Amazing Grace
. Spano won the Emmy award in 1988 for Best Guest Actor in a Drama Series for a role he played in an episode of Midnight Caller
. He has appeared in 27 feature films, including working alongside Tom Hanks
in Apollo 13
and Richard Gere
and Edward Norton
in Primal Fear
. His credits are often confused with Australian actor Joseph Spano. They are not related.
He is a veteran stage actor on the east and west coasts. Spano made his Broadway debut in 1992 in the Roundabout Theater revival of Arthur Miller
's The Price
, with Eli Wallach
, which was nominated for a Tony for Best Revival. West coast stage credits include Eduardo Pavlovsky's Potestad, and David Mamet
's Speed-the-Plow
and American Buffalo
, for which he was awarded an LA Drama Critics Circle Award. At the Rubicon Theater in Ventura he has played General Burgoyne in Shaw
's The Devil's Disciple
, Greg in A. R. Gurney
's Sylvia
and Vladimir in Waiting for Godot
. He is a member of the Antaeus Theater Company and a founding member of three other theater companies. He played a seductive vampire in the cult musical Dracula: A Musical NIghtmare in a small LA theatre. He also appeared in the TV movie The Brotherhood of Justice with Keanu Reeves and Kiefer Sutherland.
since its first episode, "Yankee White", playing FBI Special Agent Tobias Fornell, the gruff, tough counterpart to NCIS' gruff, tough Leroy Jethro Gibbs
. The on-screen rapport between the two actors has made Spano much more visible to viewers than his number of actual screen appearances would suggest. Spano is best known for straight dramatic roles but, in NCIS, has adapted to the comedic/drama style of the show. Spano's character, Fornell, holds rank in the FBI equivalent to that held by the NCIS main character, Gibbs. Thus Spano is given key lines and comic moments as a foil for Gibbs and, in some episodes, equal screentime with the main lead.
Two episodes have used the Fornells' personal life as the main crux of an NCIS episode: one where Fornell's daughter is imperiled and another where Fornell's career is imperiled. In each episode, it is the friendship between Gibbs and Fornell which is invoked in order to involve NCIS in the resolution of an FBI agent's crisis. Further indicating his status on the show, Spano's Fornell was written into the Gibbs backstory, by having Fornell marry Gibbs' second ex-wife, linking their private lives as well as their professional lives and further establishing their equivalence of status. Spano's character has also been involved in operations run by other agencies, including both Homeland Security and the CIA, as the liaison between those agencies and NCIS.
Notable episodes of NCIS, featuring Spano in a prime role, include the Episode 1, Series 1 "Yankee White", Episode 2 of Series 4 "Escaped", as well as episodes titled "Seadog", "Enigma", "Reveille", "The Boneyard", "Conspiracy Theory", "Twilight", "Kill Ari: Part 2", "Under Covers", "Frame up", "Smoked", "Brothers in Arms" and "Angel of Death", all of which are available for searching on the NCIS pages. Spano continued to appear in season 5 of NCIS, starting with "Identity Crisis" about an FBI operation gone wrong and "Internal Affairs" when NCIS is being investigated for murder. In season 6, he appears in the episodes "Nine Lives" and "Semper Fidelis".
His credits are often confused with Australian actor Joseph Spano. They are not related.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor who came to prominence through his role as Lt. Henry Goldblume on Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues is an American serial police drama that was first aired on NBC in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime into 1987. Chronicling the lives of the staff of a single police precinct in an unnamed American city, the show received critical acclaim and its production innovations ...
and is now well known for his work in NCIS
NCIS (TV series)
NCIS, formerly known as NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service, is an American police procedural drama television series revolving around a fictional team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which conducts criminal investigations involving the U.S...
as FBI Special Agent Tobias Fornell.
Personal life
Spano was born in San Francisco, CaliforniaCalifornia
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, the son of Virginia Jean (née
Married and maiden names
A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....
Carpenter) and Vincent Dante Spano, a physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
.
Career
He was a member of the San Francisco improv group The Wing, and in college debuted as Paris in a production of Romeo and JulietRomeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
in 1967. In 1968 and he helped found the Berkeley Repertory Theatre
Berkeley Repertory Theatre
Berkeley Repertory Theatre is a regional theater company located in Berkeley, California. It was founded in 1968, as the East Bay’s first resident professional theatre. Michael Leibert was the founding artistic director, who was then succeeded by Sharon Ott in 1984. The company runs seven...
, appearing in its first production, and stayed with the company for 10 years. He moved to Hollywood in the late 1970s, landing guest shots on TV and bit roles in American Graffiti
American Graffiti
American Graffiti is a 1973 coming of age film co-written/directed by George Lucas starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips and Harrison Ford...
(1973) and The Enforcer
The Enforcer (1976 film)
The Enforcer is a 1976 American film, and the third in the Dirty Harry film series. Directed by James Fargo, it stars Clint Eastwood as Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan, Tyne Daly as Inspector Kate Moore and DeVeren Bookwalter as terrorist leader/main antagonist Bobby Maxwell.-Plot:In Marin County,...
(1976/I).
In Hill Street Blues he played Henry Goldblume during the entire seven-year run of the series, first as a detective sergeant, later as a lieutenant. Goldblume was one of Hill Street Precinct Captain Frank Furillo's trusted junior officers, serving at times as a hostage negotiator and gangs relations officer. The character was sympathetic to crime victims, sometimes coming in conflict with his duties as a police officer. Spano was one of many actors appearing through each episode, which typically had several interwoven story lines.
After Hill Street Blues ended, Spano won recurring roles in television police shows Murder One
Murder One (TV series)
Murder One is an American legal drama series that first aired on the ABC network in the United States in 1995. The series was created by Steven Bochco, Charles H. Eglee, and Channing Gibson.-Premise:...
(1995) and 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...
(1993), again as a detective, and has appeared regularly in 27 television movies and 20 television shows like The X-Files
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
(episodes Tempus Fugit
Tempus Fugit (The X-Files)
"Tempus Fugit" is a 1997 episode of The X-Files television series. It was the seventeenth episode broadcast in the show's fourth season. "Tempus Fugit" surrounds the agents' investigation of a plane crash that Mulder suspects was intercepted by a UFO....
and Max
Max (The X-Files)
"Max" is the eighteenth episode of the fourth season of television series The X-Files. As Mulder and Scully's investigation of the apparent downing of Flight 549 by a UFO continues, they encounter deadly opposition from the military which continues to cover up the truth of the incident.- Plot...
), Mercy Point
Mercy Point
Mercy Point was a science fiction series that ran from the fall of 1998 to the midsummer of 1999 on UPN. The series, set in the mid-23rd century, took place on a deep-space medical space station that catered to the medical needs of both humans and aliens, and served as a crossroads for both human...
and Amazing Grace
Amazing Grace
"Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn with words written by the English poet and clergyman John Newton , published in 1779. With a message that forgiveness and redemption are possible regardless of the sins people commit and that the soul can be delivered from despair through the mercy of God,...
. Spano won the Emmy award in 1988 for Best Guest Actor in a Drama Series for a role he played in an episode of Midnight Caller
Midnight Caller
Midnight Caller is a dramatic NBC television series created by Richard DiLello, which ran from 1988 to 1991. It was one of the first television series to address the dramatic possibilities of the then-growing phenomenon of talk radio...
. He has appeared in 27 feature films, including working alongside Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks worked in television and family-friendly comedies, gaining wide notice in 1988's Big, before achieving success as a dramatic actor in several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title...
in Apollo 13
Apollo 13
Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission in the American Apollo space program and the third intended to land on the Moon. The craft was launched on April 11, 1970, at 13:13 CST. The landing was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded two days later, crippling the service module upon which the Command...
and Richard Gere
Richard Gere
Richard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...
and Edward Norton
Edward Norton
Edward Harrison Norton is an American actor, screenwriter, film director and producer. In 1996, his supporting role in the courtroom drama Primal Fear garnered him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor...
in Primal Fear
Primal Fear (film)
Primal Fear is a 1996 American crime drama thriller film directed by Gregory Hoblit and starring Richard Gere and Edward Norton. The film tells the story of a defense attorney, Martin Vail , who defends an altar boy, Aaron Stampler , charged with the murder of a Catholic archbishop. The movie is an...
. His credits are often confused with Australian actor Joseph Spano. They are not related.
He is a veteran stage actor on the east and west coasts. Spano made his Broadway debut in 1992 in the Roundabout Theater revival of Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
's The Price
The Price (play)
The Price is a 1968 play by Arthur Miller. It is a piece about family dynamics, the price of furniture and the price of one's decisions. The play opened on Broadway at the Morosco Theatre on February 7, 1968 where it played until the production moved to the 46th Street Theatre on November 18, 1968....
, with Eli Wallach
Eli Wallach
Eli Herschel Wallach is an American film, television and stage actor, who gained fame in the late 1950s. For his performance in Baby Doll he won a BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer and a Golden Globe nomination. One of his most famous roles is that of Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...
, which was nominated for a Tony for Best Revival. West coast stage credits include Eduardo Pavlovsky's Potestad, and David Mamet
David Mamet
David Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter and film director.Best known as a playwright, Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize and received a Tony nomination for Glengarry Glen Ross . He also received a Tony nomination for Speed-the-Plow . As a screenwriter, he received Oscar...
's Speed-the-Plow
Speed-the-Plow
Speed-the-Plow is a play by David Mamet which is a satirical dissection of the American movie business, a theme Mamet would revisit in his later films Wag the Dog and State and Main ....
and American Buffalo
American Buffalo (play)
American Buffalo is a 1975 play by American playwright David Mamet which had its premiere in a showcase production at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago. After two more showcase productions, it opened on Broadway on February 16, 1977...
, for which he was awarded an LA Drama Critics Circle Award. At the Rubicon Theater in Ventura he has played General Burgoyne in Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
's The Devil's Disciple
The Devil's Disciple
The Devil's Disciple is an 1897 play written by Irish dramatist, George Bernard Shaw. The play is Shaw's eighth, and after Richard Mansfield's original 1897 American production it was his first financial success, which helped to affirm his career as a playwright...
, Greg in A. R. Gurney
A. R. Gurney
A. R. Gurney is an American playwright and novelist. He is known for works including Love Letters, The Cocktail Hour, and The Dining Room. Gurney currently lives in both New York and Connecticut....
's Sylvia
Sylvia (play)
Sylvia is a play about a dog, the couple who adopts her,and the drama that results. It was written by A. R. Gurney and first produced in 1995....
and Vladimir in Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot is an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for someone named Godot to arrive. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's...
. He is a member of the Antaeus Theater Company and a founding member of three other theater companies. He played a seductive vampire in the cult musical Dracula: A Musical NIghtmare in a small LA theatre. He also appeared in the TV movie The Brotherhood of Justice with Keanu Reeves and Kiefer Sutherland.
NCIS
He has played a recurring character in NCISNCIS (TV series)
NCIS, formerly known as NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service, is an American police procedural drama television series revolving around a fictional team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which conducts criminal investigations involving the U.S...
since its first episode, "Yankee White", playing FBI Special Agent Tobias Fornell, the gruff, tough counterpart to NCIS' gruff, tough Leroy Jethro Gibbs
Leroy Jethro Gibbs
Leroy Jethro Gibbs is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the CBS TV series NCIS. He is portrayed by Mark Harmon.-Background:...
. The on-screen rapport between the two actors has made Spano much more visible to viewers than his number of actual screen appearances would suggest. Spano is best known for straight dramatic roles but, in NCIS, has adapted to the comedic/drama style of the show. Spano's character, Fornell, holds rank in the FBI equivalent to that held by the NCIS main character, Gibbs. Thus Spano is given key lines and comic moments as a foil for Gibbs and, in some episodes, equal screentime with the main lead.
Two episodes have used the Fornells' personal life as the main crux of an NCIS episode: one where Fornell's daughter is imperiled and another where Fornell's career is imperiled. In each episode, it is the friendship between Gibbs and Fornell which is invoked in order to involve NCIS in the resolution of an FBI agent's crisis. Further indicating his status on the show, Spano's Fornell was written into the Gibbs backstory, by having Fornell marry Gibbs' second ex-wife, linking their private lives as well as their professional lives and further establishing their equivalence of status. Spano's character has also been involved in operations run by other agencies, including both Homeland Security and the CIA, as the liaison between those agencies and NCIS.
Notable episodes of NCIS, featuring Spano in a prime role, include the Episode 1, Series 1 "Yankee White", Episode 2 of Series 4 "Escaped", as well as episodes titled "Seadog", "Enigma", "Reveille", "The Boneyard", "Conspiracy Theory", "Twilight", "Kill Ari: Part 2", "Under Covers", "Frame up", "Smoked", "Brothers in Arms" and "Angel of Death", all of which are available for searching on the NCIS pages. Spano continued to appear in season 5 of NCIS, starting with "Identity Crisis" about an FBI operation gone wrong and "Internal Affairs" when NCIS is being investigated for murder. In season 6, he appears in the episodes "Nine Lives" and "Semper Fidelis".
Personal life
Spano and his wife Joan Zerrien, a therapist, were married in 1980 and adopted two daughters.His credits are often confused with Australian actor Joseph Spano. They are not related.