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Bio: DET. ANDY SIPOWICZ
Played by Dennis Franz: A hulking, mustachioed, walking contradiction, Sipowicz is a recovering alcoholic, a hot-tempered bully and a crude bigot. He's also a dedicated, brilliant cop, a fiercely loyal friend, and a sensitive soul who, in the last few years, has learned to ignore his prejudices, if not forget them. A Vietnam veteran who joined the police force after leaving the infantry, he spent the better part of his police career and his first marriage living inside a bottle, driving away wife Katie and son Andy Jr. After a near-fatal shooting by mobster Alfonse Giardella, he quit drinking and began the painful process of reassembling his life. Things were great for a while, as he reconciled with Andy Jr., courted and wed beautiful ADA Sylvia Costas, fathered a new son, Theo, and became good, good friends with new partner Bobby Simone. But then life on the job for Andy became the life of Job. Andy Jr. was killed trying to stop a robbery. Simone died of heart failure. Sylvia died in a courthouse shooting. Even Danny Sorenson, Simone's replacement and Andy's surrogate for Andy Jr., was murdered during an undercover investigation. Andy fell off the wagon a few times, almost drank a few other times, and briefly shut out the world. But he's slowly learned that you have to live your life and try to do some good with it and has reluctantly settled into the role of mentor to the younger detectives in the 15th squad.

A real role model, huh?