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James Farentino

A handsome, sometimes brooding American actor with great promise as a leading man, James Farentino demonstrated his skills in a wide variety of roles on stage and screen. After starting his career on Broadway, Farentino transitioned to film and television in the early 1960s, before becoming a leading man in "The Pad And How to Use It" (1966). He played Happy Loman in a telecast of "Death of a Salesman" (CBS, 1966) and later starred as the brutish Stanley Kowalski in a Broadway revival of "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1972). That same year, Farentino starred in his own detective series, "Cool Million" (NBC, 1972), and followed with his biggest role of the decade, and perhaps his career, by playing the apostle Simon Peter in the seminal miniseries "Jesus of Nazareth" (NBC, 1977), which earned him an Emmy nomination. Turns as Juan Peron in the biopic "Evita Peron" (NBC, 1981) and the helicopter pilot on the short-lived cop series "Blue Thunder" (ABC, 1984) followed. From there, Farentino struggled to maintain consistency, appearing infrequently on the small screen throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Meanwhile, the actor found his legacy tarnished with a string of failed marriages, a charge of cocaine possession in 1991, a conviction for stalking former girlfriend Tina Sinatra in 1993, and an arrest for battery in 2010. The controversies were that much more regrettable as they overshadowed a talented actor's long and versatile career, which ultimately ended rather quietly with his death in 2012.