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When you think of Jon Polito, you can’t be faulted for thinking of him as a gangster. With his gravelly voice, Italian-American heritage, and a face that oozed menace, he seemed perfect for those types of roles. But Jon Polito was a diverse actor, at home in comedies as well as crime-dramas, at playing cops as well as criminals. The prolific character actor died on Thursday due to an infection he acquired during a recent surgery. He was 65.<\/p>\n
Polito broke on the scene in the 1981 TV series, The Gangster Chronicles<\/strong>, playing real-life Mafia founder Thomas Lucchese. This started Polito on a 35 year career in film and television. He had supporting roles in films such as C.H.U.D.<\/strong>, Critical Condition, The Freshman, The Crow, The Rocketeer, The Green Mile, Gangster Squad <\/strong>and Big Eyes. <\/strong><\/p>\n In 1990, Polito played Johnny Caspar in the Coen Brothers’ Miller’s Crossing<\/strong>. It would be the first of five films made with the brothers, with Polito also having roles in 1991’s Barton Fink<\/strong>, 1994’s The Hudsucker Proxy<\/strong>, 1998’s The Big Lebowski<\/strong>, and 2001’s The Man Who Wasn’t There<\/strong>.<\/p>\n On TV, Polito has guest roles on Wiseguy, Murder She\u00a0Wrote, The Equalizer,\u00a0<\/strong>Dream On, Roseanne <\/strong>and Seinfeld<\/strong>. He was also a series regular on Crime Story<\/strong>, Homicide: Life on the Streets, The Chronicle\u00a0<\/strong>and Raising the Bar<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Polito’s distinctive voice found a home in a number of animated projects, notably Batman Beyond, Avatar: The Last Airbender, <\/strong>and Ben 10: Ultimate Alien<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Politi had recently been cast in The Maestro, <\/strong>which is being listed as being in filming on IMDB<\/a>\u00a0with a 2017 release date.<\/p>\n Via The New York Daily News <\/a>and TMZ<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"