Joel Fabiani
Joel Fabiani (born 28 September 1936) is an American film and television actor. Generally most famous for the British cult classic Department S, he is also known to fans of 1970s cop shows for guest starring in The FBI, Barnaby Jones, The Streets of San Francisco, Banacek, Cannon, The Rockford Files, Starsky and Hutch and many more.To movie fans, he is known for roles in films such as Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Reuben, Reuben and Tune In Tomorrow, while he is familiar to fans of soap operas for recurring roles in shows like Dallas, Dynasty, As The World Turns, and All My Children.BackgroundFabiani was born in Watsonville, California. His family moved a lot, so he attended a total of 17 different schools. After graduating from high school he joined the Army, then went to college, where he earned a degree in English and became interested in acting, so after graduation he studied at the Actors Workshop in San Francisco for two years. (1)Early Years in TheaterHe moved to New York, where he played in many summer-stock- and off-broadway-productions. He appeared in "One Way Pendulum" (1961), was an understudy for Robert Shaw and Alan Bates in a Broadway production of "The Caretaker" (1962) (2), had his Broadway debut in "The Affair" later in 1962, and played in "Death of a Salesman", "A Thousand Clowns", some classics including Shakespeare, as well as the US tour of "The Fringe" (1964) - in which he faked a British accent so well that people couldn't believe he wasn't actually English - and many other plays, while he also worked in television commercials.TelevisionHe became the star of a series of commercials for a cigarette, in which he played what Fabiani himself described as a "watered-down James Bond character", usually wearing a tuxedo and being surrounded by beautiful girls while smoking that particular brand of cigarette. His first small roles on television shows were in "The Doctors" (in 1963, and later again in 1968), "Look Up and Live" (1964) and the cult classic Dark Shadows (1966). Afterwards he played Dr. Schley in the pilot episode of Ironside (1967).Department SUltimately the cigarette commercials earned him a role in the British cult show Department S, which was in pre-production in England at the time:" 'They [ITC producers Frankel and Berman] asked me if I had any film to show them,' Fabiani recalls. 'I hadn't done that much except a very splashy commercial for a cigarette, and I was dressed in a tuxedo [...] and I was around these gorgeous models. So they looked that over and said, "Yeah, that's kinda what we were looking for." Fabiani was then invited to England for tests. 'They shot some footage of me jumping over boxes and being very athletic. And then I went back to New York and a week later they said, "You've got the job." So I flew back and within a couple of weeks began shooting the show." (3)So he and his wife moved to England, where he co-starred in Department S. The show is considered to be a forerunner of the "X Files" and was about a special branch of Interpol dealing with particularly baffling cases that other agencies had failed to solve. Fabiani played the field team leader Stewart Sullivan, a pragmatic man of action and determination and a bit of a temper to go with it. Already in the second episode, "The Trojan Tanker", Fabiani was once more in a tuxedo, gambling in a casino, and looking very Bond-ish, and there were several episodes in which he wore the tux at least for one scene, usually whenever he was meeting the head of the Department, Sir Curtis, for a briefing during some gala, opera or exclusive party. Like most spyfi shows of the 1960s, "Department S" did have elements of Bond. The seventh episode for instance, "Handicap - Dead", where Sullivan attends a golf tournament in Scotland and ends up investigating the suspicious death of one of the golfers, was inspired by "Goldfinger".Fabiani was highly esteemed and appreciated by his fellow cast members. Guest star Kate O'Mara described him as "most charming" and a "perfect American gentleman". His co-star Rosemary Nicols called him "a very sweet guy, and extremely professional. He always came prepared, and he knew exactly what he was doing." And Peter Wyngarde declared, "Joel was wonderful!"The show ran successfully in England and was syndicated worldwide, including the US, where it ran for its full season-length. At one point in the early 1970s it was voted the most popular series in the world (4). However, the producers set their sights on other projects, such as the equally short-lived spin-off "Jason King" (5) and the Roger-Moore/Tony-Curtis-show "The Persuaders!", which also only ran for one season."For his part, Fabiani wasn't too disappointed that no more episodes were commissioned. 'When I came back to the States from England, I [...] wanted to go out and conquer Hollywood, which is what I immediately set out to do - and didn't - but I had an awful lot of fun trying.' " (6)HollywoodFabiani returned to television work, at first still very much in line with his Department S character, such as playing the FBI agent Barris in the TV movie "The Longest Night" (1972) opposite David Janssen. Then he went on to guest star in many other television shows, including "The FBI", Banacek, "Barnaby Jones", "Cannon", The Streets of San Francisco , "The Rockford Files", "Matt Helm", "S.W.A.T.", Starsky and Hutch, "Columbo" and "Black Sheep Squadron", playing good guys and villains alike, from lawyers, prosecutors and doctors to pilots, p.i.s and gangsters.He also appeared in numerous TV movies, including "Brenda Starr" (1976) with Jill St. John, thrillers like the Edgar-Allan-Poe-Award-nominated "One of My Wives Is Missing" (1976) with Jack Klugman and "The President's Mistress" (1978) with Beau Bridges and Larry Hagman, and the prison movie "Attica" (1980) with Morgan Freeman, which was nominated for several Emmys and won one. In between he still worked in the theater, in plays such as Loring Mandell's "Particular Men" (1972) as the prosecutor Henry, and Luigi Pirandello's "The Rules of the Game" (1975) as Barelli - a show that was also featured in the PBS "Great Performances" series - as well as the original run of "I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It On The Road" (1978) as Joe Epstein. In addition he appeared in several feature films, including high profile movies such as Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), the Oscar-nominated Reuben, Reuben (1983), and Tune In Tomorrow (1990). Others were the independent movie "Dark Echoes", which, ahead of its time, was a kind of forerunner of John Carpenter's "The Fog", and mainstream movies like Snake Eyes (1998).Prime Time DramasFrom the 1980s on, he had several recurring roles in prime time soaps, where he appeared as Alex Ward in "Dallas" (7) and played the role of King Galen of Moldavia on Dynasty (8), where his son's wedding, unceremoniously interrupted by terrorists shooting at the gathered crowd, provided the famous season 5 cliffhanger finale. The viewers then had to wait quite a while until it was finally revealed that most of the characters, including King Galen, had - despite initial rumors to the contrary - indeed survived the attack. Fabiani also had the somewhat difficult task of assessing Jane Wyman's mental capacities as Dr. Quentin King in "Falcon Crest" (9). Later he moved back to New York, and also played in day time dramas, where he served as temporary replacement for Michael Zaslow as Roger Thorpe on Guiding Light from late May to June 1995 while Zaslow was on personal leave (10), played a major part in "The City" as Jared Chase in 1996, had a recurring role in "As The World Turns" as Mr. Smith and a long run on All My Children as Barry Shire, who, as a lawyer, never seemed to run out of work trying to get either Chandler Enterprises or various members of the Chandler clan out of trouble, out of court, or out of jail... or all of the above.He continued to guest star in other shows too, including Murder, She Wrote (in 1992 and 1994), "Third Watch" (2000), Law & Order (2004) and "Law and Order: Criminal Intent" (2004). The latter's episode centered around the events at a fundraiser - and Fabiani still looked great in a tuxedo. In between he had occasional parts in comedy shows, such as The Cosby Show (1988), "Strangers With Candy" (2000) and "Ed" (2005), and also kept appearing in plays in the theater.Other ProjectsApart from that, he appeared as presenter in theater documentaries, such as "Ghosts of Glory" about Eugene O"Neill and his plays, which was hosted by Joanne Woodward, and as narrator on several Barbara Walters Specials. He also narrates audio books, including Loren D. Estleman's award winning "Aces and Eights" and Conrad Richter's "The Light In The Forest".He lives in New York with his wife.