R.I.P. Pat Renella

[Reza]

Pat Renella


The veteran character actor also appeared on
"Mannix," "The New Phil Silvers Show" and dozens
of other TV series during a 50-year-plus career.

Pat Renella, a suave character actor who played
the mobster shot and killed by Steve McQueen in
the waning moments of the 1968 classic crime
thriller Bullitt, has died. He was 83.

Renella, who worked in Hollywood for more than
five decades, died Nov. 9 at Cedars-Sinai Medical
Center in Los Angeles after a lengthy illness,
his niece, Judy Portone, told The Hollywood Reporter on Friday.

Renella also starred as one of con man Phil
Silvers' cohorts on The New Phil Silvers Show in
the early 1960s, guest-starred in five episodes
of Mannix in the 1970s (his best friend was the
show's executive producer and writer, Bruce
Geller) and played Dr. Nelson on General Hospital for a 26-week stint in 1980.

The actor also starred in TV commercials and ad
campaigns; one notable assignment was for Viceroy cigarettes.

In Bullitt, directed by Peter Yates, Renella
plays Johnny Ross, who fakes his murder so he can
become free of the mob. After McQueen's San
Francisco Police Lt. Frank Bullitt discovers the
ruse, he chases down Ross across the runways of
San Francisco Airport and gets his man in the terminal.

Renella was a busy actor in the 1970s, appearing
mostly as hoods and heels on such TV series as
McCloud, The Streets of San Francisco, The
Rockford Files, Cannon, Faraday and Company, Police Woman, S.W.A.T. and Hunter.

Born on March 24, 1929, in Chicago, the
dark-haired Renella came to Los Angeles and
worked as an entertainer and nightclub singer in
the club the Roaring '20s. He appeared on the TV
show The Alaskans in 1960 before making his first
movie appearance in X-15 (1961).

His films also includes Riot on Sunset
Strip (1967), Moonchild (1974), Run for the Roses
(1977) and Beverly Hills Brats (1989). He was a
member of SAG for more than 50 years.

Geller, most famously known as the creator of the
Mission: Impossible TV series, died in May 1978
at age 47 when his small plane crashed in a
canyon near Santa Barbara. Renella's niece said
it was her uncle who identified Geller's body.

In addition to his niece and her husband John,
Renella's survivors include his sister Florence and another nephew, Steven.

A mass was held Nov. 14 at Church of the Good
Shepherd in Beverly Hills, followed by another
mass three days later at St. Peter and Paul
Catholic Church in Naperville, Ill.