Reni Santoni, Actor in 'Enter Laughing' and 'Dirty Harry,' Dies at 81 Known for being in Dirty Harry and four episodes of Seinfeld as Poppie The Pizza Guy among other things, he died Saturday morning in Los Angeles at a hospice.
Well, my day is now ruined. I got to meet Reni once, near NBC in Burbank back in 1978 or '79. He was very friendly and took five minutes out to talk to me. He was one of my favorite character actors, equally adept at comedy (He was great in Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid) or drama. I've been on a Dirty Harry binge lately and have re-watched all of the films several times. His Chico Gonzalez was the perfect foil for Harry Callahan; I wish he would have remained his partner throughout the entire series.
RIP Reni Santoni....sad news to read this week, terrific actor in many films and later some memorable television roles!
Remember him mainly from The Late Shift – the movie about Leno and Letterman competing for Johnny's spot. He played NBC executive John Agoglia. He and Bob Balaban (as Warren Littlefield) were fun to watch playing off one another.
Only last week I saw Enter Laughing during TCM's Carl Reiner tribute. In his intro, host Ben Mankiewicz made mention of this scene of him with Jose Ferrer, Elaine May, Richard Deacon, and Rob Reiner. Hilarious. RIP Reni.