Michael DeLano, an actor known for his work on TV shows like Rhoda and films such as Ocean’s Eleven, recently passed away, and the news is only just now spreading to the public.
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His family first announced the actor’s Oct. 20 death in a Las Vegas hospital via an online obituary. The news only began to spread on Tuesday when his wife of nearly thirty years, Jean Delano, spoke with The Hollywood Reporter, revealing he died of a heart attack.
DeLano was 84.
Born in New York City in 1940, DeLano launched his entertainment career in 1960. He signed with Swan Records under the name Key Larson and recorded songs like “A Web of Lies” and “A Little Lovin’ Goes a Long, Long Way.”
DeLano began his acting career in the early 1970s, making appearances in episodes of shows such as Adam-12 and Barnaby Jones. Per IMDb, his earliest film roles included 1971’s Catlow, starring Yul Brynner and Leonard Nimoy, and 1972’s The New Centurions, alongside George C. Scott and Stacy Keach.
DeLano also played firefighter Sonny Caputo on ABC’s Firehouse (1974) and appeared in Kojak, The Rockford Files, and Starsky and Hutch in the mid-’70s.
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Classic TV lovers will know him best for his role on Rhoda, where he played lounge singer Johnny Venture. He appeared in 11 episodes and romanced Valerie Harper’s title character.
The actor appeared in popular TV shows like Charlie’s Angels, The Jeffersons, Wonder Woman, and Magnum, P.I. during the late ’70s and early ’80s. He also had roles in The A-Team and the 1980 comedy 9 to 5.
Action fans may also remember DeLano from the 1985 film Commando, where he has a memorable scene opposite one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s antagonists, the stoic Green Beret, Cooke (Bill Duke).
DeLano’s work in the ’90s included comedies like Another Stakeout and Father Hood, and action movies such as Zero Tolerance, Lion Strike, Fists of Iron, and Private Wars.
Younger fans may know DeLano from Steven Soderbergh’s 2001 remake of Ocean’s Eleven. In the film, he played a Las Vegas casino manager working for Terry Benedict (Andy García). He returned to the role for the 2004 sequel, Ocean’s Twelve.
In the 2000s, DeLano also appeared in two episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Wong Kar-wai’s 2007 film My Blueberry Nights. His final role was a casino host in two 2012 episodes of Royal Pains.