Dennis Franz as NYPD Detective Andy Sipowicz in NYPD Blue

Andy Sipowicz was a fictional character on the popular ABC television series NYPD Blue. He was played for the entire run of the show by Dennis Franz. Image File history File links Sipowicz-head. ... Image File history File links Sipowicz-head. ... The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) operates television and radio networks in the United States and is also shown on basic cable in Canada. ... NYPD Blue was an Emmy Award-winning hour long-running American television police drama set in New York City. ... Dennis Franz (born Dennis Franz Schlacta, October 28, 1944 in Chicago, Illinois) is a German-American actor best known for his roles as Andy Sipowicz, a gritty police detective in the television series NYPD Blue, Hill Street Blues and Beverly Hills Buntz. ...

Sipowicz is a New York City police detective working in a fictionalized 15th Precinct placed on the lower east side of Manhattan. He was the central character of the show during its twelve year run, and the only one to have been in every episode. (Detective Greg Medavoy (Gordon Clapp) did not appear until Episode 3 of the first season.) New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... A detective is an officer of the police who performs criminal or administrative investigations, in some police departments, the lowest rank among such investigators (above the lowest rank of officers and below sergeants), a civilian licensed to investigate information not readily available in public records (a private investigator, also called... For other uses, see Manhattan (disambiguation). ... Gordon Clapp as Greg Medavoy Greg Medavoy was a fictional character in the television series NYPD Blue. ... Gordon Clapp (born September 24, 1948) is an American actor, best known for playing the role of Detective Greg Medavoy for 12 seasons on the television series NYPD Blue, winning an Emmy Award in 1998. ...

According to a second season episode aired in 1995, Sipowicz was about to celebrate his 47th birthday on April 7, implying he was born in 1948. (This would make the character three and a half years younger than the actor.) His place of birth was Brooklyn where he worked in a local candy store as a boy, later returning under sad conditions when a no-good son of the shop owners organized a robbery that led to his mother's death. Both his mother and father were of Polish origin and had blue-collar backgrounds. Andy's father suffered from alcoholism and lost his job as a meter reader because of this. He defiantly returned to finish his route after dark, but was stabbed in the eye by a black man who mistook him for a robber. The twisting of this story to make his father appear as the victim was the basis for Andy's racism; a major turning point for Andy came in Season 6 when he realized his father had lied about being an innocent victim of a black man when in fact his father was a racist liar. Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ... April 7 is the 97th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (98th in leap years). ... Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the borough of New York City. ... A blue-collar worker is a working class employee who performs manual or technical labor, such as in a factory or in technical maintenance trades, in contrast to a white-collar worker, who does non-manual work generally at a desk. ... Alcoholism is the consumption of, or preoccupation with, alcoholic beverages to the extent that this behavior interferes with the drinkers normal personal, family, social, or work life, and may lead to physical or mental harm. ...

Before becoming a policeman, Sipowicz served in the United States Army, doing an 18-month tour in Vietnam that he does not talk much about. Although it is unclear at what point he joined the NYPD, it had to be somewhere in the early 1970s. One of his early police assignments was infiltrating the Black Panthers and posing as a leftist radical who wanted to help rob a bank in Andy's childhood neighborhood. These events accentuated his already-developing racist tendencies. The United States Army is the largest and oldest branch of the armed forces of the United States. ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, also called The Seventies. ... The Black Panther Party (originally called the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a revolutionary Black nationalist organization in the United States that formed in the late 1960s and grew to national prominence before falling apart due to factional rivalries stirred up by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. ...

At some point in his police career, Sipowicz worked in Robbery Squad, but he transferred to the 15th by the mid-1980s, since he was already well established there in 1993 when NYPD Blue began to air. He received the gold shield of Detective Third Grade (the "beginning" rank) in 1978. The 1980s refers to the years from 1980 to 1989. ... Year 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar). ...

Andy was married to Katie Sipowicz for twelve years and they had a son, Andy Jr. (born 1973). However, by 1993 both his ex-wife and son were estranged from him, due to Andy's heavy drinking. After being shot six times in an ambush by a mobster named Alphonse Giardella and almost dying, Sipowicz decided to change his life. He stopped drinking, focused on the job, and rebuilt his relationship with his son. For the song by James Blunt, see 1973 (song). ... Mobster is a slang term for a person who participates in organized crime, which is known as belonging to the Mob. In western stories and movies, cowboys as mobsters are known as outlaws. ...

When NYPD Blue premiered, Sipowicz's partner was John Kelly, who left the force in 1994 after withholding evidence in a murder investigation of his lover Janice Licalsi. After Kelly's resignation, Bobby Simone became Sipowicz's partner. They soon became best friends; Andy was devastated when Simone died of a heart disease in 1998. In 1994, Andy began to date Assistant District Attorney Sylvia Costas, with whom he previously clashed due to professional differences (Andy called her a "pissy little bitch" in the premiere episode). They were married in 1995 and had a son Theo in 1996. David Caruso as John Kelly with Amy Brenneman as Janice Licalsi John Kelly was a fictional character in the television series NYPD Blue. ... Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) The year 1994 was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by the United Nations. ... Janice Licalsi was a fictional character on the television series NYPD Blue. ... Jimmy Smits as Bobby Simone Bobby Simone was a fictional character in the television series NYPD Blue. ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) The year 1994 was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by the United Nations. ... Sylvia Costas played by Sharon Lawrence Sylvia Costas-Sipowicz, ADA, (fictional character on NYPD Blue played by Sharon Lawrence). ... Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar). ...

On his route to becoming a better man, Sipowicz struggled with bigotry with help of his black precinct chief, Lt. Arthur Fancy. He also came to terms with his dislike of homosexuals due to his initially-grudging friendship with precinct receptionist John Irvin. With the birth of his second son, Sipowicz's life seemed to be going well. Then came an event that triggered a series of personal tragedies over the next few years. Andy Jr., who was planning on entering the police academy, was shot and killed while trying to stop a robbery. In 1998, Bobby Simone died of a heart infection, and in 1999 Sylvia was killed by a mad gunman in a courtroom, followed by the disappearance and subsequently revealed murder of partner Danny Sorenson. He also survived prostate cancer. James McDaniel as Capt. ... Homosexuality refers to sexual interaction and / or romantic attraction between individuals of the same sex. ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... This article is about the year. ...

Sipowicz came out of these tragedies stronger than ever, and continued to be a decent man and police officer, mostly due to his love for and responsibility to his son, Theo. In 2003 he married for the third time, a fellow detective named Connie McDowell, who had joined the squad. In 2004 Connie's pregnant sister was killed by her abusive husband. The baby survived, so Connie and Andy took custody of this child, naming her Michelle after her mother. Soon after, Connie -- who had believed she could not have children due to scarring of her Fallopian tubes -- became pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy named Matthew. With two infants to raise, Connie resigned from the police force to be a stay-at-home mother. In the next, 12th and final season, Sipowicz overcame a clash with new Lt. Thomas Bale and was promoted to the rank of sergeant becoming the squad commander at the 15th as the series came to a peaceful end. Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Female internal reproductive anatomy The Fallopian tubes or oviducts are two very fine tubes leading from the ovaries of female mammals into the uterus. ... For other uses, see Sergeant (disambiguation). ...

Sipowicz's blue-collar conservativism never changed, leading him to often mock President Bill Clinton, of whom he once said, "A guy gets over like that on your daughter, you'd give him the beating of his life. Here we got him running the country!" and whom he also referred to as a blowhard (leading to a bemused/disgusted look from apparently Clinton fan Det. Bobby Simone). He called New York Governor George Pataki "my hero" because of his support for capital punishment. It's not clear whether Pataki's social liberalism, which angered many New York conservatives, changed Sipowicz's opinion of him. Sipowicz's flawed everyman, a basically decent person with all his faults, appealed to viewers of the show throughout its 12 year run. William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III[1] on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ... George Elmer Pataki (born June 24, 1945) is an American politician who was the 57th Governor of New York serving from January 1995 until January 1, 2007. ... Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is the execution of a convicted criminal by the state as punishment for crimes known as capital crimes or capital offences. ... In literature and drama, the term everyman has come to mean an ordinary individual, with whom the audience or reader is supposed to be able to identify, and who is often placed in extraordinary circumstances. ...