Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Gregory Sierra (Julio Fuentes)

Gregory Sierra (born January 25, 1941) is an American actor known for his roles as Detective Sergeant Chano Amenguale on Barney Miller and as Julio Fuentes, the Puerto Rican neighbor on Sanford and Son, where his character was often the brunt of racist insults and jokes via the show's main character, Fred G. Sanford (portrayed by Redd Foxx).

He also guest-starred as a Jewish radical in an unusually dramatic episode of All in the Family, working with the Hebrew Defense Association, an organization whose goal it was to stop anti-Semitism in the neighborhood. In the plot, he volunteers in helping to chase away neo-Nazi thugs presiding in the neighborhood during which they spray-painted a swastika on the Bunkers' door. He is later killed by a car bomb planted by the neo-Nazis. The actor later went on to star as Dr. Tony Menzies on the unsuccessful sitcom A.E.S. Hudson Street.

Sierra was cast as South American anti-Communist revolutionary "El Puerco" — whose friends simply call him "El" — on the serial spoof Soap, figuring prominently in the series' unresolved final episode in 1981. In 1984, he briefly became a main cast member of the then-new TV drama Miami Vice where he played Lieutenant Lou Rodriguez; he asked to be written out of the series after just four episodes. More recently he had regular roles on the TV shows Zorro and Son, Something is Out There, and Common Law.

In 1992, Sierra played drug dealer Felix Barbossa in the Bill Duke-directed Deep Cover, which also starred Laurence Fishburne and Jeff Goldblum. He also played a man named Villanazul in the low-budget 1998 movie The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit. He also appeared as Corbin Entek in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Second Skin" and played a fugitive on the run with Steve McQueen in Papillon.

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