Look for Actor Ron Dean (Det. Lukich) in other movies using Chicago as a backdrop...such as "The Fugitive" and "The Package." He is often paired up with the same actors from Chicago and they often portray cops. Sometimes he's a good cop...sometimes he's BAAAADDD.
shareIndeed ... you'll note that many of the actors who appeared in "Above The Law" also appear in "The Fugitive".
probably because it was the same director..
shareYep. A bunch of them have bit parts in "Under Siege," also directed by Andrew Davis.
shareBesides Ron Dean, actors from Chicago who work together on "The Fugitive," "The Package," "The Client," and "Chain Reaction" include Joe Kosala, Miguel Nino and Joesph Fisher.
Maybe they all have the same agent!
didnt a few also appear in the chicago based chuck norris flick Code of Silence?
shareOh yeah...We should research Imdb for a list of "dah guys" from Chicago that appeared together in all these movies of the 80's and 90's.
Just saw Ron Dean in a bar scene in "Cocktail." Didn't see any of the other guys in the backround. It's almost like they're a package deal...if one gets work, they all get on the picture!
CmdrCody
I got the connection....Actor Ron Dean, Joe Kosala and the others do have a benefactor...Director Andrew Davis, He also is from Chicago like the other guys and directed most of the films they've appeared in. Actors Dennis Farina, Nick Nickeas and Chuck Adamson, along with Joe Kosala are ex-Chicago cops who became actors, discovered by Director Andrew Davis.
The list is long for Andrew Davis movies that he directed the Chicago cop squad:
Code of Silence
Above the Law
Under Siege
The Fugitive
Primal Fear
The Package
Chain Reaction
Steal Little, Steal Big
Dennis Farina, Nick Nickeas and Chuck Adamson were actually brought into pictures by another Chicago-born director: Michael Mann. Mann cast all three in his first feature, THIEF, in 1981, after having met Adamson in a Las Vegas casino in the late 1970s (Mann was involved with the series VEGA$ at the time). Through Adamson, he met the various real-life cops and robbers (Farina, Nickeas, John Santucci, etc.) who populated not only THIEF, but much of his work throughout the 1980s, including MIAMI VICE, CRIME STORY and MANHUNTER.
Interestingly, also among the cast of THIEF is Nathan Davis, a veteran Chicago actor who also happens to be Andrew Davis' dad. It's always a treat to see these guys turn up in an Andrew Davis flick, particularly since Michael Mann's work has been largely L.A.-based for the last decade, leaving these guys on the sidelines.
Christ, I'm not even from Chicago, and I miss the Chicago that these guys brought to life. Because although I'm not a Chicagoan, I did grow up in the 1980s, when a good many memorable flicks used it as a backdrop, rather than the much more pedestrian Los Angeles that we get stiffed with more often than not these days. Call me foolish, call me irresponsible if you must, but I just can't see FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF working if it's set in Beverly Hills. Or RISKY BUSINESS, for that matter. Or THE BLUES BROTHERS. Or anything Andrew Davis directed in the first ten years or so of his career.
(Sniff). I miss you, Chicago...
MikeHawk: Outstanding backround info on the Chicago Cop Squad actors, my eloquent friend. You're right! We need another Andrew Davis movie ASAP!
Now...how 'bout a big slice of pizza and a pint of ale at Emmett's on W. Dundee on me?
CmdrCody