Beside Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry, Reni Santoni gives us a welcome break from the severity. His modest presence is worth noticing, though the film also shows how little room a dependable supporting actor can be given.
Fi1m perspective
Reni Santoni’s Chico gives Dirty Harry (1971) a pause from Harry’s severity. Alongside Harry Guardino’s Bressler, he brings an ordinary presence into a film that keeps directing our attention back to Clint Eastwood. We felt relieved when the film made room for Chico, because Santoni gave us someone less forbidding to spend time with. We recommend the thriller with reservations, and one is that it finds too little use for the people around its leading man.
The leading role had once been Santoni’s. Carl Reiner cast him as aspiring actor David Kolowitz in Enter Laughing (1967), his first film lead, before his screen work settled mainly into supporting parts and television appearances. Reiner brought him back for the Steve Martin comedy Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982). Still, Cobra (1986) put him beside Sylvester Stallone as Sergeant Tony Gonzales, once again playing a star’s police partner.
Don Siegel’s Dirty Harry shows both the value of that casting and its restrictions. Chico makes the company more bearable, but the screenplay seldom allows him to become as interesting as the trouble Harry can cause. Santoni’s comparatively modest presence suits the supporting part; it cannot make up for the writing’s lack of interest in him. The narrow focus helps the pursuit move, but we would gladly lose a little speed to know Chico better.
His television work offers a useful reason not to confuse the casting with the actor. As Poppie, the bombastic, unhygienic restaurant owner in Seinfeld, he appeared in four episodes from 1994 to 1998. That is a different assignment from providing agreeable company for a severe leading man, and a reminder that Santoni’s work included comedy as well as police partners. Start with Dirty Harry, but watch for the people its screenplay is inclined to overlook.
Biography
Reni Santoni was an American actor. He began his career in off-Broadway theatre and wrote the play Raisin' Hell in the Son, which premiered in 1962. His first screen role was an uncredited part in the 1964 film The Pawnbroker.
Santoni's first leading role came in Carl Reiner's Enter Laughing (1967). He is known for playing Inspector Chico González in Dirty Harry (1971), as well as appearances in Bad Boys (1983), Cobra (1986) and Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982). On television he played Poppie in Seinfeld and had guest roles in series including Grey's Anatomy and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
Santoni continued working in film and television until 2012. He died on 1 August 2020 in Los Angeles.
