Gregory Sierra, best known for his roles as a sergeant. Miguel “Chano” Amanguale on the ABC police series “Barney Miller” and as Julio Fuentes on the NBC sitcom “Sanford and Son” died, said his wife, Helene Taber, on Sunday. He was 83 years old.
Sierra died on January 4 in Laguna Woods, California, after battling cancer, Taber said. Sierra, who was a descendant of Puerto Ricans, was born and raised in New York.
“He was the most wonderful person,” said Taber. “He was a good heart and a brilliant actor.”
Actor Edward James Olmos said in a tweet that those who knew Sierra admired his laughter, gentleness, wit and “extraordinary artistic ability”. Olmos described Sierra as a friend, a mentor and “a force of nature for which I was very grateful to have known and worked. RIP”
Sierra found success in the early 1970s through his recurring role as Julio Fuentes, Fred G. Sanford’s neighbor, in “Sanford and Son” – a series based on a British TV show that Norman Lear adapted as a sitcom for the NBC next to Bud Yorkin.
Before arriving at “Sanford and Son”, Sierra already had ties to Lear. He appeared in an episode of the beloved sitcom “All in the Family” as Paul Benjamin, a Jewish extremist. Paul and Archie Bunker start a friendship after someone paints a swastika on the family’s door. Paul offers protection to the Bunkers, but ends up being killed by a car bomb. It is the only episode without public applause to end the show.
Sierra then played Sgt. Miguel “Chano” Amanguale in “Barney Miller”, a sitcom about the life of a group of New York police detectives who worked at the 12th district precinct in Greenwich Village. Although the program initially focused on Captain Barney Miller’s work and home life, it gradually came to be about police officers.
Sierra portrayed Chano as a dedicated and fearless policeman who was emotionally involved in his work. Nowhere was this better displayed than in the 1975 episode “The Hero”, in which your character kills two suspects while avoiding an assault. His colleagues believe he deserves praise, but an anguished Chano thinks otherwise and passes out and cries.
Sierra’s career remained stable until the late 1990s, often finding him playing law enforcement roles. He appeared in “Miami Vice”, “Murder, She Wrote”, “Hill Street Blues” and “MacGyver”. His other TV roles included guest appearances on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and “The X-Files”.
“Miami Vice” actor Olivia Brown tweeted that Sierra’s death “hurts me”.
“Gregory is a beautiful soul and he deserves to rest in peace. My condolences to his loved ones that I know loved him so much,” said Brown.
In the film “The Towering Inferno”, Sierra played Carlo, the bartender, and he appeared as a mutant named Verger in “Beneath the Planet of the Apes”. His other films include “Papillon”, “Honey, I Blew Up the Kid” and “The Other Side of the Wind” by Orson Welles.
As a resident of Laguna Woods, he starred in a local production of the play “See How They Run” in 2009. “Any role is demanding if you go through a process,” Sierra told The Orange County Register at the time. “Because you expect something from yourself.”
He left Taber.
Montez Flenoury and Variety contributed.