Gary D'Addario is an American retired police commander, television technical advisor and actor from

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

. D'Addario joined the Baltimore police department in 1967. An

Italian-American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, w ...

, D'Addario advanced in the department easily during the days of the BPD's brief "Holy Roman Empire", the time period from 1981–1984 under former Commissioner

Frank Battaglia Frank Battaglia is a former Baltimore Police Department officer who was commissioner of the Department between 1981 and 1984. Biography Battaglia was the only Italian-American police commissioner of Baltimore, controlling a police department pr ...

where

police officers of Baltimore briefly controlled the previously

Irish-American , image = Irish ancestry in the USA 2018; Where Irish eyes are Smiling.png , image_caption = Irish Americans, % of population by state , caption = Notable Irish Americans , population = 36,115,472 (10.9%) alone ...

dominated department. D'Addario served as a shift lieutenant in the Baltimore Police Department homicide unit for 10 years during his career. He was a captain in 1998 and was promoted to major in 2003. He retired at the rank of major in 2004, when the 37-year veteran of the department was forced to retire by new Commissioner

Kevin P. Clark Kevin Clark is a former commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department, who held the position from early 2003 until November 2004. A former NYPD officer, Clark's term as police commissioner was strained with both the mayor and police departmen ...

as part of Clark's unpopular turnover of veteran command staff.''Source: Baltimore Sun, July 16, 2003.'' It was in his capacity as a homicide shift lieutenant that he became one of the subjects of

David Simon David Judah Simon (born February 9, 1960) is an American author, journalist, screenwriter, and producer best known for his work on ''The Wire'' (2002–08). He worked for ''The Baltimore Sun'' City Desk for twelve years (1982–95), wrote '' Hom ...

's non-fiction book about the homicide unit, '' Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets''. Simon followed D'Addario's shift within the unit for a year and wrote an account of their activity. The book was adapted into an NBC television series called '' Homicide: Life on the Street'' and D'Addario inspired the character

Al Giardello Alphonse Michael 'Gee' Giardello Sr. is a fictional character from the television drama '' Homicide: Life on the Street''. The character was played by Yaphet Kotto. He is based on Baltimore Police Department Shift Lieutenant Gary D'Addario, a memb ...

on that series. D'Addario had a recurring role on ''Homicide'' as Lt. Jasper, head of the Quick Response Team. He also worked as a technical advisor on ''Homicide'' primarily as a source on the Baltimore Police Department and a liaison between the production and the department. Simon later moved from writing books to television and became a writer and producer for the series. D'Addario was a technical advisor for Simon's next project, the Emmy Award-winning miniseries ''

The Corner ''The Corner'' is a 2000 HBO drama television miniseries based on the nonfiction book '' The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood'' (1997) by David Simon and Ed Burns, and adapted for television by David Simon and David Mill ...

'', and had a small role as a desk sergeant. D'Addario served as a technical advisor on the first two seasons of Peabody Award-winning ''

The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American Crime film, crime drama Television show, television series created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon. The series was broadcast by the cable network HBO in the United States. ''The ...

''. ''The Wire'' was also created by Simon. D'Addario had a recurring role as the gambling-addicted grand jury prosecutor Gary DiPasquale in ''The Wire''. Simon has speculated that D'Addario's first appearance on the series in the season 2 episode " Undertow" coincided with his forced retirement. Simon wrote to Mayor

Martin O'Malley Martin Joseph O'Malley (born January 18, 1963) is an American lawyer and former politician who served as the 61st Governor of Maryland from 2007 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he was Mayor of Baltimore from 1999 to 2007. O'Malley ...

to ask if there was any link and seeking confirmation that other city employees did not risk losing their jobs by appearing on the series and received no response. D'Addario stood down as technical advisor because he was no longer part of the police department but continued to appear on the show until its conclusion.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:D'Addario, Gary Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American police detectives American male television actors American people of Italian descent Baltimore Police Department officers Male actors from Baltimore