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

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

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

Italian-American Italian Americans () are Americans who have full or partial Italians, Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeastern United States, Northeast and industrial Midwestern United States, Midwestern ...

, 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 where

police officers of Baltimore briefly controlled the previously

Irish-American Irish Americans () are Irish ethnics who live within in the United States, whether immigrants from Ireland or Americans with full or partial Irish ancestry. Irish immigration to the United States From the 17th century to the mid-19th c ...

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 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'' (2002–2008). He worked for ''The Baltimore Sun'' City Desk for twelve years (1982–1995), wrote '' ...

'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 mem ...

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 M ...

'', 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 fiction, crime Drama (film and television), drama television series created and primarily written by the American author and former police reporter David Simon for the cable network HBO. The series premiered o ...

''. ''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 politician who served as the 17th commissioner of the Social Security Administration from 2023 to 2024. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he was th ...

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