Reni Santoni

Born Reinaldo Santoni in New York City on April 21, 1938 of French and Spanish heritage, Reni (aka Reni Sands) started his career off in entertainment as a comedy writer. He moved in front of the camera in the early 60s and was performing episodic TV drama ("East Side/West Side," "The Trials of O'Brien," "Hawk") when, out of the blue, director 'Carl Reiner' (qv) thought enough of Santoni's talents to cast the young actor, an unknown, in his semi-autobiographical film _Enter Laughing (1967)_ (qv).In the make-or-break role of aspiring actor David Kolowitz, Santoni could have hit the jackpot to become a major movie star but unfortunately did not receive stand-out reviews in the still-popular film and never became a name. He played another lead in the Canadian film _A Great Big Thing (1968)_ (qv) as a follow-up but nothing came of it. Henceforth, Santoni would be spotted in the supporting capacity in a number of film parts.Santoni offered potent, reliable secondary turns in film playing good guys, bad guys, serious guys and amusing guys alongside such top names as 'Clint Eastwood' (qv) in _Dirty Harry (1971)_ (qv), 'Steve Martin' (qv) in _Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)_ (qv), which was again directed by 'Carl Reiner' (qv), 'Sean Penn' (qv) in _Bad Boys (1983)_ (qv) 'Richard Pryor' (qv) in _Brewster's Millions (1985)_ (qv), 'Sylvester Stallone' (qv) in _Cobra (1986)_ (qv) and 'Gene Hackman' (qv) in _The Package (1989)_ (qv), 'Howard Stern' (qv) in _Private Parts (1997)_ (qv), and, more recently, 'Sandra Bullock' (qv) in _28 Days (2000)_ (qv) and 'Coolio' (qv) in _Gang Warz (2004)_ (qv). In contrast, he also broke into the voiceover business and provided expert characterizations wherever needed. He offered his vocal skills in 'Eddie Murphy' (qv)'s _Doctor Dolittle (1998)_ (qv) and _Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001)_ (qv).His steady career employment, however, has been on the small screen. His 70s series work consisted of ably assisting such crime fighters as "Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law" and "Matt Houston. He was a regular on the short-lived TV series _Manimal (1983)_ (qv) and played a Sanchez family member on the TV comedy _Sanchez of Bel Air (1986)_ (qv). In addition to playing Father Joe DiMaggio on the series _Midnight Caller (1988)_ (qv), he had guest shots on "Scarecrow & Mrs. King," "227," "Hill Street Blues," "Moonlighting," "Miami Vice," "Equal Justice," "Murder, She Wrote" and "Quantum Leap." Decades later Santoni played a recurring role as a judge on the series _Murder One (1995)_ (qv) and received great attention for his occasional role as "Poppie" the unsanitary restaurateur on the classic comedy series _Seinfeld (1989)_ (qv).Into the millennium, Reni appeared as a guest on such popular TV programs as "According to Jim," "CSI," "Grey's Anatomy" and "Raising the Bar." He made his last appearance on an episode of "Franklin & Bash" in 2012. Reni died of cancer on August 1, 2020.::Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net