Ron Glass, the television actor best known for his roles in Barney Miller and Firefly, has died at the age of 71, Variety reports.
Glass got his start in television the early 1970s, but it was his casting as Detective Ron Harris on the ABC cop sitcom Barney Miller that brought him fame. (Glass didn’t appear in the original 1974 pilot, but the show was almost entirely recast before its official 1975 debut.) The show ran for eight seasons and earned Glass an Emmy nomination in 1982 for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Variety or Music Series. Christopher Lloyd won the award that year for his work on Taxi, but Barney Miller won Outstanding Comedy Series.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Glass made guest appearances on shows ranging from The Twilight Zone—playing a novelty T-shirt–wearing devil—to Friends, on which he played Ross’ divorce attorney. In 2002, he played Shepherd Book on Joss Whedon’s cult sci-fi series Firefly, a role he revisited for the 2005 film Serenity. He was a native of Evansville, Indiana.*
*Correction, Nov. 28, 2016: This post originally misstated the name of Ron Glass’ hometown.
