Dennis Cole

Dennis Lee Cole (July 19, 1940 – November 15, 2009) was an American actor whose career spanned film, television, and Broadway. Born in Detroit, Michigan, he began performing in his hometown before relocating to Los Angeles in the 1960s. His athletic build and bleached-blond appearance attracted the attention of physique magazines, and he worked as a model and stuntman before transitioning to acting.

Cole's first significant acting role came with the police drama Felony Squad, in which he starred from 1966 to 1969. He followed that with a season-long role as Davey Evans in Bracken's World (1969–1970) and co-starred with Rod Taylor in the television series Bearcats! in 1971. He later played Lance Prentiss on the soap opera The Young and the Restless from 1981 to 1982. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Cole accumulated guest appearances on a wide range of television series, including Medical Center, Police Story, Charlie's Angels, Vega$, The Love Boat, The Streets of San Francisco, Fantasy Island, Three's Company, and Murder, She Wrote, among others. His final television appearance came in a 1998 episode of Pacific Blue. His film work included Cave-In! (1983), Wheels of Fire (1985), Pretty Smart (1987), and the horror film Zombie Death House (1987).

Cole's Broadway career extended from 1972 to 1998, during which he appeared in All the Girls Came Out to Play and Victor/Victoria. His stage work also included a role as the Narrator in a production of Blood Brothers and the part of King Marchan in the first national tour of Victor/Victoria. He sustained an injury while working on that national tour and spent three years recovering.

In 1976, while guest-starring on Charlie's Angels, Cole met actress Jaclyn Smith. Following a courtship of nineteen months, the two married in 1978; the marriage ended in 1981. Smith was his second wife. His first marriage, to Sally Bergeron, produced his only child, a son named Joe Cole. In 1991, Joe was shot and killed during a home-invasion robbery in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles at the age of 30; the case remained unsolved. Following his son's death, Cole became an activist speaking out against violence on television and worked with organizations including the Nicole Brown Charitable Foundation, the American Cancer Society, the Arthritis Foundation, and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

In 1999, Cole relocated to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He married his third wife, Marjorie Cole, in 2004, and together they founded and operated Celebrity Realty, Inc. The couple divorced in 2008 following claims of domestic violence that resulted in Cole's arrest for obstruction of justice. Cole died on November 15, 2009, at Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale from kidney failure at the age of 69. He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California.