Andy Sipowicz

Andy Sipowicz is a fictional character played by Dennis Franz on the hit ABC TV series NYPD Blue.

Sipowicz is a NYPD detective working in a fictional 15th Precinct placed somewhere in Manhattan. He was central character of the show during its twelve year run.

According to a second season episode aired in 1995, Sipowicz was about to celebrate his 47th birthday on April, 7 implying he was born in 1948. His place of birth was New York City and both his mother and father were of Polish origin and had blue-collar background. Andy's father had problems with alcohol and got drunk in a fight with a black man and lost his eye. That event later fueled his strong racism. Andy inhereted dad's alcoholic and racistic tendencies.

Before becoming a cop, Sipowicz served in Army, doing a 18 month tour in Vietnam. It's not clear at what point he joined police, but it had to be somewhere in early 1970s. One of his early assignments as a police officer was infiltrating Black Panthers and posing as a leftist radical. These events additionaly raised his dislike of black people.

At some point of his police career Sipowicz worked in Robbery Squad, but he had to transfer to 15th by middle 1980s, since he is already a household name there in 1993 when NYPD Blue began to air. He received detective gold shield in 1978.

Andy was married to Katie Sipowicz (nee unknown) for 12 years and had a son Andy Jr. with her, born in 1973. However, by 1993 both his ex-wife and son were pretty estranged from, due to his heavy drinking. After getting shot in an ambush by a mobster named Alphonse Giardella and almost dying, Sipowicz deceided to change his life. He stopped drinking, focused on the job and rebuilded the relationship with Andy Jr.

In 1994, Bobby Simone became his partner and they soon became best friends. Prior to that, Andy began to date Assistant District Attorney Sylvia Costas. They got married in 1995 and had a son Theo in 1996.

On his route of beacoming a better man, Sipowicz struggled his deepest demon - bigotry, with help of his black chief Lt. Arthur Fancy. Few months after birth of his second son, Sipowicz's life seemed well. Then came an event that triggered series of tragedies that occurred to him in next few years. Andy Jr., now working as a cop in Hackensack, New Jersey was shot and killed while trying to stop a robbery. In 1998, Bobby Simone died of heart infection, and in 1999 Sylvia was killed by a mad gunman in a courtroom.

Sipowicz came stronger then ever out of these tragedies and continued to be a decent man and police officer. In 2003 he got married for the third time, with a fellow detective Connie McDowell. In 2004 she gave birth to their son Matthew. A year later, he was promoted to a rank of sergeant and became the (detective) squad commander at the 15th.

Sipowicz often mocked President Bill Clinton, saying "you would kick his ass if he came close to your daughter". He called New York Governor George Pataki "my hero" because of his support for capital punishment.