Gregory Joseph Sierra was born on January 25, 1937, in Manhattan.[1] He was raised in Spanish Harlem by an aunt as his parents did not take charge of his care.[1] After serving in the Air Force, Sierra went with a friend to an acting school audition in Manhattan. Sierra was only there to support his friend, but after performing some improvisation he was admitted instead of his friend.[1][2]
Career
He began his career on the stage, touring with the National Shakespeare Company, and in 1967, appeared as the Duke of Austria in King John at the New York Shakespeare Festival. He moved to Los Angeles in the late 1960s to work in film and television.[1]
In 1973, Sierra guest-starred in an unusually dramatic episode of All in the Family in the role of Paul Benjamin, who was a Jewish activist with the "Hebrew Defense Association" (based on the Jewish Defense League) fighting antisemitism in the neighborhood. In the plot, he volunteers in helping to chase away neo-Nazi thugs who spray-painted a swastika on the Bunkers' front door. He is killed by a car bomb planted by the neo-Nazis.
From 1972 to 1975, he had the recurring role of Julio Fuentes, a Puerto Rican neighbor of the Sanfords, on Sanford and Son. After that, he spent two years as part of the ensemble cast of Barney Miller, as Detective Sergeant Chano Amengual. He starred as Dr. Tony Menzies on the short-lived 1977 sitcom A.E.S. Hudson Street. In 1980 and 1981, for the fourth and unresolved final season of the soap opera parody Soap, he played Latin American revolutionary Carlos "El Puerco" Valdez, Jessica Tate's lover.
In 1984, he was cast in Miami Vice as Lieutenant Lou Rodriguez, but he asked to be written out of the series after four episodes because he did not want to reside in Miami where the show was being filmed, according to the season 1 DVD commentary. He was replaced by Edward James Olmos as Lieutenant Martin Castillo.[citation needed] He had regular roles on the TV shows Zorro and Son (1983) and Something Is Out There (1988–1989).
Sierra was of Puerto Rican descent.[3] He married Eileen Defelitta in 1969, and they were divorced in 1972. In 1976, he married Susan Pollock, and they remained wed until her suicide in 1978.[4] According to his wife, Helene Tabor, he died at age 83 in Laguna Woods, California, on January 4, 2021, after a long battle with stomach and liver cancer.[5]
