Actor Ron Glass, the handsome, prolific character actor best known for his role as Ron Harris, the gregarious, sometimes sardonic detective in the long-running police comedy “Barney Miller,” has died at age 71. Glass died Friday of respiratory failure, his agent, Jeffrey Leavett, told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Actor Ron Glass, the handsome, prolific character actor best known for his role as Ron Harris, the gregarious, sometimes sardonic detective in the long-running police comedy “Barney Miller,” has died at age 71. Glass died Friday of respiratory failure, his agent, Jeffrey Leavett, told The Associated Press on Saturday.Paul A. Hebert/Invision/Associated Press file

His agent, Jeffrey Leavett, tells The Associated Press that Glass died Friday of respiratory failure.

Although best known for “Barney Miller,” Glass also appeared in dozens of other shows in a television, film and stage career dating to the early 1970s.

He was the spiritual shepherd Derrial Book in the cult science-fiction series “Firefly” and its film sequel “Serenity.”

He also portrayed Felix Unger opposite Desmond Wilson’s Oscar Madison in “The New Odd Couple,” a 1980s reboot of the original film and television series.