Travanti, one of five children, was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to Italian immigrant parents John and Elvira Travanti. His father worked at the American Motors assembly plant in that city. He attended Kenosha High School, where he was an all-star football player; he received athletic scholarship offers to several colleges, but decided he wanted to be an actor rather than an athlete. A good student, he was offered scholarships to Harvard University, Princeton University, and Dartmouth College, although he eventually attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, from which he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1961. After that, he attended the Yale School of Drama on a fellowship. In 1978, he graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a master's degree in English. In 1957, before his senior year of high school, he attended the youth government and leadership program called Badger Boys State. His first credited role was in an episode of Route 66 called "Child of a Night". In 1964, Travanti guest-starred in the episode "Murder by Scandal" of CBS's drama about newspapers, The Reporter. He made his feature film debut in 1965 playing a deaf mute nightclub bouncer in the psychological thriller Who Killed Teddy Bear? starring Sal Mineo and Juliet Prowse. In 1966 he played the role of radio talk show host and murderer Barney Austin in the Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Midnight Howler". He was the lead guest star in the Season 3 episode "Collision Of Planets" of Lost in Space in 1967, appeared in the episode "The Octopus" of the single-season crime drama The Silent Force in late 1970, was featured in the Season 5 episode "Murder Times Three" of Mannix in late 1971, and appeared in the Season 6 episode "Image" of ' in early 1972. Also in 1972 he played a fugitive in "The Devil's Playground" episode of Cannon with his future Hill Street Blues co-star James B. Sikking. In 1974 Travanti appeared briefly in The Bob Newhart Show episode "The Battle of the Groups” Years later, Travanti earned five nominations and two Emmy Awards for his portrayal of Hill Street Station Captain Frank Furillo. And in 1982, Boston's Emerson College chose him as the commencement speaker, and gave him an honorary Doctorate degree. In 1983, Travanti starred in the TV movie Adam, for which he received another Emmy nomination. Since then, Travanti has appeared in a number of TV movies and has made appearances in television programs such as ' and Prison Break. In 1986, HBO broadcast the made-for-cable biographical film Murrow, with Travanti's portrayal of Edward R. Murrow receiving a Cable Ace nomination. He co-starred in the film Millennium and as Lt. Ray McAuliffe in the television series Missing Persons. Travanti has publicly acknowledged his past as an alcoholic who found sobriety through Alcoholics Anonymous, calling alcoholism a "disease of loneliness and secrecy". In 1981, he made such a confession to Rona Barrett in an interview on NBC and even recited, from memory, all of the organization's "Twelve Steps" on camera. Captain Furillo, his best-known character, was also a recovering alcoholic, and the character was shown multiple times taking part in AA meetings. From January to March 2007, Travanti appeared off-Broadway in Oren Safdie's The Last Word... at the Theater at St. Clements in New York City, and from November to December 2008, Travanti played the "Con Melody" in an off-off Broadway production of Eugene O'Neill's A Touch of the Poet for Friendly Fire Theater in New York. In 2010, he appeared in an episode of Criminal Minds as a 75-year-old serial killer with Alzheimer's disease. Travanti had a recurring role on the Starz television series Boss. He also appeared on The Twilight ZoneRadio Dramas as Captain William Fletcher in the audio adaptation of "The Little People". In 2017, he played Callen's father in .
Filmography
Many of Travanti's roles prior to the mid-1970s were credited as "Dan Travanty" or "Dan Travanti." Later roles are credited as "Daniel J. Travanti."
