John Cygan, Actor on 'The Commish,' Dies at 63

He also was a prolific voice artist who could be heard in 'Cars,' 'Toy Story 3' and many video games.

John Cygan, who played Lt. Paulie Pentangeli on the 1990s ABC series The Commish and then provided his voice for dozens of films and video games, has died. He was 63.

Cygan died Saturday at his home in Woodland Hills after a long battle with cancer, Jonn Wasser of the Atlas Talent Agency told The Hollywood Reporter.

Cygan also starred opposite Bob Newhart — both played comic book artists at a Chicago-based company — on the short-lived sitcom Bob, which ran from 1992-93 on CBS.

Cygan appeared on 35 episodes of The Commish as Pentangeli, who worked for police commissioner Tony Scali (Michael Chiklis) in upstate New York. His character shot an unarmed suspect at the start of the show's second season and was fired, only to return in season four.

On Twitter, Chiklis called Cygan "one of my closest friends in the world. You are loved, adored and horribly missed, Johnny. I know this … heaven just got a lot funnier."

A native of New York, Cygan also appeared on episodes of Frasier, Diagnosis Murder, Becker, The X-Files, NYPD Blue, Judging Amy, The Shield (another Chiklis starrer) and Modern Family.

Cygan voiced characters in the Pixar films Cars (2006), WALL-E (2008), Up (2009), Toy Story 3 (2010), Monsters University (2013) and Inside Out (2015), and could also be heard in Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006), Horton Hears a Who! (2008), The Lorax (2012) and Despicable Me 2 (2013).

Cygan was the voice of Solidus Snake on two installments of Metal Gear Solid 2 and worked on video games in the Star Wars, Halo, Medal of Honor, Lord of the Rings and Grand Theft Auto franchises as well.

Survivors include his wife Cathy and children Annie and Jack.