Robert Prosky.

Robert Prosky The veteran actor died Dec. 8, just five days shy of his 78th birthday.

If you ever watched Hill Street Blues, you probably have fond memories of Robert Prosky, who played the endearing, avuncular Sgt. Stan Jablonski in later seasons. (And you probably regretted it, a little, when he turned up later on the feeble NBC sitcom Veronica's Closet, playing the Kirstie Alley character's father.)

Those weren't his only credits, of course, not in a stage and screen career that spanned more than 35 years. He played a pro-bono lawyer in Dead Man Walking, and a TV-studio boss in Mrs. Doubtfire, among many other parts.

But Prosky, who died yesterday in the wake of emergency heart surgery, was best known as a theater actor, and a fine one. He earned his second Tony nomination in 1989, playing a gregarious Soviet negotiator — opposite