Uncle Frank from Kimmel show dies

LOS ANGELES – Frank Potenza, a former New York City police officer who turned to comedy as “Uncle Frank” on his nephew Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show, died early Tuesday. He was 77.

A statement from ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” said Potenza was “beloved by his co-workers and considered an uncle to all.”

The show is on hiatus until Sept. 6.

The silver-haired Potenza had served as a police officer for two decades and as a private security guard before Kimmel asked him to join his fledgling show as a guard and cast member in 2003.

On “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” the uniformed Potenza was paired in comedy bits with Guillermo Rodriguez, a real-life parking lot security guard for the show. The two men also joined with Veatrice Rice, another show security guard, in a clueless discussion about news events. Rice died in 2009.

Potenza and his former wife, Conchetta “Chippy” Potenza, were sent by Kimmel on comic “adventures” such as working on a dairy farm and learning self-defense.

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and a Korean War veteran, Potenza was a police officer for 20 years before working as a guard in Las Vegas and at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan. Then Kimmel asked him to move to Los Angeles to work with him.