Known for his leading role in the British TV series Department S, Fabiani has guest starred in The FBI, Barnaby Jones, The Streets of San Francisco, Banacek, Cannon, The Rockford Files and Starsky and Hutch.
Fabiani was born in Watsonville, California, as the youngest of three children to parents whose backgrounds were a mix of Italian, Austrian, Irish and Native American roots.
[3] At the San Francisco Actors Workshop, he learned acting, as well as stagecraft, and appeared in plays such as The Alchemist (1960, as Kastril),[4] Saint's Day and Twinkling of an Eye, as well as classics such as King Lear.
His first small roles on television shows were in Love of Life, The Doctors, Look Up and Live, Dark Shadows, and Ironside Fabiani and his wife moved to the United Kingdom, where he co-starred in Department S, first screened in 1969 and 1970.
Episode 7 for instance, "Handicap – Dead", where Sullivan attends a golf tournament in Scotland and ends up investigating the suspicious death of one of the golfers, was inspired by Goldfinger.
" [8] Fabiani returned to television work, at first still very much in line with his Department S character, such as playing the FBI agent Barris in the TV movie The Longest Night (1972) opposite David Janssen.
Then he went on to guest star in many other television shows, including The FBI, Banacek, Barnaby Jones, Cannon, The Streets of San Francisco, The Rockford Files, Matt Helm, S.W.A.T., Starsky & Hutch, Columbo and Black Sheep Squadron, playing good guys and villains alike, from lawyers, prosecutors and doctors to pilots, P.I.s and gangsters.
[11] Later he moved back to New York, and also played in day time dramas, where he served as temporary replacement for Michael Zaslow as Roger Thorpe four times on Guiding Light in February 1991, August 1992, early 1994 and late May to June 1995 while Zaslow was on personal leave,[12] played a major part in The City as Jared Chase in 1996, had a recurring role in As the World Turns as Winston Lowe/"Mr. Smith" in 2000 and a long run on All My Children (from 1999 to 2010) as Barry Shire (whom a soap magazine labelled a "bona fide scene stealer" [13]), a lawyer who never seemed to run out of work trying to get either Chandler Enterprises or various members of the Chandler clan out of trouble, out of court, or out of jail... or all of the above.
[15] Apart from that, he appeared as presenter in theater documentaries, such as "Ghosts of Glory" about Eugene O"Neill and his plays, which was hosted by Joanne Woodward, and as narrator on several Barbara Walters Specials.
Fabiani, who "has an uncanny ability to imitate numerous voices, moods, and inflections" [16] also narrates audio books, including Norman McLean's "A River Runs Through It", Conrad Richter's "The Light in the Forest" and Loren D. Estleman's award-winning "Aces and Eights".