Friday, on the Criminal Minds blog site “Criminal Minds Fanatic“, the show’s executive producer Ed Bernero posted the following:

“We are very excited to tell you that Joe Mantegna is officially joining the cast of Criminal Minds. Thanks for hanging with us, everyone.”

Joe has three Emmy nominations (including one for his very cool performance as Dean Martin in 1998’s The Rat Pack) and one Golden Globe nomination.

My first knowledge of him was in TV series SOAP (circa 1981) in which he played a Central American revolutionary that fell in love with Jesssica, but he actually started in theater in the late 60s.
He won a Tony for his lead performance (as Ricky Roma) in David Mamet’s Glengary Glen Ross.

He played Robert Parker’s Spenser in three made-for-television adaptations of Parker’s novels. An interesting tidbit: He was actually Parker’s choice for the role for the televisions series. The role ended up going to Robert Urich.

He has appeared in over 70 films including David Mamet’s Homicide, Searching for Bobby Fisher and The Godfather III. He most recently reprised his role as Fat Tony for The Simpsons Movie, a role he has done a twenty times on the show.He also has a role in the as yet unreleashed Lonely Street which is based on the Steve Brewer mystery novel of the same name.

I think Joe will be an excellent addition to the cast and could really add something special.