David Harris, who played gang member Cochise in the 1979 film “The Warriors,” is dead at 75.
Harris’ daughter told the New York Times her father died from cancer. The New York City native attended the Manhattan School of Performing Arts before pursuing a career that included a role in the 1980 Robert Redford vehicle “Brubaker” and TV appearances on “The White Shadow,” “Hill Street Blues” and “Cop Rock.”
But he said in interviews it was his part as the shirtless, leather-vest wearings, turquoise adorned, gang-banging Cochise for which he would be remembered throughout his career.
“The film has found an audience generation after generation after generation,” Harris said in an interview posted online in 2019.
He claimed he had no idea the movie about a street gang having to fight its way from the Bronx to Coney Island over the course of a violent night would have such staying power. Harris said he was the last gang member cast in the film that was shot over the course of six months in the streets of New York City and included actual street gang members.
“We had a lot of fun,” he said in a 2014 interview. “It was just amazing.”
Harris is survived by his daughter, mom, sister, two brothers and a pair of grandchildren, according to the Times’ Sunday obituary. He reportedly died Friday in New York City.
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