Ron Glass, a character actor best known for his role as Detective Ron Harris, the handsome, good-natured cop in the long-running US comedy series Barney Miller, has died at the age of 71.

His agent, Jeffrey Leavett, told The Associated Press that Glass died on Friday of respiratory failure.

Although best known for Barney Miller, Glass also appeared in dozens of other shows in a TV, film and stage career dating from the early 1970s.

He was the spiritual shepherd Derrial Book in the cult science-fiction series Firefly and its film sequel Serenity.

He also portrayed Felix Unger opposite Desmond Wilson’s Oscar Madison in The New Odd Couple, a 1980s reboot of the original film and TV series.