I wasn’t sure what to expect when I went to meet actor Michael Lombardi at his home in Roxbury. Yes, I expected he would be handsome because I had watched him as New York firefighter Mike “the Probie” Silletti on FX’s critically acclaimed Rescue Me. In fact, many of my friends were very jealous that I was going to meet him. So I wondered what he was really like in person.

He answered the door as casually as if we were old buddies, offered me something to drink, and even graciously offered a bite to eat in case I was hungry during the interview. By the time I left a few hours later, I really did feel like an old buddy.

Lombardi bought his Roxbury home in 2005, after the second season of Rescue Me. He also has an apartment in the Hell’s Kitchen area of New York City where he stays during filming – a definite step up from his old place where the shower was in the kitchen. “Now I’m really in debt,” he laughs.

A native of Waterbury, Lombardi’s family moved to Roxbury when he was in middle school. His parents, who still live nearby, are both artistic. His father, Louis, plays the saxophone and his mother, JoAnna, is a painter who now owns the vintage jewelry store Grape in the Shade in nearby Washington Depot.