Paul Burke, who played the upright, soul-searching detective Adam Flint on the acclaimed television drama 'Naked City,' but whose career was halted decades later after he was tried and acquitted on federal racketeering charges, died on Sunday at his home in Palm Springs, Calif. He was 83. The cause was leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, said his daughter Dina Burke Shawkat. Inspired by the 1948 film 'The Naked City,' the television series was broadcast on ABC from 1958 to 1963. Noirish and brooding, it was filmed on location in New York and anticipated 'Kojak' and 'Law & Order' in its gritty yet warm portrayal of the city and its people. 'Naked City' also starred Horace McMahon as Flint's superior officer and Harry Bellaver as a jovial colleague. The show is also widely remembered for its closing voiceover, delivered by the actor Lawrence Dobkin: 'There are 8 million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them.' Dark-haired, with large, nearly triangular eyes, Burke joined 'Naked City' in its second season, when it was expanded from 30 minutes to an hour. (The first season, 1958-59, starred James Franciscus as Detective James Halloran.) Burke received two Emmy nominations for his work on the show. He later was a star of the ABC series '12 O'Clock High,' about World War II bombardiers, and appeared regularly on 'Santa Barbara' and 'Dynasty.' His film credits include 'Valley of the Dolls' (1967) and 'The Thomas Crown Affair' (1968). Paul Burke was born in New Orleans on July 21, 1926. His father, Martin, a prizefighter, was a regular sparring partner of the heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey. Paul grew up fascinated by the denizens of the nightclub that his father owned in the city's French Quarter; they would provide the grist, he later said, for many of the characters he played. After training at the Pasadena Playhouse, Burke began appearing in small film and television parts. His first starring role was as the veterinarian Noah McCann in the television series 'Noah's Ark,' broadcast on NBC from 1956 to 1957. Burke's first marriage, to Peggy Pryor, ended in divorce. He is survived by his second wife, the former Lyn Peters; three children from his first marriage, Paula Burke Lopez, Paul Brian Burke and Burke Shawkat; six grandchildren, among them the actress Alia Shawkat, who starred in the television series 'Arrested Development'; and two great-grandchildren. Throughout the 1970s and '80s Burke had guest roles on many television shows, including 'Medical Center,' 'Hawaii Five-O' and 'Fantasy Island.' In 1990, Burke, the New Orleans District Attorney Harry F. Connick and several others were tried on racketeering charges in federal district court there. Burke was accused of having interceded with Connick, a childhood friend, on behalf of a Louisiana bookmaker, Walton Aucoin. The indictment charged that Burke, an acquaintance of Aucoin, had helped persuade Connick to return gambling records seized from Aucoin in a 1988 police raid. Burke was also charged with having lied to a grand jury investigating the case. After a six-week trial, a jury acquitted Burke, Connick and two co-defendants while convicting three others, including Aucoin. Connick is the father of the jazz singer Harry Connick Jr. Despite his acquittal, Burke later said, the publicity surrounding the case seemed to put an end to his career. He retired soon afterward. 'Before the trial, I was just getting into roles playing older men, and suddenly I get back to California and there's no work,' Burke told The Associated Press in 1992. 'I can't definitely correlate it to the trial, but I couldn't get a job, so I said the hell with it.' 