'CSI's' Guilfoyle Chases More Clues
Source: Zap2It.com
By Jay Bobbin
New York and Miami have their own "CSI" teams now, but the original Las Vegas squad hasn't lost any steam.
One person exceptionally grateful for it -- apart from every CBS shareholder -- is Paul Guilfoyle, one of the movie world's busiest character actors before finding steady employment as Capt. Jim Brass on "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," the Thursday crime drama with an unflagging popularity that was reconfirmed by the airing of its 100th episode last month. More evidence is furnished by the Nielsen ratings, in which "CSI" remains a regular Top Five finisher.
Once the supervisor of the Vegas forensics team, Brass was transferred in the wake of a rookie's death. Now back in homicide, he still consults frequently with Gil Grissom (William Petersen), Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) and the other detectives who manage to distill murder clues from probing unlikely people, places and items.
"We're always trying to show authenticity," the pleasantly low-key Guilfoyle says in considering the show's enormous success. "The CSI investigators find the evidence while the other detectives process it. When people start commenting on 'procedural drama' versus other kinds of drama, I don't really know what that means. Our show does have a lot of procedures involved, but to me, drama is drama."
Although his films range from "Air Force One" to "L.A. Confidential," the Boston-born Guilfoyle claims not to have felt stifled spending most of the past four years playing just one part. "It might be harder for the younger guys who don't have 70 movies or 100 plays under their belts like I have," he reasons. "I still manage to do a movie every summer. I try to stay available for that, because I enjoy doing different roles.
"The interesting thing about a long-term television role is that over time, I've tried to utilize the tools of change and relationship development whenever there's the chance for that. One of the reasons I try to stay under the radar publicitywise is so people can still receive and accept me in other parts."
Some entertainment Web sites erroneously list Guilfoyle as the son of another Paul Guilfoyle, also a character actor, whose credits included such classics as "The Grapes of Wrath" and "Mighty Joe Young." The "CSI" co-star allows that "it's a unique name, but that actor was not my father. I don't know how that got twisted around." He's also cited often as the son of the other Paul Guilfoyle's wife, Kathleen Mulqueen, who played the title character's grandmother on TV's "Dennis the Menace."
"Big fans of hers ask me how she's doing, and I hate to take that away from them," the actor says.
Still, the confusion has placed Guilfoyle in amusing situations. "When I was a young actor doing my very first play, I was told 40 people from my fan club had shown up. I was just 19 years old, and it was a very small theater, only about 99 seats. The other actors were going, 'You have a fan club?' As I normally do when things get so convoluted, I just said, 'Yeah.'
"So there were 40 people, all of them about 65 years old, who came in a bus to see Paul Guilfoyle. I went out and talked to them, and they were chagrined to not see the Paul Guilfoyle they expected. I had to break the news he had been dead for about 12 years then, but they said, 'We'll be your fan club now.'"
Guilfoyle has admirers among filmmakers, too. He's been called to action by such prominent directors as Steven Spielberg (for "Amistad"), Ron Howard ("Ransom"), Robert Redford ("Quiz Show"), Mike Nichols ("Primary Colors") and Sydney Pollack ("Random Hearts").
"I've had a lot of success working with established directors," Guilfoyle reflects. "They made movies when every actor was a character actor, even someone like Jack Nicholson when he made 'Five Easy Pieces.' If you get an A-list actor and have to give him a lot of money, you don't necessarily have to fill the ranks the same way, so I've been fortunate."
"CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" only became more prominent en route to the fifth season it's currently in. Spike TV regularly runs repeats from earlier years, and DVD sets are available on the Paramount Home Video label -- plus there's the spinoff factor that has given CBS two more hit shows, "CSI: Miami" on Mondays and "CSI: NY" on Wednesdays.
Guilfoyle recognizes the realities of expanding such a successful franchise: "People seem to have to choose which show they like the best, and I'm glad many of them still choose to look at the original. I think the people who make a show are what really add to it."
I would just lose it if I was confined like that. :chills:
