His low-keyed intensity, deep-voiced somberness, pale skin, puffy-eyed
baby face and crop of carrot-red hair are all obvious and intriguing
trademarks of TV star David Caruso. A hugely popular item in the 1990s
as a result of a smash crime series, he got way too caught up in all
the hoopla surrounding him. Those working with him on the innovative
cop series were not exactly unhappy when he decided to abandon ship
after only one season in order to pursue movie star fame. Despite his
own predictions, the show prospered quite well after the loss of his
focal character...but it would be a major understatement to state that
Caruso did not fare as well.
TV to film crossover fame is tricky and David did not have the right
formula to pull it off. Bad judgment calls, bad publicity after his
departure from his TV series, a couple of poor film vehicles, and
virtual unemployment in its wake eventually led him back to the small
screen again a somewhat humbler person. Not many are given a second
chance but Caruso, the enigmatic talent that he is, found gold a second
time as (again) a wan, brooding lead in a hip, unconventional cop
series.
David Stephen Caruso was born in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, the
son of Charles Caruso, a magazine and newspaper editor, and Joan, a
librarian. The Irish Catholic youngster attended elementary and middle
school at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs and then Archbishop Molloy High
School, both in Queens.
Following high school graduation in 1974, he toyed with some commercial
work. A few years later he began to make a slight dent in films. He
first appeared in
Getting Wasted (1980) and
Alien Shock (1980), which led
to a succession of secondary roles in such 80s movies as
Ein Offizier und Gentleman (1982),
Rambo (1982) (as a sheriff's
deputy), Nachts werden Träume wahr (1984),
Blue City (1986),
Krieg in Chinatown (1987) and
Twins - Zwillinge (1988). But the break into
full-fledged TV stardom proved elusive. It was argued that the thin and
lanky actor was not handsome enough to become a leading man in film and
didn't have the charisma credentials to carry a big movie.
Making his unbilled debut in a daytime episode of "Ryan's Hope", TV
proved to be a more inviting medium and police stories seemed to be the
name of the game for him. He had a strong recurring role as a gang
leader on
Polizeirevier Hill Street (1981)
and showed to good advantage in the series
Crime Story (1986). This sudden
notoriety on police TV gave way to some even stronger stuff in
streetwise film crimers such as
King of New York (1990) as a cop
gone bad, and
Sein Name ist Mad Dog (1993), in
which he earned excellent marks as a cynical urban cop. But his
star-making role came via TV and his portrayal of Detective John Kelly
the critically-acclaimed series
New York Cops: NYPD Blue (1993). Audience
adoration was immediate.
His volatile but principled character on the gritty, boldly-written,
unconventional show earned him impressive and sexy notices with a
Golden Globe Award and Emmy nomination placed in his hands. Confident
now that he could be a magnetic force in front of a movie camera,
stories began to circulate that the instant fame had gone to his head,
that he was moody, demanding and difficult on the set, and that he was
quickly alienating not only his co-stars but the show's directors and
writers.
Ready to prove all those naysayers wrong about his chances in film,
Caruso made tabloid headlines when he announced his decision to leave
the highly-rated show after only one season (and only four episodes
into the second season) to pursue film stardom. Rumors also bounced
around that he left following unresolved salary negotiations. For
whatever reason, he wasted no time in scouting out movie vehicles for
himself. Again, he focused on his specialty -- crime thrillers. The
first, Kiss of Death (1995), in
which he played a petty thief trying to go straight, did not go over
well box-office-wise despite its good reviews, and the second,
Jade (1995), in which he portrayed a
homicide detective, was a grisly, unappetizing thriller that was given
the thumbs down almost immediately. As a comeuppance for coming up
short, he was nominated for the dubious "Razzie" award as the "Worst
New Star" of those two films. With no movie releases at all in 1996, by
the time
The Hunt (1997)
was released, in which he played a jewel thief who is betrayed by his
sexy partner-in-crime (Kelly Lynch),
the TV star had lost all of his movie star momentum.
In 1997, Caruso made an inauspicious return to the small screen as the
placid title prosecutor
Michael Hayes - Für Recht und Gerechtigkeit (1997), a law
series, but it was a very short-lived experience. Audiences had become
fickle and indifferent to his "heralded comeback". Finding a serious
lack of offers, he returned to supporting others in films such as
Russell Crowe in
Lebenszeichen - Proof of Life (2000), and copped a
couple of leads for himself in such low-budgeted films as
Session 9 (2001) and the Canadian film
Black Point (2001).
But in 2002, he found TV magic once again behind a badge as Lt. Horatio
Caine in the popular CSI spin-off series
CSI: Miami (2002). Strongly
anchoring the show, which focuses more on crime methodology and
whodunnit twists than character development, Caruso has nevertheless
earned cult fame for his slick demeanor and deliberately slow speech
patterns, reminding one of
William Shatner's heady, methodical
approach to Captain Kirk. Known for his deep, dry tones and parade of
droll one-liners, many of which include him slipping on his dark shades
during mid-sentence, he has been the subject of many a late-nite parody
and satire.
A difficult interviewee who has admitted to keeping his monumental ego
in check since his return to TV, he has been little seen since the "Miami" series ended in 2012 after ten season. David has been married and divorced
three times, which includes a brief 1980s union to actress
Rachel Ticotin. He has a daughter, Greta,
from that union. On the sly, Caruso was a co-owner of now long-defunct
Steam, a clothing and furniture store in Miami, Florida. He and his
current girlfriend (since 2005), Liza Marquez, have two children -- son
Marquez Anthony and and daughter, Paloma Raquel.
