David Caruso’s slow-spoken detectives work best when there is another actor to answer back. In NYPD Blue, we value his attention to colleagues as much as his authority; the ensemble gives that deliberate delivery a purpose.
Fi1m perspective
Watch David Caruso’s John Kelly in a disagreement in NYPD Blue (1993): he gives the other actor something to work with. The dialogue has the familiarity of people who already know one another. Caruso helps make that convincing by attending to the people around him, rather than treating every exchange as an introduction to his character. We enjoyed watching him alongside James McDaniel’s Arthur Fancy because the two made police colleagues seem worth spending time with. The case need not surprise us for the conversation to hold us.
That capacity to work within a cast is worth remembering when looking at his career. Supporting film roles included First Blood (1982) and Mad Dog and Glory (1993), before Kelly established him as a television lead. Leading parts in Kiss of Death (1995) and Jade (1995) followed his departure from the series, and drew mixed or poor reviews. His return to television as Lieutenant Horatio Caine in CSI: Miami (2002–2012) gave him the long-running lead role that defined his later work.
His technique suits the close-up: deliberate speech and small movements of the head do much of the work. That slowness has a risk, since a pause can begin to draw more attention than the line around it. In NYPD Blue, though, there are other temperaments for him to respond to, with Dennis Franz’s Andy Sipowicz especially important to the programme’s grip. Kelly belongs among those people, and Caruso does not have to make every moment announce how intense he is.
The police plotting is more conventional than the programme’s rough style might lead us to expect. Caruso cannot make those cases less familiar, but his contribution helps keep the routine scenes alive. A cast that listens can sustain a series through an unsurprising stretch, and here the writing gives them conversations worth hearing. For Caruso, start with NYPD Blue, and allow the rest of the cast their share of the credit.
Biography
David Caruso is an American actor. Born in New York City in 1956, he began his career with supporting roles in films including An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) and First Blood (1982).
He rose to prominence playing Detective John Kelly in the series NYPD Blue (1993–1994), for which he received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Series Drama. He later starred as Lieutenant Horatio Caine in CSI: Miami (2002–2012).
Caruso retired from acting after the conclusion of CSI: Miami.
