Remembering Eriq La Salle

Tall, intense African American actor with New York stage experience who has scored twice in regular roles in TV medical series. In fact, it was putting on his old costume from "The Human Factor" (CBS, 1991) that played a part in La Salle snagging a regular starring role on "ER" (NBC, 1994- ) as Dr. Benton, a competent and tough emergency room doctor. Before completing acting studies first at Juilliard and then NYU's graduate theater program, La Salle was already cast in the first of several productions for Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival. Throughout the late 1980s, he found continuous acting work on and off-Broadway as well as in the ABC daytime soap "One Life To Live" as reporter Mike Rivers.

La Salle move to Los Angeles in 1991 to take a regular role on the TV series "The Human Factor" that lasted less than a year but piled up guest TV credits on such shows as "L.A. Law", "Quantum Leap", "A Different World", "HBO Vietnam War Stories" and several TV-movies. In feature films, he had small roles in Tony Bill's well-received "Five Corners" (1988); the Eddie Murphy vehicle "Coming to America" (1988) and Adrian Lyne's "Jacob's Ladder" (1990). He made his directorial debut with the HBO movie "Rebound: The Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault" in 1996 and later helmed the pilot for Showtime series "Soul Food".

2002 was a busy year for LaSalle. He was cast as Detective Van Der Zee in the thriller-suspense feature "One Hour Photo" and directed his first feature film, "Crazy as Hell," which he co-starred in and co-wrote.