Laurence Fishburne joining ‘CSI’ cast
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Oscar nominee and Emmy and Tony Award winner Laurence Fishburne will join the cast of hit TV series “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” CBS announced today.
His character, currently known only as “The Professor,” will debut in the upcoming season’s ninth episode. Fishburne (films “The Matrix,” “What’s Love Got To Do with It”) will take over the leading man role that series star William Petersen recently announced that he will be vacating next season.
Here’s how the news release describes Fishburne’s character:
Fishburne will play a former pathologist who is now working as an itinerant college lecturer, teaching a course in criminalistics. His focus is on understanding criminal behavior, how and why people commit acts of violence - tendencies he disturbingly sees within himself. In the course of a murder investigation, he comes into contact with the CSI team and ultimately joins the Las Vegas Crime Lab as a Level-1 CSI.
“CBS asked us, ‘Who’s at the top of your dream list?’” ‘CSI ‘executive producers Carol Mendelsohn and Naren Shankar said in the release. “Without hesitation, we said Laurence Fishburne. He is a powerful and intense actor, with an incredible range.
“We had the opportunity to see Mr. Fishburne in ‘Thurgood’ on Broadway a few weeks ago, and it was a truly profound experience. The actor disappeared and Thurgood Marshall was standing there on the stage. Mr. Fishburne is also a talented writer and director. If you distill ‘CSI’ down to its essence, it’s a collaboration - and we are so looking forward to collaborating with Mr. Fishburne. For all of us at ‘CSI,’ this is truly a dream.”
Fishburne said in the release: “I am elated and delighted to be joining the cast of ‘CSI.’ I look forward to a wonderful collaboration with the creative and talented team of such a successful and distinguished show.”
I participated this afternoon in a conference call with Fishburne, Mendelsohn and Shankar. All three seemed truly enthusiastic about the actor joining the show, but the details still seem pretty sketchy. They said the air date for Fishburne’s “CSI” debut hasn’t been set. In fact, his character has yet to be named: For now, he is just referred to as “The Professor.”
Fishburne is best known as a theater and film actor - he has several upcoming movie credits listed on IMDB - but he does have some TV experience. He was nominated for a best-actor Emmy for the 1997 TV movie “Miss Evers’ Boys.” He actually took home an Emmy for serving as one of the producers on that telefilm, which won in the outstanding made-for-television movie category. Â
During the teleconference, Fishburne also offered a blast to my past. He was asked if he had ever worked as a regular in series TV before, and this is what he had to say:
“Not since the mid to late ’80s with a wonderful CBS show called ‘Pee-wee’s Playhouse,’ where I played the psychedelic cowboy Curtis,” he said.
Wow, I had totally forgotten that the man who played Morpheus also played one of Pee-wee’s pals. Now, he’s going to be examining mutilated corpses and bits of evidence on “CSI.”
I guess that’s Hollywood for you.
-BAM
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