Elias Koteas (; el, Ηλίας Κοτέας; born March 11, 1961) is a Canadian actor. He is known for playing Alvin "Al" Olinsky in the ''
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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'' franchise, as well as appearing in lead and supporting roles in numerous films. He won the
Canadian Screen Award for Best Supporting Actor The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television presents an annual award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role to the best performance by a supporting actor in a Canadian film.Maria Topalovich, ''And the Genie Goes To...: Celebrating 5 ...
for his role in the film ''
Ararat'' (2002). He appeared in such films as ''
Some Kind of Wonderful'' (1987), ''
The Adjuster
''The Adjuster'' is a 1991 Canadian drama film directed by Atom Egoyan. It premiered at the New York Film Festival, and was invited to the Director's Fortnight program at the Cannes Film Festival. It is Egoyan's fourth feature film, and the firs ...
'' (1991), ''
Exotica
Exotica is a musical genre, named after the 1957 Martin Denny Exotica (Martin Denny album), album of the same name that was popular during the 1950s to mid-1960s with Americans who came of age during World War II. The term was coined by Simon Wa ...
'' (1994), ''
The Prophecy
''The Prophecy'' is a 1995 American fantasy thriller film starring Christopher Walken, Elias Koteas, Virginia Madsen, Eric Stoltz, and Viggo Mortensen. It was written and directed by Gregory Widen in his feature directorial debut, and is the f ...
'' (1995), ''
Crash
Crash or CRASH may refer to:
Common meanings
* Collision, an impact between two or more objects
* Crash (computing), a condition where a program ceases to respond
* Cardiac arrest, a medical condition in which the heart stops beating
* Couch su ...
'' (1996), ''
Living Out Loud
''Living Out Loud'' is a 1998 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Richard LaGravenese and set in New York City, starring Holly Hunter, Danny DeVito, Queen Latifah, Martin Donovan, and Elias Koteas.
Plot
Judith Moore had what s ...
'' (1998), ''
Fallen
Fallen may refer to:
People
* Carl Fredrik Fallén (1764–1830), Swedish botanist and entomologist
* Gabriel Toledo (born 1991), known as FalleN, Brazilian ''Counter-Strike'' player
Arts, entertainment, and media
Fictional entities
* Fallen ...
'' (1998), ''
The Thin Red Line'' (1998), ''
Harrison's Flowers
''Harrison's Flowers'' is a 2000 film by Elie Chouraqui. It stars, among others, Andie MacDowell, Elias Koteas, Brendan Gleeson, Adrien Brody, Marie Trintignant, Gerard Butler, and David Strathairn. The film is also Quinn Shephard's big screen d ...
'' (2002), ''
Collateral Damage
Collateral damage is any death, injury, or other damage inflicted that is an incidental result of an activity. Originally coined by military operations, it is now also used in non-military contexts.
Since the development of precision guided ...
'' (2002), ''
Shooter
Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or blowpipe). Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missiles can ...
'' (2007), ''
Zodiac
The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. The pat ...
'' (2007), ''
Skinwalkers'' (2007), ''
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'' (2008), and ''
Shutter Island
''Shutter Island'' is a novel by American writer Dennis Lehane, published by HarperCollins in April 2003. It is about a U.S. Marshal who goes to an isolated hospital for the criminally insane to investigate the disappearance of a patient who is ...
'' (2010). He also portrayed
Casey Jones
John Luther "Casey" Jones (March 14, 1863 – April 30, 1900) was an American railroader who was killed when his passenger train collided with a stalled freight train at Vaughan, Mississippi.
Jones was a locomotive engineer for the Illinois C ...
in two of the original
''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' films.
Early life
Koteas was born in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...
,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, Canada, to a father who worked as a mechanic for the
Canadian National Railways and a
milliner
Hat-making or millinery is the design, manufacture and sale of hats and other headwear. A person engaged in this trade is called a milliner or hatter.
Historically, milliners, typically women shopkeepers, produced or imported an inventory of ...
mother. His parents are both of
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
descent. Koteas is a graduate of the
American Academy of Dramatic Arts in
New York as well as
Vanier College
Vanier College ( French: ''Collège Vanier'') is an English-language public college located in the Saint-Laurent borough of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was founded in 1970 as the second English-language public college of Quebec's public coll ...
in Montreal.
Career
Koteas has played major roles in ''
Some Kind of Wonderful'' (1987), ''
The Adjuster
''The Adjuster'' is a 1991 Canadian drama film directed by Atom Egoyan. It premiered at the New York Film Festival, and was invited to the Director's Fortnight program at the Cannes Film Festival. It is Egoyan's fourth feature film, and the firs ...
'' (1991), ''
Exotica
Exotica is a musical genre, named after the 1957 Martin Denny Exotica (Martin Denny album), album of the same name that was popular during the 1950s to mid-1960s with Americans who came of age during World War II. The term was coined by Simon Wa ...
'' (1994),
''
Crash
Crash or CRASH may refer to:
Common meanings
* Collision, an impact between two or more objects
* Crash (computing), a condition where a program ceases to respond
* Cardiac arrest, a medical condition in which the heart stops beating
* Couch su ...
'' (1996), ''
Fallen
Fallen may refer to:
People
* Carl Fredrik Fallén (1764–1830), Swedish botanist and entomologist
* Gabriel Toledo (born 1991), known as FalleN, Brazilian ''Counter-Strike'' player
Arts, entertainment, and media
Fictional entities
* Fallen ...
'' (1998), and ''
The Thin Red Line'' (1998), among other films. Koteas is also known for playing the lead role of Thomas Daggett in the American film ''The Prophecy'' (1995) and for portraying sports-crazed
vigilante
Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority.
A vigilante (from Spanish, Italian and Portuguese “vigilante”, which means "sentinel" or "watcher") is a person who ...
Casey Jones
John Luther "Casey" Jones (March 14, 1863 – April 30, 1900) was an American railroader who was killed when his passenger train collided with a stalled freight train at Vaughan, Mississippi.
Jones was a locomotive engineer for the Illinois C ...
in two of the original
''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' films.
In 2010, he played major roles in ''
Let Me In'' and ''
Defendor
''Defendor'' is a 2009 Canadian-American vigilante comedy-drama film written and directed by Peter Stebbings in his directorial debut. It stars Woody Harrelson as Arthur Poppington, a regular man who adopts a superhero persona named Defendor, wi ...
'', a Canadian superhero film starring
Woody Harrelson
Woodrow Tracy Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American actor and playwright. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, in addition to nominations for three Academy Award ...
.
On television, he appeared in
Season Four of ''The Sopranos'' as Dominic Palladino and in the Season Two finale of ''
House'' as a man who shoots Dr.
Gregory House
Gregory House, M.D. is the titular protagonist of the American medical drama series ''House''. Created by David Shore and portrayed by English actor Hugh Laurie, he leads a team of diagnosticians and is the Head of Diagnostic Medicine at the ...
. From 2014 to 2018, Koteas starred on the
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
''
Chicago Fire'' spin-off ''
Chicago P.D.
The Chicago Police Department (CPD) is the municipal law enforcement agency of the U.S. city of Chicago, Illinois, under the jurisdiction of the City Council. It is the second-largest municipal police department in the United States, behind th ...
'' where he played Alvin "Al" Olinsky, a longtime undercover detective in the Intelligence Unit.
He also appeared in all other ''
Chicago franchise'' series.
Filmography
Film
Television
References
External links
Canadian Film Encyclopedia
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koteas, Elias
1961 births
20th-century Canadian male actors
21st-century Canadian male actors
American Academy of Dramatic Arts alumni
Anglophone Quebec people
Best Supporting Actor Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners
Canadian male film actors
Canadian male television actors
Canadian male voice actors
Canadian people of Greek descent
Living people
Male actors from Montreal
Vanier College alumni