English actor
Eamonn Walker
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Born
| Eamonn Roderique Walker
[1]
(
1962-06-12
)
12 June 1962
(age 62)
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Occupation
| Actor
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Years active
| 1985?present
|
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Spouse
| Sandra Walker (??present)
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Children
| 3
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Eamonn Roderique Walker
(born 12 June 1962) is an English actor. On television, he began in the BBC sitcom
In Sickness and in Health
(1985?1987), the
ITV
crime dramas
The Bill
(1988?1989) and
Supply & Demand
(1998), and the
HBO
series
Oz
(1997?2003), for which he won a
CableACE Award
.
He led the ITV television film
Othello
(2001) and had a further role in the Fox series
Justice
(2006?2007). Since 2012, Walker has starred as Wallace Boden in the
NBC
drama
Chicago Fire
and its spinoffs. His films include
Young Soul Rebels
(1991),
Once in the Life
(2000),
Legacy
(2010), and
A Lonely Place to Die
(2011).
Early life and education
[
edit
]
Walker was born in
west London
to a
Grenadian
father and a
Trinidadian
mother, in 1962.
[2]
[3]
Brought up in
Islington
in
north London
,
[4]
Walker lived in
Trinidad
for six months when he was nine years old. He attended Hungerford School in Islington
[5]
and began studying
social work
at the
Polytechnic of North London
. He trained as a
dancer
and later joined the Explosive Dance Theatre Company in London.
[3]
However, an abscess on his calf muscle forced him to give up dancing. He also studied at the
New York Film Academy
in the
United States
.
[2]
Career
[
edit
]
Early career in UK
[
edit
]
Walker made his professional acting debut in 1983 on stage in London playing an
East End
punk rocker
in the musical
Labelled with Love
, based partly on the music of the pop band
Squeeze
.
[3]
His first television appearance came in 1985 when he appeared in an episode on the second series of
Dempsey and Makepeace
, which aired on
ITV
on 19 October 1985. His next television appearance came the following year in an episode of the
children's
anthology series
Dramarama
, also on ITV. Also that year, he was cast in the role of Winston, a black,
gay
, council carer and a thorn in
Alf Garnett
's side, for series 1?3 of
In Sickness and in Health
on
BBC1
. In 1987 he appeared in an episode of
Bulman
on
Granada TV
and in 1988
an episode
of the ninth series of
Tales of the Unexpected
. In 1988 he won the role of PC Malcolm Haynes in
The Bill
on ITV, a part he played from 1988?89.
His first film role came in
1991
, playing Carlton in
Young Soul Rebels
about the interaction between different
youth cultural movements
in late 1970s Britain. He also appeared in an episode of the
detective
series
Bergerac
on BBC1. In 1992 he appeared in episodes of
Love Hurts
and
The Old Boy Network
. Then in 1993 he appeared in two comedies on BBC, with the role of Colin in three episodes of
Birds of a Feather
and he also appeared in an episode of
One Foot in the Grave
. His second film came in 1994 playing Peters in
Shopping
. He followed this in 1995 with appearances in two more
British sitcoms
, on the BBC,
The Detectives
and
Goodnight Sweetheart
. He also appeared in the drama series
The Governor
.
1997 to present ? Hollywood and U.S. television
[
edit
]
He appeared as Jake Brown in the
miniseries
Supply & Demand
in 1997.
The same year he won the major role of Kareem Said on the
American
television drama series
Oz
on HBO in the United States. The series was set in a fictional
maximum-security prison
, and the character Walker played was a new inmate who was a devout
Muslim
. Walker spent time at a
mosque
in
Harlem
doing research on the
Nation of Islam
and
American Muslim culture
, explaining "As an actor, my portrayal had to be real."
[2]
He appeared in the first episode on 12 July 1997 and he continued to play the role until the third episode of the final season in 2003. He won the award for
Best Actor in a Dramatic Series
in the inaugural
CableACE Awards
for his performance in the first series of
Oz
in the ceremony held in
Los Angeles
. Then in 1999 he received a
Satellite Awards
nomination for
Best Actor in a TV Drama Series
for his performances in
Oz
.
In
2000
Walker appeared in two films: the crime drama
Once in the Life
, acting alongside and being directed by
Laurence Fishburne
on his directorial debut; and the fantasy mystery
Unbreakable
, alongside
Bruce Willis
and
Samuel L. Jackson
. Walker also appeared in the de facto series finale of
Homicide: Life on the Street
,
Homicide: The Movie
. In 2001 he returned to British television starring as John Othello in
a modern adaptation
of the
William Shakespeare
play
Othello
on ITV, opposite
Christopher Eccleston
. For his role he won the
Best male performance in television
award at the first ever Black Film Makers (BMF) Film and Television Awards ceremony for the UK's leading black TV and film stars, which was held at the
Grosvenor House Hotel
in London in September 2002.
[6]
[7]
In 2003 he starred in the
war film
Tears of the Sun
as Ellis "Zee" Pettigrew alongside
Bruce Willis
. Walker also appeared in an episode of the
Fox Network
drama series
The Jury
. The next year he made another return to British television in an episode of the crime drama
Rose and Maloney
.
Two more films followed in 2005, the crime thriller
Lord of War
with
Nicolas Cage
and the drama
adventure film
Duma
. And from March 2005 he made his debut on
Broadway
, playing
Mark Antony
in
Julius Caesar
at the
Belasco Theatre
in midtown-
Manhattan
alongside
Denzel Washington
as
Marcus Brutus
.
[8]
In 2006, he played Dr Stephen Dakarai in three episodes of the
medical drama
series
ER
. He also starred in the Fox Network
legal drama
Justice
, playing the part of Luther Graves.
In May 2007, he became the first black actor to play the role of
Othello
at either the original
Globe Theatre
or at the modern reconstruction,
Shakespeare's Globe
in London.
[9]
Then in 2008 he was in the second episode of the
BBC
drama series
Bonekickers
, playing Senator Joy, a United States Presidential candidate. He also starred in three films: the action drama
Blood and Bone
; the
biographical
music drama
Cadillac Records
, about the 1950s musical era, in which he plays the influential
blues
singer,
guitarist
and
harmonica
player
Howlin' Wolf
, which was released on 5 December 2008; and the romantic war
drama
The Messenger
, in which Walker plays Colonel Stuart Dorsett. The first and the latter were released in
2009
.
In October 2008 he performed on
BBC Radio 4
in the first adaptation of
Alice Walker
's
1982
epistolary novel
The Color Purple
in the UK, serialised in ten parts.
[10]
Walker appeared on the
NBC
drama series
Kings
, which was based on the biblical story of
David
. He portrayed Reverend Ephram Samuels, an analogue of the biblical prophet
Samuel
. He also starred in the TV series
The Whole Truth
, alongside
Maura Tierney
and
Rob Morrow
, which premiered on 22 September 2010.
In 2011 Walker appeared on FX series
Lights Out
as trainer Ed Romeo, former trainer of Lights Leary's last opponent, Death Row Reynolds. Walker appeared in an episode of
BBC
One's
Inspector George Gently
, playing the father of a murder victim in 2012, and in two episodes of the BBC/Cinemax series
Strike Back
. In 2013 he portrayed
Frederick Douglass
in the BBC series
Copper
.
[11]
In 2020, Walker stars as the lead in
Steppenwolf Theatre Company
's production of
Between Riverside and Crazy
by
Stephen Adly Guirgis
.
[12]
[13]
In October 2020 Eamon appeared on portrait artist of the year UK
[14]
Personal life
[
edit
]
Walker lives in the United States with his wife Sandra, to whom he has been married for "decades".
[15]
They have three children, two of whom, Jahdine and Deke, are twins.
[2]
[16]
Filmography
[
edit
]
Film
[
edit
]
Television
[
edit
]
Audio book
[
edit
]
Theatre
[
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]
Interviews
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Mr Eamonn Roderique Walker"
. Company Check. Retrieved 2012-03-21.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Martin-Hinds, Angela (29 June 2001).
"On the Set"
.
Trinidad and Tobago Express
. Archived from
the original
on 10 May 2007
. Retrieved
18 October
2008
.
- ^
a
b
c
"Eamonn Walker: Biography"
.
TV Guide
. Retrieved
18 October
2008
.
- ^
Mottram, James (1 September 2001).
"Eamonn Walker: If you're black, you'd better be American"
.
The Independent
. Archived from
the original
on 11 December 2008
. Retrieved
18 October
2008
.
- ^
Foss, Roger (30 April 2007).
"20 Questions With... Eamonn Walker"
.
whatsonstage.com
. Archived from
the original
on 5 December 2008
. Retrieved
18 October
2008
.
- ^
"Black talent honoured at awards"
.
BBC News
. 9 September 2002
. Retrieved
18 October
2008
.
- ^
Jury, Louise (25 May 2007).
"First black 'Baftas' are used to show discrimination in awards business"
.
The Independent
. Archived from
the original
on 11 December 2008
. Retrieved
18 October
2008
.
- ^
"Julius Caesar, Belasco Theatre"
.
Internet Broadway Database
. Retrieved
18 October
2008
.
- ^
Taylor, Paul (25 May 2007).
"First Night: Othello, Shakespeare's Globe, London ? Charisma and danger from Globe's first black Othello"
.
The Independent
. Retrieved
18 October
2008
.
[
dead link
]
- ^
Matthewman, Scott (3 October 2008).
"Turn Off The TV: What's on the radio, 4?10 October"
.
The Stage
. Archived from
the original
on 4 October 2008
. Retrieved
18 October
2008
.
- ^
"Ato Essandoh proud of 'Copper' role"
.
chicagotribune.com
. 7 July 2013
. Retrieved
14 September
2020
.
- ^
"Between Riverside and Crazy | Steppenwolf Theatre"
. 31 January 2018. Archived from
the original
on 31 January 2018
. Retrieved
17 June
2020
.
- ^
"Playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis: 'I don't feel like I fit in anywhere ? I'm a guest in every ethnic group'
"
.
The Stage
. Retrieved
17 June
2020
.
- ^
Deborah James, Eamonn Walker and Melanie Sykes
, Portrait Artist of the Year, 28 October 2020
, retrieved
19 January
2023
- ^
"Meet the Real-Life Flames of Your Chicago Fire Favorites"
.
SheKnows Soaps
. 27 September 2022
. Retrieved
11 April
2023
.
- ^
"Actor Eamonn Walker opens up about his married life with wife Sandra and his three children"
.
Hitberry
. Retrieved
17 June
2020
.
External links
[
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]
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