Dennis Boutsikaris

Dennis Boutsikaris (/ˌbuːtsɪˈkærɪs/; born December 21, 1952) is an American character actor who has won the Obie Award twice. He is also a narrator of audiobooks, for which he has won 13 Golden Earphone Awards and 8 Audie Awards. He won Best Audiobook of the Year from Amazon for his reading of The Gene.

Dennis Boutsikaris
Boutsikaris in 2016
Born	(1952-12-21) December 21, 1952 (age 71) Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1973–present
Spouse	Deborah Hedwall ​ ​ (m. 1982; div. 2002)​
Children	2
Website	www.dennisboutsikaris.com

Early life and education

Boutsikaris was born in Newark, New Jersey, to a Greek American father and Jewish mother,^[1] and grew up in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey.^[2] He took up acting while a student at Governor Livingston High School, because he felt he was too small to succeed in athletics.^[3] A graduate of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, Boutsikaris toured the country with John Houseman's The Acting Company doing classical theatre.

Career

Boutsikaris' film credits include leading roles in *batteries not included, The Dream Team, Crocodile Dundee II, Boys on the Side and In Dreams, among many others. His more recent films include Cherry Crush, The Education of Charlie Banks, Calling It Quits, and Money Monster.^[4] He played Paul Wolfowitz in Oliver Stone's W.^[5] In 2012, he co-starred in The Bourne Legacy, the fourth installment of the successful Bourne franchise.^[6]

On television, he had the lead in the series Stat, The Jackie Thomas Show, and Misery Loves Company. He has also had recurring roles on Sidney Lumet's 100 Centre Street, Nurse, Trinity, ER, Law & Order and Showtime's Shameless.^[7] Boutsikaris had a leading part in episode 20 of the second season of the hit CBS show Person of Interest which aired in the USA on Thursday, April 26, 2013.^[8] He was part of NBC's State of Affairs, the TV series that marked the return to series television of Katherine Heigl.^[9] In 2012, he also made an appearance as Jack Quayle in the season 2 episode "Collateral Damage" of the CBS show Blue Bloods. From 2015 to 2022, he played the role of lawyer Rich Schweikart in the first, second, then fourth through sixth seasons of the American series Better Call Saul.^[10] In 2017, Boutsikaris was cast in the recurring role of Henry Roarke on the ABC thriller series Quantico.^[11] In 2017-2018 Boutsikaris played a recurring role as Malcolm Croft, a professor at MIT and Liam's mentor in CBS's Salvation.

He has starred in over 20 TV movies, including Chasing the Dragon, And Then There Was One, Three Faces of Karen, Survival on the Mountain, Beyond Betrayal,^[12] and as Woody Allen in the miniseries Love and Betrayal: The Mia Farrow Story (with Patsy Kensit).^[13]

Theater

On Broadway Boutsikaris became the first American to play Mozart in Amadeus, and was directed by Laurence Olivier in Filumena. He starred in the Off-Broadway production of Sight Unseen to great critical acclaim.

He has been seen on Broadway in Bent and Amadeus (as the first American to play Mozart) with Frank Langella. He was seen in the Delacorte Theatre's production of Julius Caesar as Cassius. He was in the original New York productions of The Boys Next Door, A Picasso, and the revival of That Championship Season.

Off-Broadway he is probably best known for playing Jonathan Waxman in the original production of Sight Unseen at the Manhattan Theatre Club and later at the Orpheum Theatre. He received the Obie Award and a nomination for a Drama Desk Award for this performance. At the Geffen Theatre in Los Angeles he appeared in the premiere of David Mamet's The Old Neighborhood and in 2007 Jane Anderson's The Quality of Life with Laurie Metcalf and Jo Beth Williams. For that performance he received the Backstage West Garland Award for Best Actor and was nominated for Best Actor by the L.A. Critics Drama Circle and by the LA Alliance Ovation Awards.

In 2009 he was in the Broadway revivals of Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound, again with Laurie Metcalf. The former opened to wide critical acclaim and then closed one week later. The latter never opened.

He continued his association with Laurie Metcalf, appearing with her in The Other Place Off-Broadway.

Voice work

He can be heard in over 160 audiobooks and has received eight Audie Awards and two Best Voices of the Year Awards from AudioFile Magazine.^[14] He was voted Best Narrator of the Year by Amazon for The Gene.

Awards

Boutsikaris has received two Obie Awards: one in 1985 for Outstanding Performance in Nest of the Woodgrouse at the New York Shakespeare Festival, directed by Joseph Papp; and one in 1992 for Outstanding Performance in Sight Unseen at the Manhattan Theatre Club. He also received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Best Actor for Sight Unseen, as well as a Cable ACE nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Chasing the Dragon in 1995. He was nominated for a People's Choice Award as best Newcomer. He received the Best Actor Award at the Staten Island Film Festival and the Long island Film Festival for his role in Calling It Quits.

Personal life

Boutsikaris was married to actress Deborah Hedwall; they divorced in 2002.^{[citation needed]}

Filmography

Film

List of Dennis Boutsikaris film credits

Year	Title	Role	Ref(s)
1973	Jeremy	Danny
1980	The Exterminator	Frankie	[15]
1983	Very Close Quarters	Alex	[16]
1985	War and Love	Marek	[15]
1987	Batteries Not Included	Mason Baylor
1988	Crocodile Dundee II	Bob Tanner
1989	Thunderboat Row	Tom Rampy	[17]
	The Dream Team	Dr. Jeffrey "Jeff" Weitzman	[15]
1991	Talent for the Game	Greg Rossi	[18]
	The Boy Who Cried Bitch	Orin Fell	[19]
1995	Boys on the Side	Massarelli
1996	Surviving Picasso	Kootz	[20]
1999	Taken	Bill McMurtrey	[21]
	In Dreams	Dr. Stevens	[19]
2001	They Crawl	Professor Jurgen
2002	Crazy Little Thing	Dr. Levy	[22]
2007	Cherry Crush	Ben Wells	[19]
	The Education of Charlie Banks	Mr. Banks
2008	W.	Paul Wolfowitz
2010	My Soul to Take	Principal Pratt
2012	The Bourne Legacy	Terrence Ward
2014	She's Lost Control	Dr. Alan Cassidy
2015	Freeheld	Pat Gerry
2016	Money Monster	Avery Goodloe CFO
	The Inherited	Sanders
2019	Cliffs of Freedom	Theodoros Kolokotronis	[23]
	Impossible Monsters	Steven	[19]
2021	Violet	Tom Gaines
2022	Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game	Mr. Sharpe

Television series

List of Dennis Boutsikaris television series credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref(s)
1980	The American Short Story	Vito	Episode: "Rappaccini's Daughter"	[24]
1981–1982	Nurse	Joe Calvo	10 episodes	[19]
1987	CBS Summer Playhouse	Keith	Episode: "In the Lion's Den"	[25]
1987–1989	The Equalizer	Yorgi Kostov, C.R. Heaton	2 episodes	[26][27]
1988	American Playhouse	Christopher Boucher	Episode: "The Trial of Bernhard Goetz"	[28]
	Tattingers	Scott Spalding	Episode: "The Sonny Always Rises"	[29]
1989	Dream Street	Michael	Episode: "Girl's Talk"	[30]
1990	Matlock	Professor John Gallagher	Episode: "The Student"	[31]
1990–2004	Law & Order	Various	7 episodes
1991	Stat	Dr. Tony Menzies	Main role; 6 episodes	[32]
	Sisters	David Joseph Levitsky	Episode: "A Kiss is Still a Kiss"	[33]
	Palace Guard	Marshal	Episode: "Enchanted Simian Evening"	[34]
	Pros and Cons	Robert Wills	Episode: "Ho! Ho! Hold Up!"	[35]
1992–1993	The Jackie Thomas Show	Jerry Harper	Main role; 18 episodes	[19]
1994	Murphy Brown	Marty Crane	Episode: "A Piece of the Auction"	[36]
	Murder, She Wrote	Dr. Jerry Santana	Episode: "Murder on the Thirteenth Floor"	[37]
1995	Misery Loves Company	Joe	Main role; 8 episodes	[38]
1996	The Burning Zone	Dr. Steven Rydell	Episode: "Touch of the Dead"	[39]
1997	The Last Don	Skippy Deere	Miniseries; 2 episodes	[40][41]
1998	Diagnosis: Murder	Neil Burnside	2 episodes	[42][43]
	ER	Dr. David Kotlowitz	4 episodes	[19]
1998–1999	Trinity	Josh Beekman	7 episodes	[44]
1999–2014	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Various	3 episodes
2000	Perfect Murder, Perfect Town	Chief Koby	Miniseries; 2 episodes	[45]
	Touched by an Angel	Alan Berger	Episode: "Bar Mitzvah"	[46]
	The X-Files	Dr. Peter Voss	Episode: "Brand X"	[47]
	Bull	Hal Bridgewater	Episode: "In the Course of Human Events"	[48]
2001	Nash Bridges	Robert Saxon	Episode: "Slam Dunk!"	[49]
	The Fugitive	Agent Gagomiros	2 episodes	[50][51]
2001–2002	100 Centre Street	Gil Byrnes	9 episodes	[52]
2002	The Practice	U.S. Attorney Greg Mitchell	Episode: "Judge Knot"	[53]
	Third Watch	Ray Henry	2 episodes	[54]
	Monk	Dr. Morris Lancester	Episode: "Mr. Monk Goes to the Asylum"	[55]
	The Agency	DEA Agent Riddick	Episode: "Heartless"
2003	7th Heaven	Dr. Norton	Episode: "The One Thing"
2004	Dragnet	LaPlatt	Episode: "Frame of Mind"
2005	Crossing Jordan	Dr. Bernard Krump	Episode: "You Really Got Me"
	Las Vegas	Lance Marshall	Episode: "Down and Dirty"
2005–2006	Related	Professor Kasnov	4 episodes
2006	Criminal Minds	Lance Wagner	Episode: "A Real Rain"
2006–2007	Close to Home	Paul Ramont	2 episodes
	Six Degrees	Leonard Ralston	4 episodes
2007	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Dr. Sidney Buckman	Episode: "Leapin' Lizards"
2008	Shark	D.A. Lester Rivers	Episode: "Leaving Las Vegas"
2009	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Dr. Ernst	Episode: "In Treatment"
	Kings	Minister Fawkes	2 episodes
2010	Medium	Dr. Anthony Woodel	Episode: "Psych"
	Grey's Anatomy	Don Taylor	Episode: "Push"
	House	Artie	Episode: "Black Hole"
	Outlaw	Prosecutor	Episode: "Pilot"
2011–2012	Shameless	Professor Hearst	5 episodes	[7]
	The Good Wife	Tommy Segarra	2 episodes
2012	Blue Bloods	Jack Quayle	Episode: "Collateral Damage"
2013	The Mentalist	Dr. Rubin	Episode: "Days of Wine and Roses"
	Elementary	Gerald Lydon	Episode: "Possibility Two"
	Body of Proof	John Anderson	Episode: "Disappearing Act"
	Person of Interest	Dr. Richard Nelson	Episode: "In Extremis"
2014	Satisfaction	Preston	Episode: "...Through Self Discovery"
	State of Affairs	CIA Director Skinner	Episode: "Pilot"	[9]
2015	Madam Secretary	Gary Coomer	Episode: "The Time Is at Hand"
2015–2022	Better Call Saul	Rich Schweikart	Recurring role; 15 episodes	[56]
2016	Rectify	Bernie	Episode: "Yolk"
2016–2018	Billions	Kenneth Malverne	4 episodes
2017	Quantico	Henry Roarke	6 episodes	[11]
2017–2018	Salvation	Dr. Malcolm Croft	11 episodes
2018	MacGyver	Elliot Lambeau	Episode: "Bozer + Booze + Back to School"
2019	FBI	President Edgar Whitman	Episode: "A New Dawn"
	Blindspot	Lucas Nash	2 episodes
2020	Prodigal Son	William Voight	Episode: "Wait & Hope"
	Bull	Judge Thornton	Episode: "Quid Pro Quo"
	The Blacklist	Judge Leonard Borns	Episode: "Gordon Kemp (No. 158)"
2022	The Equalizer	Judge Clemmens	Episode: "D.W.B."
2023	Mayfair Witches	Alan Albrecht	3 episodes	[57]
	Sugar	Bernie Siegel	Main role

Television films

List of Dennis Boutsikaris television film credits

Year	Title	Role	Ref(s)
1986	Liberty	Joseph Pulitzer	[58]
1988	Internal Affairs	Jerry Renfrew	[59]
1989	Big Time	Michael	[60]
1991	The Hit Man	Unnamed Hollywood producer	[61]
	Love, Lies and Murder	Baruch	[62]
1992	The Keys	Leeson	[19]
1993	Victim of Love: The Shannon Mohr Story	Jack Mandel	[63]
1994	Tonya and Nancy: The Inside Story	Screenplay writer	[64]
	The Yarn Princess	Steven Hoffman	[19]
	Beyond Betrayal	Sam
	And Then There Was One	Vinnie Ventola
1995	Love and Betrayal: The Mia Farrow Story	Woody Allen
1996	Chasing the Dragon	Nat
	Sudden Terror: The Hijacking of School Bus No. 17	Frank Caldwell
1997	The Three Lives of Karen	Paul
	Survival on the Mountain	Joe Hoffman
2000	Custody of the Heart	Nick Brody

References

1. Papapostolou, Anastasios (November 19, 2008). "Dennis Boutsikaris aka Mr. Wolfowitz in W." Retrieved September 9, 2010.
2. Staff. "Play It Again, Dennis: In This Week's Mia Farrow TV Bio, Dennis Boutsikaris Shows He Nose Woody", People, March 6, 1995. Accessed February 27, 2011. "His own life doesn't much resemble Allen's. He grew up in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, the son of an ad exec and a homemaker."
3. Knutzen, Eirik. "Stat star had no choice but to take part", The Morning Call, May 26, 1991. Accessed April 20, 2021, via Newspapers.com. "Boutsikaris, a five-foot-six flyweight who was born in Newark, N.J., and reared in nearby Berkeley Heights, claims he had no choice but to become an actor while a student at Governor Livingston Regional High School. 'That's because I was too short to do sports and incapable of doing a number of other things. The only thing I excelled at was acting, so I stuck with it.'"
4. "Guiding Light's Orlagh Cassidy in Calling It Quits". soaps.sheknows.com. 9 October 2008. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
5. "Dennis Boutsikaris aka Mr. Wolfowitz in W. | Hollywood.GreekReporter.com". hollywood.greekreporter.com. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
6. "The Bourne Legacy Premiere - Dennis Boutsikaris (2012)". Trailer Addict. 31 July 2012. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
7. Bell, Crystal (15 January 2012). "'Shameless' Star Spills Season 2 Secrets". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
8. "Person of Interest In Extremis Review: Time for a Reboot". TV.com. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
9. Lloyd, Robert (17 November 2014). "'State of Affairs' an uneven comeback vehicle for Katherine Heigl". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
10. "'Better Call Saul' is Becoming a Triple-Threat Drama". Inverse. 22 March 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
11. "'Quantico' Season 2, Episode 19 Promo, Synopsis: The Task Force Meets The Collaborators". Korea Portal. 17 April 2017. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
12. "Beyond Betrayal (1994) starring Susan Dey, Richard Dean Anderson, Annie Corley, James Tolkan, Michael O'Neill, Dennis Boutsikaris directed by Carl Schenkel - movie review on The Movie Scene". www.themoviescene.co.uk. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
13. Loynd, Ray (28 February 1995). "Review: 'Love and Betrayal: The Mia Farrow Story'". Variety. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
14. "AudioFile Magazine Spotlight on Narrator Dennis Boutsikaris". AudioFile Magazine. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
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34. Siebert, Charles (director); Canell, Stephen J., Epstein, Jacob and Solarz, Ken (writer) (October 25, 1991). "Enchanted Simian Evening". Palace Guard. Season 1. Episode 3. CBS.
35. Thorpe, Jerry (director) (December 19, 1991). "Ho! Ho! Hold". Pros and Cons. Season 1. Episode 11. ABC.
36. Chemel, Lee Shallat (director); English, Diane and Bragin, Rob (writer) (January 3, 1994). "A Piece of the Auction". Murphy Brown. Season 6. Episode 14. CBS.
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External links

• Official website
• Dennis Boutsikaris at IMDb 
• Dennis Boutsikaris at the Internet Broadway Database
• Dennis Boutsikaris at the Internet Off-Broadway Database