The fame and glory of David Caruso

Some people have a little angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other that argue with each other. I have TV’s David Caruso. You may know him as the redheaded, pale-skinned Spanish Lieutenant Horatio Caine on CSI: Miami, but in 1994 he was redheaded, pale-skinned Irish Detective John Kelly on NYPD Blue. At the time, NYPD Blue was one of the grittiest shows on television.

Caruso was at the top of his game, getting Emmy nominations, setting the tone for shows to follow like the Sopranos and the Shield. Life was going so well but then he walked away from it all to pursue a film career. His first two movies after his departure from NYPD Blue were “Kiss of Death” and “Jade.” Don’t worry if neither of those sounds familiar, no one on the planet saw them. They’re horrible. They made about a dollar. And for the next seven years Caruso couldn’t get any acting gigs except a string of movies that sound like Steven Seagal films:
• Body Count
• Cold Around the Heart
• Deadlocked
• Black Point
• Session 9

The list goes on and on until he finally landed the aforementioned role on CSI. For some reason though, the media’s lampooning of Caruso’s stupid career move impacted me. I was a freshman in college at the time and was making a lot of big decisions. That’s when I started to hear David Caruso on my shoulder. When I stood at a crossroads with two options before me, he’d quietly whisper “be careful, don’t make the wrong decision, remember Jade. Remember Jade…”

But I can’t trust the little David Caruso on my shoulder. He’s a really bad judge of when to wait and when to run.

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