Eriq La Salle
La Salle at the 1995 Emmy Awards
Born	Erik Ki La Salle July 23, 1962 (1962-07-23) (age 47) Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.
Occupation	Actor/Director
Years active	1985–present

Eriq Ki La Salle (born July 23, 1962) is an American actor and director, known for his portrayals of Darryl in the 1988 comedy film Coming to America and Dr. Peter Benton on the NBC drama series ER.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Career 2 References 3 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

La Salle, one of four children, was born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut by his mother, Ada Haynes ^[1] La Salle studied at Juilliard for two years, then moved on to New York University's theater program in 1984, but did not complete either degree. After leaving school, he was cast in the first of several productions for Joseph Papp's Shakespeare in the Park theater company. Soon after, he found continuous acting work on Broadway, off-Broadway and in the daytime TV drama One Life to Live as reporter Mike Rivers.

[edit] Career

In 1994 the medical drama ER premiered on NBC with La Salle starring as Dr. Peter Benton. He held the role until leaving during the eighth season. In 2009, La Salle returned to ER for two episodes (including the series finale) during its 15th and final season. He also returned to direct one episode.^[2]

In 1996, La Salle directed and acted in the HBO made-for-TV movie Rebound: The Legend of Earl "The Goat" Manigault, starring Don Cheadle. After ER, La Salle has had relatively small roles in movies such as One Hour Photo and has also directed for Soul Food: The Series on Showtime. La Salle played a Jamaican gangster in the independent film Johnny Was ^[3] opposite Vinnie Jones, Samantha Mumba, Lennox Lewis, and Roger Daltrey. La Salle lived in Belfast for four weeks filming the movie, which he supported recently at the North American premiere of the film, at the American Black Film Festival in Miami.

La Salle directed & starred in the movie Crazy As Hell. He has recently directed an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

After a fairly extensive absence from acting, La Salle starred in the Hallmark Channel original movie, Relative Stranger, which premiered on March 14, 2009. Also in the movie were La Salle's former ER castmates Michael Michele (Dr. Cleo Finch) and Michael Beach (Al Boulet).

[edit] References

• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1252330/

[edit] External links

• Eriq La Salle at the Internet Movie Database

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