Esai Morales (born October 1, 1962) is an actor who most recently starred as "Lt. Tony Rodriguez" on the ABC television police drama NYPD Blue, as well as appearing in the PBS drama American Family and the Showtime series Resurrection Blvd.
Morales' interest in acting was sparked at the age of 12 when he saw Al Pacino in the movie Dog Day Afternoon. He began his pursuit of this career by attending the High School for the Performing ArtsinManhattan. His first professional performances were in theatre and television in New York, and his first film—Bad Boys, about teenagers in prison—was released in 1983.
The role which arguably made him a full-fledged star, however, was as a similarly unsympathetic character, the ex-convict/biker half-brother of 1950s rock and roll singer Richie Valens in the 1987 movie La Bamba. Some of his other roles have reflected his socio-political interests, such as The Burning Season in 1994, My Family in 1995, The Disappearance Of Garcia Lorca in 1997, and Southern Cross in 1998. In the last three films, as well as in a few others such as Bloodhounds of Broadway in 1989 and Rapa Nui in 1994, Morales was given roles which showcased (with increasing amounts of both screen time and flesh) his prowess as a romantic leading man. The precedent for his portrayal of a police officer was set with the film Dogwatch in 1996.
Before NYPD Blue, Morales appeared on television most notably in the mid-1980s, on Fame (which, ironically, was set in the High School for Performing Arts, which Morales attended), Miami Vice, The Equalizer, and The Twilight Zone. In the 1990s, he guest-starred on episodes of The Outer Limits, Tales from the Crypt, and two shorter-lived series, L. A. Doctors and The Hunger. He was a featured TV actor, seen in a two-part episode of Family Law (tv series) in 2000. His tenure on NYPD Blue as the head of the 15th precinct detective squad began in mid-season 2001 and continued until 2004. Appearing in three different television series at once did not mean the end of his film career, however; Paid in Full was scheduled for release in October 2002. It marked a return to a criminal character such as those which made him famous—in this case, a rich, well-dressed drug dealer named Lulu.
A native New YorkerofPuerto Rican descent, Esai was born in Brooklyn, New York. His parents divorced when he was a baby. He is also a political activist, primarily as one of the founders of the Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, taking inspiration from his mother, who was an organizer for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.
Never married, Esai Morales answers questions about the reasons why with variations on the expression "So many women, so little time!".
