THE PHILADELPHIA ENQUIRER
January 26, 2006

Underappreciated actor turns sexy star on 'CSI'
By David Hiltbrand

Marg Helgenberger remembers a meeting in early 2000, back when "CSI" was just a concept. Anthony Zuiker, the show's creator, was rhapsodizing to the actress about this fantastic guy he had found to play the role of Warrick Brown, one of the forensic squad's investigators. "He has these piercing blue eyes," Zuiker said. "No, they're green," Helgenberger blurted out dreamily.

The actor in question was Gary Dourdan, whom TV Gjuide this summer designated one of the 10 sexiest men in prime time. Helgenberger had worked with him six years before on a forgettable failed pilot called "Keys". But Dourdan has the type fo smoldering looks that stick with a woman. Of Course, Hollywood is full of arrestingly handsome actors whose only lines consist of describing the specials, not found on the menu. And Dourdan wandered unappreciated in the showbiz wilderness for 15 years before landing on TV's top-rated series.

But what a difference a good part makes. "I'm overjoyed it's gotten to the point it has," says Dourdan, 38, from his home in Venice, Calif. "Finally to have some peers in the Screen Actors Guild like Glenn Close and Samuel Jackson Jr. speak to me and say the most beautiful things about my work - it doesn't get much better." Particularly given his rocky start. Dourdan was born Gary Durdin in Philadelphia (he changed the spelling for his acting career), and moved to Willingboro with his family in late adolescence. As a kid crazy about martial arts, he'd travel back to Philadelphia every weekend. "I would take the bus to Chinatown to train at a studio, then go see kung-fu movies, then go to the martial arts store and buy weapons," he says. That was my Saturday afternoon."

Gary Dourdan in the TV pilot "Keys" in 1994

Dourdan was also a promising multi-instrumentalist, but his first performance experience came as part of a break-dance crew called Break Force. "It was really corny. We had Chuck Taylors and [matching] sweatshirts." An uncle who played saxophone for Sister Sledge encouraged the young man's dual ambitions, music and acting. Dourdan drifted up to New York, eventually working as the doorman at a busy downtown rehearsal space in 1986. "I was living in the studio's basement. There were people rehearsing music videos and films, and there were rats - rats the size of Chihuahuas." On the plus side, the job had him rubbing elbows with LL Cool J, Run-D.M.C, Jim Jarmusch, Keith Haring, and several of Manhattan's most promising young artists.