Is actor Paul Guilfoyle on “CSI,” related to character actor Paul Guilfoyle from the 1930s and ‘40s?
—Donald Clason, Sheridan, Wyo.
That’s a question the “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” star is frequently asked, and the answer is no, they are not related.
The one thing the two actors do have in common, however, is a long list of film credits. “CSI”’s Guilfoyle, 63, has been featured in more than 70 feature films, including “Air Force One,” “Primary Colors,” “Amistad,” “L.A. Confidential,” “Extreme Measures,” “Ransom,” “Cadillac Man,” “Quiz Show,” “Wall Street,” and he produced and starred with Al Pacino in “The Local Stigmatic.” The Boston-born actor also has appeared in more than 60 plays from Shakespeare, Shaw, Ibsen, Strindberg, Pinter, Miller, Williams, O’Neill, Shepard, Mamet and Rabe. As for playing the role of Capt. Jim Brass on “CSI,” now in its 13th season, he says, “I could walk away, but I like everyone and I’m really connected to the work. I’m glad it’s successful. It’s good to have something that appeals to people.”
The other Guilfoyle, who died at age 58 in 1961 in Hollywood, Calif., was born in Jersey City, N.J., and began his film career in the early 1930s, appearing in films including “The Grapes of Wrath,” “Mighty Joe Young” and “Apache.” But he is best known as Garth Esdras in “Winterset” (1936) and for winding up dead in the trunk of a car in “White Heat” (1949). His final acting role was in 1960, playing a reverend in TV’s long-running “Gunsmoke.”
