Eamonn Walker

Eamonn Walker
Born	Eamonn Roderique Walker (1962-06-12) 12 June 1962 London, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1985–present
Spouse	Sandra Walker (?–present)
Children	3

Eamonn Roderique Walker (born 12 June 1962) is an English actor. On television, he began in the BBC sitcom In Sickness and in Health (1985–1987), the ITV crime dramas The Bill (1988–1989) and Supply & Demand (1998), and the HBO series Oz (1997–2003), for which he won a CableACE Award.

He led the ITV television film Othello (2001) and had a further role in the Fox series Justice (2006–2007). Walker starred as Wallace Boden in the NBC drama Chicago Fire and its spinoffs from 2012-2024. His films include Young Soul Rebels (1991), Once in the Life (2000), Legacy (2010), and A Lonely Place to Die (2011).

Early life and education

Walker was born in west London to a Grenadian father and a Trinidadian mother, in 1962. Brought up in Islington in north London, Walker lived in Trinidad for six months when he was nine years old. He attended Hungerford School in Islington and began studying social work at the Polytechnic of North London. He trained as a dancer and later joined the Explosive Dance Theatre Company in London. However, an abscess on his calf muscle forced him to give up dancing. He also studied at the New York Film Academy in the United States.

Career

Early career in UK

Walker made his professional acting debut in 1983 on stage in London playing an East End punk rocker in the musical Labelled with Love, based partly on the music of the pop band Squeeze. His first television appearance came in 1985 when he appeared in an episode on the second series of Dempsey and Makepeace, which aired on ITV on 19 October 1985. His next television appearance came the following year in an episode of the children's anthology series Dramarama, also on ITV. Also that year, he was cast in the role of Winston, a black, gay, council carer and a thorn in Alf Garnett's side, for series 1–3 of In Sickness and in Health on BBC1. In 1987 he appeared in an episode of Bulman on Granada TV and in 1988 an episode of the ninth series of Tales of the Unexpected. In 1988 he won the role of PC Malcolm Haynes in The Bill on ITV, a part he played from 1988–89.

His first film role came in 1991, playing Carlton in Young Soul Rebels about the interaction between different youth cultural movements in late 1970s Britain. He also appeared in an episode of the detective series Bergerac on BBC1. In 1992 he appeared in episodes of Love Hurts and The Old Boy Network. Then in 1993 he appeared in two comedies on BBC, with the role of Colin in three episodes of Birds of a Feather and he also appeared in an episode of One Foot in the Grave. His second film came in 1994 playing Peters in Shopping. He followed this in 1995 with appearances in two more British sitcoms, on the BBC, The Detectives and Goodnight Sweetheart. He also appeared in the drama series The Governor.

1997 to present – Hollywood and U.S. television

He appeared as Jake Brown in the miniseries Supply & Demand in 1997.

The same year he won the major role of Kareem Saïd on the American television drama series Oz on HBO in the United States. The series was set in a fictional maximum-security prison, and the character Walker played was a new inmate who was a devout Muslim. Walker spent time at a mosque in Harlem doing research on the Nation of Islam and American Muslim culture, explaining "As an actor, my portrayal had to be real." He appeared in the first episode on 12 July 1997 and he continued to play the role until the third episode of the final season in 2003. He won the award for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series in the inaugural CableACE Awards for his performance in the first series of Oz in the ceremony held in Los Angeles. Then in 1999 he received a Satellite Awards nomination for Best Actor in a TV Drama Series for his performances in Oz.

In 2000 Walker appeared in two films: the crime drama Once in the Life, acting alongside and being directed by Laurence Fishburne on his directorial debut; and the fantasy mystery Unbreakable, alongside Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson. Walker also appeared in the de facto series finale of Homicide: Life on the Street, Homicide: The Movie. In 2001 he returned to British television starring as John Othello in a modern adaptation of the William Shakespeare play Othello on ITV, opposite Christopher Eccleston. For his role he won the Best male performance in television award at the first ever Black Film Makers (BMF) Film and Television Awards ceremony for the UK's leading black TV and film stars, which was held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London in September 2002.

In 2003 he starred in the war film Tears of the Sun as Ellis "Zee" Pettigrew alongside Bruce Willis. Walker also appeared in an episode of the Fox Network drama series The Jury. The next year he made another return to British television in an episode of the crime drama Rose and Maloney.

Two more films followed in 2005, the crime thriller Lord of War with Nicolas Cage and the drama adventure film Duma. And from March 2005 he made his debut on Broadway, playing Mark Antony in Julius Caesar at the Belasco Theatre in midtown-Manhattan alongside Denzel Washington as Marcus Brutus.

In 2006, he played Dr Stephen Dakarai in three episodes of the medical drama series ER. He also starred in the Fox Network legal drama Justice, playing the part of Luther Graves.

In May 2007, he became the first black actor to play the role of Othello at either the original Globe Theatre or at the modern reconstruction, Shakespeare's Globe in London.

Then in 2008 he was in the second episode of the BBC drama series Bonekickers, playing Senator Joy, a United States Presidential candidate. He also starred in three films: the action drama Blood and Bone; the biographical music drama Cadillac Records, about the 1950s musical era, in which he plays the influential blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player Howlin' Wolf, which was released on 5 December 2008; and the romantic war drama The Messenger, in which Walker plays Colonel Stuart Dorsett. The first and the latter were released in 2009.

In October 2008 he performed on BBC Radio 4 in the first adaptation of Alice Walker's 1982 epistolary novel The Color Purple in the UK, serialised in ten parts.

Walker appeared on the NBC drama series Kings, which was based on the biblical story of David. He portrayed Reverend Ephram Samuels, an analogue of the biblical prophet Samuel. He also starred in the TV series The Whole Truth, alongside Maura Tierney and Rob Morrow, which premiered on 22 September 2010.

In 2011 Walker appeared on FX series Lights Out as trainer Ed Romeo, former trainer of Lights Leary's last opponent, Death Row Reynolds. Walker appeared in an episode of BBC One's Inspector George Gently, playing the father of a murder victim in 2012, and in two episodes of the BBC/Cinemax series Strike Back. In 2013 he portrayed Frederick Douglass in the BBC series Copper. In 2020, Walker stars as the lead in Steppenwolf Theatre Company's production of Between Riverside and Crazy by Stephen Adly Guirgis. In October 2020 Eamon appeared on portrait artist of the year UK

Personal life

Walker lives in the United States with his wife Sandra. They have three children.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1991	Young Soul Rebels	Carlton
1994	Shopping	Peters
2000	Once in the Life	Tony
	Unbreakable	Dr. Mathison
2003	Tears of the Sun	Ellis 'Zee' Pettigrew
2005	Duma	Ripkuna
	Lord of War	Andre Baptiste Senior
2008	Cadillac Records	Howlin' Wolf
2009	The Messenger	Colonel Stuart Dorsett
	Blood and Bone	James
2010	The Company Men	Danny
	Legacy	Darnell Gray Jr.
2011	A Lonely Place to Die	Andy

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985	Dempsey and Makepeace	Edwin Shore
1985–1987	In Sickness and in Health	Winston
1986	Dramarama	P.C. Garfield Walcott
1987	Bulman	DC Little Jimmy
1988	Tales of the Unexpected	Bates
1988–1989	The Bill	P.C. Haynes
1991	Bergerac	Conrad
1992	Love Hurts	Young Ghod
	The Old Boy Network	Patrick
1993	Birds of a Feather	Colin
	One Foot in the Grave	Hugo
1995	The Detectives	D.I. Tyler
	Goodnight Sweetheart	Thursfield
1995–1996	The Governor	Snoopy Oswald
1997–2003	Oz	Kareem Said
1998	Supply & Demand	Jake Brown
2000	Homicide: The Movie	Eric Thomas James	TV Movie
2001	Othello	John Othello
2002	Whitewash: The Clarence Bradley Story	Jew Don Boney
2004	The Jury	Ted Truziak
	Rose and Maloney	George Parris
2006	ER	Dr. Stephen Dakarai
2006–2007	Justice	Luther Graves
2008	Bonekickers	Senator Joy
2009	Moses Jones	Solomon
	Kings	Reverend Ephram Samuels
2010	The Whole Truth
2011	Lights Out	Ed Romeo
2012	Strike Back	Walter Lutulu
	George Gently	Ambrose Kenny
2012–2024	Chicago Fire	Wallace Boden	Main role
2013	Copper	Frederick Douglass
2014–2020	Chicago P.D.	Wallace Boden	Recurring guest role
2017–2019	Chicago Med

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	Julius Caesar
2007	Othello	Othello
2020	Between Riverside and Crazy

Audio book

• World War Z (2006) - Paul Redeker

Interviews

• The Bill Podcast: Eamonn Walker Part 1 (2018)

External links

• Eamonn Walker at IMDb
• Interview with Eamonn Walker in Venice Magazine