Elias Koteas’s birthday: Why we love Chicago PD’s Alvin Olinsky
Chicago PD star Elias Koteas celebrates his birthday Sunday, so One Chicago Center is looking at all the reasons why we love his character Alvin Olinsky.
Today we’re saying happy birthday to Chicago PD‘s own Elias Koteas, who plays our favorite crusty detective, Alvin Olinsky.
There are many reasons to love Elias Koteas and his portrayal of Olinsky, some of them serious and others not so much.
Olinsky’s status as the oldest detective in the Intelligence Unit and his resulting “been there, seen pretty much everything” attitude have led to a lot of great moments over five seasons of Chicago PD.
We still can’t help but laugh at the recurring gag from the show’s early period, where his old friend Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) would have no idea that Olinsky was even in the room because of how Al’s desk was positioned.
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And Chicago PD has given Elias Koteas numerous deadpan one-liners that have stolen scenes or just helped alleviate tension with Olinsky’s deadpan humor or just not being bothered by whatever latest crazy thing he has to deal with.
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But all jokes aside, Alvin Olinsky has a lot going on with his character and is one of the tentpoles of the Intelligence Unit.
His lengthy history with Voight makes scenes between the two of them particularly poignant because we know they’ve got a bond, and a way of looking at the world, that’s different from any of the other characters.
There could be a whole episode of just Voight and Olinsky trading war stories, and we wouldn’t complain because they’re so fun to watch together.
But with those stories also comes a heavy weight on Olinsky’s shoulders. We saw his marriage struggle, we saw him learn that he had a daughter, and we also saw him lose his daughter in last year’s Chicago Crossover.
Olinsky has had some really hard cases, like last season’s “Favor, Affection, Malice or Ill Will” where he tried to help a grieving father. He may have seen it all but that doesn’t mean the job is any easier. And Elias Koteas has been brilliant at showing us how much that wears on him.
Olinsky may not be the most prominent character on Chicago PD; in fact part of his charm is that he’s basically a fixture in the building. But when Elias Koteas gets a big script like that, he always knocks it out of the park. It’s hard to believe this is the same guy who used to fight crime with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
It’d also be hard to imagine Chicago PD without Elias Koteas. Let’s hope that Olinsky keeps dishing out justice and cynical observations for years to come!
Next: Chicago PD 100th episode recap
Join us in wishing Elias Koteas a happy birthday in the comments, then catch him in the next new episode of Chicago PD this Wednesday!