Photo: John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com / CC BY-SA 2.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Eriq La Salle is one of those actors who genuinely earned his place in television history, and I don't think he gets nearly enough credit for it. His run as Dr. Peter Benton on ER — that intense, exacting, sometimes prickly surgical resident — was a masterclass in slow-burn character work across nearly a decade. He wasn't playing a saint; Benton was difficult, driven, and complicated in ways that felt real, and La Salle never softened the edges just to be likable. Three NAACP Image Awards and Emmy nominations confirm what viewers already knew. The fact that he quietly pivoted into directing and producing while most people were still thinking of him as Benton says a lot about his ambition. Hartford, Connecticut produced a genuinely multi-hyphenate talent here, and the NYU Tisch training absolutely shows.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Eriq La Salle
- Name (Japanese)
- エリク・ラ・サル
- Reading
- えりく・ら・さる
- Born
- July 23, 1962 (age 64)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Leo / Tiger
- Origin
- Hartford, Connecticut, United States
- Occupation
- actor / screenwriter / film producer / film director / television actor
2. Background
- University
- New York University Tisch School of the Arts
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Frequently asked questions
When was Eriq La Salle born?
Born July 23, 1962 (age 64).
Where is Eriq La Salle from?
Eriq La Salle is from Hartford, Connecticut, United States.
What does Eriq La Salle do?
Eriq La Salle works as actor, screenwriter, film producer, film director, television actor.
Actor — see all → · Screenwriter — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.