Rey Curtis

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Det. Rey Curtis
Law & Order character
Time on show	1995-1999
Preceded	Mike Logan
Succeeded	Ed Green
First appearance	Bitter Fruit
Last appearance	Refuge: Part 2
Portrayed by	Benjamin Bratt

Det. Rey Curtis was a fictional character on the TV drama Law & Order, played by Benjamin Bratt from 1995 to 1999.

Curtis joined the 27th Precinct as a homicide detective in 1995. He approached police work from a radically different perspective than his predecessor, Mike Logan: while Logan was unpredictable and sometimes crossed into legal and ethical gray areas, the conservative, devoutly Catholic Curtis did his job strictly by-the-book, and saw it in black and white: if someone breaks a law, they deserve to go to jail, regardless of circumstances. This strict, moralistic work ethic initially caused a lot of friction with his partner, Lennie Briscoe.

In the 1996 episode "Aftershock", Curtis, who was married with three children, cheated on his wife with a college student (played by Jennifer Garner). For the next year, their marriage teetered on the edge of ruin as they underwent marriage counseling. In the 1997 episode "Thrill", Curtis' wife, Deborah, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. This threw his life into further disarray; he felt responsible, as if God was punishing her for his sins. It was then that he really bonded with Briscoe, a veteran of three failed marriages, and began to soften his strict, two-dimensional worldview. He remained politically conservative, however, disapproving of in vitro fertilization, media violence, and especially affirmative action; Curtis, who was of mestizo origin (Peruvian on his mother's side), felt he had made it on his own merits and resented what he saw as the suggestion that minorities needed an added advantage.

He was also considerably more computer-literate than Briscoe; his familiarity with the Internet was the linchpin in solving several cases.

Curtis and Briscoe became very close over the next two years, so much so that Curtis' children called Briscoe "Uncle Lennie." Briscoe leaned on Curtis heavily when his daughter, Cathy, was murdered in 1998 (in the episode "Damaged").

By the 1999 season, Deborah's MS had worsened considerably, to the point that she could hardly hold a toothbrush on her own. In the episode "Refuge Part 2," Curtis took early retirement to take care of her. He was succeeded by Det. Ed Green.