Jim Brass
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| CSI: Crime Scene Investigation character | |
|---|---|
 Paul Guilfoyle as Jim Brass |
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| Jim Brass | |
| Birthdate | January 3, 1953 (55) (given in the book Ultimate CSI) |
| City | Las Vegas, Nevada |
| Status | Alive |
| Job | Police detective |
| Rank | Detective-Captain |
| Position | Homicide Captain (former Night Shift supervisor) |
| Seasons | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 |
| Portrayed by | Paul Guilfoyle |
| First appearance | The Pilot |
James "Jim" Brass (born January 3, 1953) is a fictional character from the CBS Television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and portrayed by Paul Guilfoyle.
[edit] Fictional character biography
In high school, he enlisted in the US Marine Corps and did two tours of duty in the Vietnam War. He studied at Seton Hall University, and got a degree in history. After the war, he joined the Newark Police. Brass spent 20 years working his way up to homicide detective in New Jersey. Before he became a homicide detective, he was assigned to Vice. While working in Vice, he worked hard to clean up his department, earning the enmity of many of his former colleagues (and the nickname 'Squeaky,' as in 'squeaky clean'). Brass, under stress, sometimes drank and would cover it up by popping cough drops to hide the smell of alcohol on his breath (episode 415, "Early Rollout"). While his wife Nancy was having an affair with Vice cop Mike O'Toole, Brass was busy with his own affair with another member of the vice squad, Annie Kramer, who later moved to Los Angeles and was promoted to captain. Brass claims later that it was Nancy's affair that ruined their marriage, rather than the other way around, and that she eventually just wanted a way out (episode 520, "Hollywood Brass"). Brass transferred out of New Jersey in the 1990s and came to Las Vegas. He eventually ran the CSI department, more as an administrator than as an investigator. Showing as an example of how much he trusts the team Brass has stated that he would want Gil Grissom's CSI team to investigate his murder; he gave Grissom power of attorney rights should anything happen to him, which proved useful when Grissom chose to go ahead with his risky but life-saving surgery when he was shot.
Brass used to have Grissom's job as the supervisor of the CSI team. After young CSI Holly Gribbs was murdered on her first day in the field, he lost his position to Grissom. Brass was then given the position as a homicide detective, usually serving as the legal muscle for the CSI team and the one who does most of the arresting and interrogating of suspects. He is usually the one to draw his gun and does not like it when his CSIs try to take dangerous matters like arresting suspects into their own hands. He also gets on Grissom's case for not drawing his firearm, even in appropriate situations.
In the two-part episode "A Bullet Runs Through It", Brass tries to counsel Detective Sofia Curtis, who believes she may have accidentally killed another officer in a chaotic shoot-out with a gang of drug dealers. He later is stunned and guilt-ridden to realize that he was actually the one that killed the officer. Later at the officer's funeral, his widow approached, and when Brass tried to explain how sorry he was, she told him that she knew it wasn't his fault.
Brass has an estranged daughter, Ellie Rebecca Brass, who is not biologically his (unbeknownst to her). As he explains it to Warrick Brown in the episode "Ellie": "Call it the mailman's. Ellie doesn't know." In fact, Ellie's biological father is former New Jersey Vice cop Mike O'Toole, who Brass discovered to be dirty. Ellie works as a prostitute in Los Angeles, to the deep disappointment of her father. Despite her rebellious behavior, Brass still loves her deeply, and keeps a picture of her as a child on his desk in his office. When he discovers that she is doing drugs, he keeps after her until she cleans up, but their relationship remains difficult and strained. Brass is shot by William Cutler, a wanted suspect in a triple homicide. When he is in the hospital in critical condition, in the season six finale "Way to Go," Ellie seems more concerned with the pension than her father's likelihood of survival--which is probably why Brass gave his power of attorney to colleague and friend Gil Grissom, who saved Brass's life by having him undergo surgery to remove the bullet. At the end of that episode, Brass is surrounded by his other family: the CSI night shift team, who watched over him through his ordeal. At the end of the seventh season premiere, "Built To Kill, Part 1," Brass is seen in a tattoo parlor, having the date of his shooting (May 11, 2006) tattooed just below the bullet scar.
While Brass could never be accused of being a "soft cop", he has shown regard for the rules throughout the years. In the episode "Who and What", after the FBI's Jack Malone slams a suspect's head on the table, Brass rushes in saying "If you want to rendition him to Gitmo, be my guest. But in this house, we play by the rules." In the episode "You Kill Me", after a lab tech creates a fictional story in which Brass uses his night stick on a suspect, another tech comments "Captain Brass isn't the type of cop that smacks suspects around."
Brass has the utmost respect for Grissom and his team, once saying, "I'd want them investigating my murder."
[edit] References
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