Mike Kellerman
Encyclopedia
Detective Michael Scott Kellerman is a fictional character on the television
drama
series Homicide: Life on the Street
portrayed by Reed Diamond
. He is a main character from seasons 4-6, 1995-1998.
parents, the youngest of three sons. His father works at a distillery. He also has a sister who, by the time of the series, lived in St. Louis
. He always wanted to be a cop and was a "good kid", quite different from his brothers Drew (Eric Stoltz
) and Greg (Tate Donovan
), who were always getting into trouble. Drew and Greg ended up drifting through much of the U.S., occasionally turning up to ask for money. They appeared in the fifth season episode "Wu's On First?" on the run from two bookies, owing a gambling debt to one and having stolen a Babe Ruth
uniform from the other. They were estranged from their father, who referred to them as "hoodlums". Kellerman had recently been divorced from a crime lab technician named Anne Kennedy prior to Kellerman's joining the homicide unit. Kellerman would later confide with Meldrick Lewis that Anne had cheated on him.
Kellerman worked his way up through the Baltimore Police Department, eventually landing in the Arson unit. When a pair of teenagers were killed in a series of warehouse fires, Kellerman was called in to help with the subsequent homicide investigation. With the squad short three men (Stanley Bolander and Beau Felton on suspension, Steve Crosetti dead by suicide), Lieutenant Al Giardello
offered Kellerman a transfer to Homicide, having been impressed with his work on the cases. Although he initially refused the transfer, his father's statement that he works at the distillery because he's never done anything he wasn't already good at led him to accept the move to Homicide. Kellerman was partnered with Meldrick Lewis
, with whom he would work during most of his time with the squad. Kellerman also crossed paths with Luther Mahoney and became determined to take down the drug kingpin after Mahoney arranged for the assassination of an intelligent, introspective and tired-of-the-game drug dealer who had had a chance to kill Kellerman but chose to let him live.
, a federal grand jury was gathered to investigate corrupt cops in the arson unit, including Kellerman. He was put on desk duty, which greatly angered him because he felt it marked him as guilty. He had, in fact, been the only one of four officers investigated who had not taken money from a pair of arsonists (Matthew Roland and his son, Mitchell). Lieutenant Giardello went to Commissioner James C. Harris
on Kellerman's behalf only to be told that no help was coming to the Homicide Unit from the Departmental commanders. Kellerman refused to "rat" on his fellow cops, but the grand jury eventually did not indict him because the prosecuting U.S. Attorney did not ask any questions about it during the grand jury proceedings, and later told him she didn't understand why good cops couldn't turn in bad ones and that he should "go be a cop". He could not put it behind him, however, as he was convinced no one would ever be completely sure that he wasn't corrupt. Intensely depressed
and reeling from another case of Luther Mahoney getting away with murder, Kellerman became increasingly angry and almost committed suicide
. Lewis managed to calm him down and take his gun, after which Kellerman took some time off.
While on desk duty, Kellerman met the new medical examiner, Dr. Julianna Cox
, who had just lost her father. They consoled each other with a one night stand, then a rough, "not really together" kind of relationship until Julianna eventually left Baltimore near the end of season 6
.
Eventually, a drug mule
who had been transporting heroin from overseas was discovered dead in his motel room after one of the heroin-laden condoms in his stomach burst. The police decided to swap the shipment with fake heroin, leading to a huge upset in his industry. Mahoney was monitored going to a meeting with one of his lieutenants — a meeting where he executed the lieutenant and inadvertently shot a bystander before speeding off.
Lewis pursued, and Kellerman and Narcotics Detective Terri Stivers
hopped in a vehicle moments later. They sped back to Mahoney's condominium and stormed in to find a disarmed Lewis on the ground, facing his own gun in Mahoney's hand. Kellerman gave three warnings, and Mahoney lowered, but did not drop, the gun. Kellerman then prepared to read Mahoney his rights, only getting as far as "You have the right to remain silent" before he shot Mahoney once, killing him. The detectives wrote up the incident as if Mahoney had had the gun raised, and the shooting was eventually ruled clean.
While Kellerman convinced himself that what he did was justified, Stivers was not so convinced, and Lewis eventually came to doubt it as well. Mahoney's empire was salvaged by his sister Georgia Rae (Hazelle Goodman
), who was convinced that Kellerman had murdered her brother and sought revenge, initially attempting to blackmail Kellerman with non-existent video footage of the shooting (through which she was convinced that Kellerman had killed her brother in cold blood) and eventually deciding to sue the city through the help of a corrupt judge, Gerald Gibbons (Rick Warner), on her payroll. Kellerman later learned that Gibbons was being investigated by the FBI, and after the judge dismissed the lawsuit, Kellerman publicly called him out and urged him to give up Georgia Rae.
). Junior Bunk was brought in for questioning, but refused to implicate his mother. While waiting to make a phone call, he seized a weapon from a desk drawer and started a firefight in the Homicide squadroom. Although he was ultimately shot dead by Bayliss, Lewis, Kellerman, and Giardello, Detectives Gharty and Ballard were injured and three uniformed officers were killed. The police went out in force, and Bayliss subsequently took a bullet to the ribcage while shielding Pembleton from a shooter. Georgia Rae was eventually found dead, killed by her own people. After Stivers told Giardello that the Mahoney shooting was not as it seemed, Giardello directed Detective Frank Pembleton
to find the truth. Pembleton and fellow detective Paul Falsone
interrogated Lewis and then Kellerman, who eventually admitted that Mahoney had lowered the gun before being killed.
Giardello then offered Kellerman a choice. He could face a jury trial and possibly win, but he, Lewis, and Stivers would certainly be fired once their false reports came to light; or he could resign and the other two could keep their jobs. Kellerman resigned and later became a private investigator, as seen in Season 7, but lost the respect of most of the squad. In his new work, Kellerman found himself opposed to his old coworkers when he worked to aid in the defense of a pair of teenagers who committed infanticide. In the end, however, Kellerman got to the truth and redeemed himself in the eyes of some of his former coworkers, particularly Falsone, by anonymously providing them with information that boosted their case, even though it was not enough to prosecute. For most of this story, Falsone referred to Kellerman in an angry way and used his last name, but in their last conversation implied that Kellerman had slipped them the information and in perhaps a sort of redemption, calls him "Detective."
investigated possible connections in Baltimore's Italian quarter, with Mike resorting to violence tactics while Kellerman stood guard. However, Mike's rage eventually proved too strong when he pulled a gun on an elderly man and Kellerman had to talk him down. Kellerman was last seen in the Waterfront, drinking with ex-M.E. Julianna Cox
, who had also come down to help in the investigation.
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
series Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...
portrayed by Reed Diamond
Reed Diamond
Reed Edward Diamond is an American actor. He is best known for the role of Det. Mike Kellerman on Homicide: Life on the Street and the role of recurring character Laurence Dominic on Dollhouse...
. He is a main character from seasons 4-6, 1995-1998.
Biography
Kellerman was born on July 20, 1966 in Baltimore, MD to working classWorking class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
parents, the youngest of three sons. His father works at a distillery. He also has a sister who, by the time of the series, lived in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
. He always wanted to be a cop and was a "good kid", quite different from his brothers Drew (Eric Stoltz
Eric Stoltz
Eric Hamilton Stoltz is an American actor, director and producer. He is widely known for playing the role of Rocky Dennis in the biographical drama film Mask, which earned him the nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture...
) and Greg (Tate Donovan
Tate Donovan
Tate Buckley Donovan is an American actor. He is known for his role in the FX drama Damages, as Tom Shayes, and for his role as Jimmy Cooper in the American teen drama television series The O.C....
), who were always getting into trouble. Drew and Greg ended up drifting through much of the U.S., occasionally turning up to ask for money. They appeared in the fifth season episode "Wu's On First?" on the run from two bookies, owing a gambling debt to one and having stolen a Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth
George Herman Ruth, Jr. , best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", was an American Major League baseball player from 1914–1935...
uniform from the other. They were estranged from their father, who referred to them as "hoodlums". Kellerman had recently been divorced from a crime lab technician named Anne Kennedy prior to Kellerman's joining the homicide unit. Kellerman would later confide with Meldrick Lewis that Anne had cheated on him.
Kellerman worked his way up through the Baltimore Police Department, eventually landing in the Arson unit. When a pair of teenagers were killed in a series of warehouse fires, Kellerman was called in to help with the subsequent homicide investigation. With the squad short three men (Stanley Bolander and Beau Felton on suspension, Steve Crosetti dead by suicide), Lieutenant Al Giardello
Al Giardello
Alphonse Michael Giardello, Sr. is a fictional character from the television drama Homicide: Life on the Street. The character was played by Yaphet Kotto...
offered Kellerman a transfer to Homicide, having been impressed with his work on the cases. Although he initially refused the transfer, his father's statement that he works at the distillery because he's never done anything he wasn't already good at led him to accept the move to Homicide. Kellerman was partnered with Meldrick Lewis
Meldrick Lewis
Meldrick Lewis is a fictional character on the television series Homicide: Life on the Street played by Clark Johnson. The character was in the series for its full run and had the very first and last lines of the series...
, with whom he would work during most of his time with the squad. Kellerman also crossed paths with Luther Mahoney and became determined to take down the drug kingpin after Mahoney arranged for the assassination of an intelligent, introspective and tired-of-the-game drug dealer who had had a chance to kill Kellerman but chose to let him live.
Corruption scandal
Early in the fifth seasonHomicide: Life on the Street (season 5)
The fifth season of Homicide: Life on the Street aired in the United States on the NBC television network from 1996-09-20 to 1997-05-16 and contained 22 episodes. A new opening sequence debuted with the start of this season, including elements of a police investigation and a growing chatter of...
, a federal grand jury was gathered to investigate corrupt cops in the arson unit, including Kellerman. He was put on desk duty, which greatly angered him because he felt it marked him as guilty. He had, in fact, been the only one of four officers investigated who had not taken money from a pair of arsonists (Matthew Roland and his son, Mitchell). Lieutenant Giardello went to Commissioner James C. Harris
James C. Harris
James C. Harris is the fictional Deputy Commissioner of Operations of the Baltimore Police Department on Homicide: Life on the Street, He was played by Al Freeman Jr.-Biography:...
on Kellerman's behalf only to be told that no help was coming to the Homicide Unit from the Departmental commanders. Kellerman refused to "rat" on his fellow cops, but the grand jury eventually did not indict him because the prosecuting U.S. Attorney did not ask any questions about it during the grand jury proceedings, and later told him she didn't understand why good cops couldn't turn in bad ones and that he should "go be a cop". He could not put it behind him, however, as he was convinced no one would ever be completely sure that he wasn't corrupt. Intensely depressed
Clinical depression
Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...
and reeling from another case of Luther Mahoney getting away with murder, Kellerman became increasingly angry and almost committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
. Lewis managed to calm him down and take his gun, after which Kellerman took some time off.
While on desk duty, Kellerman met the new medical examiner, Dr. Julianna Cox
Julianna Cox
Julianna Cox is a fictional chief medical examiner in the TV show Homicide: Life on the Street for seasons 5-6, played by actress Michelle Forbes....
, who had just lost her father. They consoled each other with a one night stand, then a rough, "not really together" kind of relationship until Julianna eventually left Baltimore near the end of season 6
Homicide: Life on the Street (season 6)
The sixth season of Homicide: Life on the Street aired in the United States on the NBC television network from 1997-10-17 to 1998-05-08 and contained 23 episodes....
.
The Mahoney saga
Kellerman and Lewis were put in charge of a string of murders linked with drug kingpin and crime lord Luther Mahoney (Erik Todd Dellums). Innocents and gangbangers alike fell because of Mahoney, but there was never enough evidence to prosecute him for any of the crimes.Eventually, a drug mule
Mule (smuggling)
A mule or courier is someone who smuggles something with him or her across a national border, including bringing in to and out of an international plane, especially a small amount, transported for a smuggling organization. The organizers employ mules to reduce the risk of getting caught...
who had been transporting heroin from overseas was discovered dead in his motel room after one of the heroin-laden condoms in his stomach burst. The police decided to swap the shipment with fake heroin, leading to a huge upset in his industry. Mahoney was monitored going to a meeting with one of his lieutenants — a meeting where he executed the lieutenant and inadvertently shot a bystander before speeding off.
Lewis pursued, and Kellerman and Narcotics Detective Terri Stivers
Terri Stivers
Terri Stivers is a fictional police detective of the Baltimore Police Department on Homicide: Life on the Street. She was played by actress Toni Lewis....
hopped in a vehicle moments later. They sped back to Mahoney's condominium and stormed in to find a disarmed Lewis on the ground, facing his own gun in Mahoney's hand. Kellerman gave three warnings, and Mahoney lowered, but did not drop, the gun. Kellerman then prepared to read Mahoney his rights, only getting as far as "You have the right to remain silent" before he shot Mahoney once, killing him. The detectives wrote up the incident as if Mahoney had had the gun raised, and the shooting was eventually ruled clean.
While Kellerman convinced himself that what he did was justified, Stivers was not so convinced, and Lewis eventually came to doubt it as well. Mahoney's empire was salvaged by his sister Georgia Rae (Hazelle Goodman
Hazelle Goodman
Hazelle Goodman is an actress from Trinidad and Tobago. As a child she was inspired to become an actress after viewing The Sound of Music, before her family moved to New York where she was raised in the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn.- Career :After graduating from City College of New York with a...
), who was convinced that Kellerman had murdered her brother and sought revenge, initially attempting to blackmail Kellerman with non-existent video footage of the shooting (through which she was convinced that Kellerman had killed her brother in cold blood) and eventually deciding to sue the city through the help of a corrupt judge, Gerald Gibbons (Rick Warner), on her payroll. Kellerman later learned that Gibbons was being investigated by the FBI, and after the judge dismissed the lawsuit, Kellerman publicly called him out and urged him to give up Georgia Rae.
Fallout
Gibbons was found stabbed to death shortly afterward, with evidence pointing to Georgia Rae's son, Nathaniel Lee "Junior Bunk" Mahoney (Mekhi PhiferMekhi Phifer
Mekhi Thira Phifer is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his multi-year role as Dr. Greg Pratt on NBC's long-running medical drama ER and his co-starring role opposite Eminem in the feature film 8 Mile...
). Junior Bunk was brought in for questioning, but refused to implicate his mother. While waiting to make a phone call, he seized a weapon from a desk drawer and started a firefight in the Homicide squadroom. Although he was ultimately shot dead by Bayliss, Lewis, Kellerman, and Giardello, Detectives Gharty and Ballard were injured and three uniformed officers were killed. The police went out in force, and Bayliss subsequently took a bullet to the ribcage while shielding Pembleton from a shooter. Georgia Rae was eventually found dead, killed by her own people. After Stivers told Giardello that the Mahoney shooting was not as it seemed, Giardello directed Detective Frank Pembleton
Frank Pembleton
Francis Xavier "Frank" Pembleton is a fictional homicide detective on the television drama series Homicide: Life on the Street portrayed by Emmy Award winning actor Andre Braugher. He is a primary character of the show through the first six seasons...
to find the truth. Pembleton and fellow detective Paul Falsone
Paul Falsone
Paul Falsone is a fictional police detective of the Baltimore Police Department on Homicide: Life on the Street. He was played by Jon Seda. Born on January 6, 1969, Falsone was introduced as a long-time member of the Auto Squad at the end of Season 5, where his natural talents proved useful in...
interrogated Lewis and then Kellerman, who eventually admitted that Mahoney had lowered the gun before being killed.
Giardello then offered Kellerman a choice. He could face a jury trial and possibly win, but he, Lewis, and Stivers would certainly be fired once their false reports came to light; or he could resign and the other two could keep their jobs. Kellerman resigned and later became a private investigator, as seen in Season 7, but lost the respect of most of the squad. In his new work, Kellerman found himself opposed to his old coworkers when he worked to aid in the defense of a pair of teenagers who committed infanticide. In the end, however, Kellerman got to the truth and redeemed himself in the eyes of some of his former coworkers, particularly Falsone, by anonymously providing them with information that boosted their case, even though it was not enough to prosecute. For most of this story, Falsone referred to Kellerman in an angry way and used his last name, but in their last conversation implied that Kellerman had slipped them the information and in perhaps a sort of redemption, calls him "Detective."
The TV movie
In the Homicide TV movie, Kellerman was one of the many former unit members to rally around when Lt. Giardello was shot down. He and Giardello's son MikeMike Giardello
Alphonse Michael Giardello Jr. is a fictional character from the television drama Homicide: Life on the Street. The character was played by Giancarlo Esposito.-Biography:...
investigated possible connections in Baltimore's Italian quarter, with Mike resorting to violence tactics while Kellerman stood guard. However, Mike's rage eventually proved too strong when he pulled a gun on an elderly man and Kellerman had to talk him down. Kellerman was last seen in the Waterfront, drinking with ex-M.E. Julianna Cox
Julianna Cox
Julianna Cox is a fictional chief medical examiner in the TV show Homicide: Life on the Street for seasons 5-6, played by actress Michelle Forbes....
, who had also come down to help in the investigation.