Tom Mardirosian
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Biography
A character actor who vanishes into his roles, Tom Mardirosian is best remembered from the gritty HBO dramas "Oz" and "The Wire." Mardirosian's love for acting began while in an Army Special Forces troop. After leaving the services, he headed back to his hometown of Buffalo, New York, where he began to appear in local theatre and studied drama at Buffalo's Studio ARENA Theatre School. Soon he headed downstate to work on Broadway, notably in "The Magic Show," a one-act musical starring magician Doug Henning. Soon he was appearing in small roles in feature films, notably as Officer Pantuzzi in the comedy "Trading Places" in 1983. Sporadic screen appearances lined his resume for the remainder of the 1980s, but it was in 1990 that his film career took off with a role as District Attorney Nico Della Guardia in the Harrison Ford paranoid thriller "Presumed Innocent." Soon further TV and screen parts poured in, and in 1998 he landed the key part of the childlike inmate Agamemnon Busmalis on HBO's prison drama "Oz." He portrayed the character from its second until its final sixth season. Now well-known to HBO's producers, he was swiftly snatched up for the part of corrupt FBI Agent Kristos Koutris on the second season of the network's multi-faceted crime drama "The Wire." For the rest of the 2000s Mardirosian dipped in and out of TV and feature film roles, memorably in M. Night Shyamalan's fantasy drama "Lady in the Water."
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Life Events
1967
Served in the US Army
1979
Starred with Shirley Knight and Jane Alexander in the Manhattan Theatre Club presentation of John Hopkins' "Losing Time"
1982
Had a supporting role as a stage manager in the modern comedy classic "Tootsie"
1983
Played a police officer in the hit comedy "Trading Places"
1984
Guested on "Miami Vice" (NBC)
1989
Nominated for a "Unique Theatrical Experience" Drama Desk Award for "Saved from Obscurity"
1990
Acted in the popular legal drama feature "Presumed Innocent"
1991
Guested on "Law & Order" (NBC)
1992
Acted in an episode of "LA Law"
1992
Played a diamond merchant accused of money laundering and murder in an episode of "Law & Order"
1993
Had a supporting role in the thriller "The Dark Half"
1995
Featured in "Don Juan De Marco"
1997
Returned to "One Life to Live", this time playing the unrelated character Mr. Easke
1998
Had a regular role on the HBO prison-set drama "Oz", playing Agamemnon Busmalis, nicknamed The Mole for his tunnel-digging talent
1999
Starred as a barber in the festival-screened short "Razor's Edge"
1999
Played Baptista Minola in "The Taming of the Shrew", produced at Central Park's Delacourt Theater
2000
Guested on an episode of "Law & Order" that featured "Oz" co-stars Christopher Meloni and J K Simmons
Family
Companions
