A sports injury curtailed his dreams of playing professional football, so Chicagoan Steve Harris brought his commanding presence to the entertainment arena. The hefty bald black actor honed his craft on stage, tackling roles in Shakespeare and in more contemporary fare before landing work in other media.
Initially billed as Steve J Harris, he landed a tiny part on the first episode of NBC's "Homicide: Life in the Street" followed by guest appearances, often as thugs and villains, on "Law & Order" (NBC), "New York Undercover" (Fox) and "Murder One" (ABC). His first real break occurred during the filming of HBO's "Against the Wall" (1994), about the Attica prison uprising. Spotted by director John Frankenheimer while he ran lines with another actor, Harris soon found his small role as an angry inmate had been enlarged, giving him "a real part". (The same director later tapped him for a supporting role in the award-winning biographical miniseries "George Wallace", TNT 1998). Big screen parts in "Sugar Hill" (1994) and "The Rock" (1996) did little to challenge his abilities, though.
Turning to series TV, he was cast by writer-producer David E Kelley in his star-making role on "The Practice" (ABC, 1997-2004) Playing attorney Eugene Young, the tough, fast-talking lawyer with the win-at-all-costs attitude who often took part in racially sensitive cases, Harris was often cited by TV critics as one of the best performers in the show's ensemble. Certainly his size and natural charisma held viewers' attention whenever he was onscreen. Harris' character became a major player in the show's final season following the departure of several long-standing castmembers, and his clashes with James Spader's amoral Alan Shore helped launch that character into the subsequent spin-off "Boston Legal." With a higher profile, the actor began to land meatier roles in films, beginning with the big screen adaptation of the seminal 60s series "The Mod Squad" (1999). He later essayed supporting turns in "The Skulls" (2000), "Minority Report" (2002), "Bringing Down the House" (2003) and "Death and Texas" (2004). He also portrayed boxer Sonny Liston in the Muhammed Ali telepic "King of the World" (2000) and provided the voice of Detective Ethan Bennett in the animated series "The Batman" (2004 -). Harris also appeared in a major role in the adapation of Tyler Perry's play "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" (2005) as Kimberly Elise' philandering husband.