Hall: Disabled Characters Deserve Wider Palette

"Dr. Robbins is so damn much fun. I get to play with the fake hearts and I get to say 15-syllable medical words," declared Robert David Hall, who plays Al Robbins on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

In an Associated Press article at ABC News, the actor said that roles for physically challenged performers have improved greatly since the late 1970s.

"A disabled person in a TV show was somebody who had a problem that the hero of the show had to help solve," Hall explained. "I don't say this with any bitterness, but within our group we refer to them as 'bitter cripple roles.'"

Hall, who is a double amputee with prosthetic legs, would like to see more disabled characters living normal lives on television shows. "It's more truthful," he said.

Seriously injured in a car accident in 1978 while working as a disc jockey, Hall recalled believing that he would stay along as long as he kept talking. "The paramedics told me I was one of the funnier guys they ever had. I told them the name of every girl I'd ever dated, every movie I'd ever seen, every song I loved."

After months of hospitalization, he returned to work at the radio station, later joining CBS' Los Angeles station and playing a Korean War veteran in AfterMASH. Character roles became less stereotypical, he said, after Children of a Lesser God, the play and later film which focused on a community of deaf people.

"On CSI, Dr. Robbins is an equal to the other people on the team. I'm passionate about doing my work well, just as the characters out in the field are," Hall points out.

The complete interview may be found here.

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