Petersen Explains How Gil Grissom Got His Name

William Petersen (Gil Grissom) was a guest on ESPN Radio's Dan Patrick Show Friday, and amongst all the baseball discussion, the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation star talked a little about life on television's most-watched drama series.

During the interview, which is available online at the William Petersen Appreciation Page, the actor was how his CSI character ended up being called Gil Grissom. Petersen replied that he had picked the name himself, "because they had a bunch of other names that weren't good."

He said there were also legal reasons why so much care had to be taken in selecting the names of television characters. "You've gotta get them cleared, to make sure that nobody in Las Vegas has got that name, so they don't get bugged for the rest of their lives." Petersen said he chose Grissom in honour of astronaut Gus Grissom, while the character's first name was inspired by one of the actor's hobbies. "I like to fish, so Gil I thought was good."

Dan Patrick asked whether it would be possible to score a cameo role as a corpse on CSI, and Petersen did his best to dissuade the host from appearing as a cadaver. "That's a bad job on our show," the actor said. "They've gotta be there all the time, and we poke you and prod you, and you've gotta lay still."

Petersen added the best role was always the bad guy. "You want to be the suspect. You want to be the guy who did it."

To listen to the complete interview, in which Petersen chatted extensively about baseball, head over to the William Petersen Appreciation Page.

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