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Character Sketch
of Stanley Kowalski:
Detective Stanley Raymond Kowalski (SRK):
Callum's character from Due South, Det. Stanley Kowalski (we'll call him Stan so we won't mix him up with Ray Vecchio, even though he also goes by Ray), is a street wise Chicago cop who is divorced to District Attorney Stella Kowalski. The characters names of course are inspired by "A Street Car Named Desire." Stan's character is looking for a chance to start over, and the opportunity to take on the cover identity of Ray Vecchio, who is going under cover with the mob, looks good at first until he finds out there's a catch, by the name of Cst. Benton Fraser of the RCMP played by Paul Gross. Stan is cocky, yet underneath not very self assure, to the point where Stan becomes some what intermingled with the Ray Vecchio persona that by the end of the series Stan has difficulty leaving it behind, this may have been due to a belief that his real identity was not good enough, leading back ultimately to him not being self assured. This crushed Smarties in your coffee kinda guy, ends up developing a "brother like" relationship with Fraser who watches out for him, and on occasion later through the show you can see Stan will even catch Fraser when he may slip. Through the development of Stan's character one can see the duo begin to show respect for one and other's talents; Stan's intuition and savvy, against Fraser's logic and strong moral code.
A list of Interesting Things About Stan:
Stan is blind as a bat without his glasses and has 20-45 vision, (but won't wear eye contacts because they're to much of a hassle) but is an excellent shot with his 'big ass framed' glasses on. His favourite actor is Steve McQueen, but his father liked Brando so when he was born he was named Stanley, from "A Street Car Named Desire." He likes to go by his middle name Ray. He enjoys crushed Smarites in his coffee. An example of his intuition is his ability to sense when a light would go green, in Mojo Rising, and of course there's his great sense of style while driving.;) During a bank robbery when he was 13 he peed his pants and the robber laughed at him giving Stella (an untouchable private school girl whom he was trying to 'style') the chance to escape (this incident led him to becoming a cop, but because Stella thought he did it on purpose to save her, and he didn't tell her differently, Stan thought his marriage was a lie for some time). He owns a pet turtle. Stella divorced him because he wanted children and she wanted to put more focus on her career. Stan use to box before he got married to Stella but stopped because she thought it was "uncivilized." He can't swim, until Fraser taught him the butterfly stroke, the "bloom in the morning, close at night, kick them in the head" deal. He's slightly obsessive, examples would be him following Stella in Strange Bedfellows, and his life long obsession with the bank robber in Eclipse. He use to own a pet dog when he was a kid, but it was hit by a car. He flunked out of college and then afterwards went to the Police Academy which his father was against because he thought police work was a "dirty" career. Supposedly when he was a kid he was abducted by a UFO. Fraser discovered this when he put him under hypnosis in Seeing Is Believing. He doesn't get along very well with his parents, Barbara, and Derek (or Damian???), who were living in a trailer in Arizona at one point, and he barely speaks to his dad except through the "car." He has an older, successful brother who he barely talks to. He built a black GTO with his father which Stan now drives. He loves to dance, and in fact has dance steps hidden under a rug on his apartment floor. His superintendent down stairs enjoys listening to the taping of his steps. He was three weeks premature, and admits he does not possess very much patience. He graduated with a final average of 62% in High School. He hates being around dead bodies. He has never killed anyone. He has received over three Police Citations for Acts of Bravery: in December 1988 for being wounded while saving a young boy who was being held hostage in a warehouse, in December 1990 for holding off three gunmen in a jewellery store and saving four innocent people, and in September 1993 for facing down and arresting three escaped murders. He tends to have a poor sense of direction, and Fraser will have to repeatedly call his name to re-direct him in the proper direction. It has been suggested that Stan might actually be intuitively moving towards the answer of the problem although it may appear other wise. An example is from MotB Pt 1 when Stan was right where the car was in the first place, and in Pt 2 in the under water sub pointing out a direction which led to their rescue by the Bounty. Of course this could be argued against because he opened the door in Pt 1, against Fraser's advice and flooded the entire room they were in. But it should be said that he at least has a form of intuition on some levels.
