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David Stabler Biography & Facts

Elliot Stabler Sr. is a fictional character, played by Christopher Meloni and one of the lead characters on the NBC police procedural series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Organized Crime. Stabler was a lead for the first 12 seasons of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. As a result of Meloni's sudden departure from the cast at the end of the SVU twelfth season, Stabler abruptly retires from the police force off-screen during the SVU Season 13 premiere. In April 2020, it was announced that Meloni would reprise the role for a new SVU-spinoff series, where Stabler comes out of retirement to lead an NYPD organized crime task force. The series was later revealed to be titled Law & Order: Organized Crime. Synopsis Stabler was an NYPD detective 1st Grade with Manhattan's Special Victims Unit, which investigates sex crimes. He joined the NYPD in 1986 and was promoted to detective in 1989, according to his own statements given in episode 14 of season 2 of Law & Order: Organized Crime. In show continuity, Stabler became a detective with the SVU in late 1992. By 1998, Stabler held the prestigious rank of Detective First Grade and was assigned to mentor new partner Detective Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), a police officer with six years of experience who was transferred to the SVU as a newly promoted detective. The first episode of Special Victims Unit takes place one year into Stabler and Benson's partnership. Stabler is dedicated to his job but often takes cases personally, thus affecting his judgment. Nonetheless, Stabler has a 97% case-closure rate as of 2007. His badge number is 6313. In 2002 Stabler stated that he makes $68,000 a year. Stabler is Irish American and lives with his wife Kathy (Isabel Gillies) and five children (Maureen, Kathleen, Richard "Dickie", Elizabeth "Lizzie", and Elliot "Eli" Jr.). Stabler was born on October 20, 1966. He is devoted to his family and frequently mentions or thinks about them while working cases. He is also a practicing Catholic whose faith sometimes is tested by the cases on which he works. Series creator Dick Wolf named SVU's two lead detectives after his son, Elliot, and his daughter, Olivia. Executive producer and head writer Neal Baer has explained that, in contrast to Benson – "the empathetic, passionate voice for these victims" – Stabler embodies "the rage we feel, the 'How can this happen?' feeling." Of their partnership, Baer assessed that: "They both represent the feelings that we feel simultaneously when we hear about these cases. That's why they work so well together." Biography Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Stabler was born on October 20, 1966, and raised in Bayside, Queens. His father, Joseph Stabler, was a policeman who lost his pension and eventually died of cancer. Stabler had a difficult relationship with his father, who was physically and emotionally abusive. His mother, Bernadette (Ellen Burstyn), has bipolar disorder and once nearly killed her son during a manic episode. As a result, Stabler has "erased his childhood"; he rarely talks about his father and maintains little contact with his mother. He attended Bayside High School, where he played on the football team. Stabler was a Marine and served in Operation Desert Storm. During his time in the military, he was a hand-to-hand combat specialist. He also has three tattoos, notably the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor tattoo on his forearm (the official emblem of the Marine Corps), and the crucifixion of Christ on his left bicep. One of his best friends died in the September 11 attacks. He has a B.A. from Queens College, which he obtained by going to night classes. Stabler harbors a great deal of anger that is sometimes fueled by his job. He is often openly aggressive and intimidating toward suspects, which can either complicate the case further or lead to speedy confessions. When his wife Kathy (Isabel Gillies) leaves him in Season 6, Stabler's anger rises closer to the surface and, in a few episodes, threatens to boil over. One such instance occurs in a case involving serial killer Gordon Rickett (Matthew Modine), whom Stabler had investigated for raping and murdering a young girl 14 years earlier and had thrown through a plate glass window. During interrogation, Rickett tells Stabler that they harbor the same kind of rage, and that if it were not for his family and his job, Stabler would be just like him. When Benson and Stabler catch Rickett about to murder another young girl, Stabler appears ready to kill him in cold blood; it is only Benson's intervention that prevents him from doing so. In SVU Season 7, he goes to see a police psychiatrist, Dr. Rebecca Hendrix (Mary Stuart Masterson), after using excessive force on an abusive parent. Stabler eventually opens up to Hendrix about his personal demons, and they become close until Hendrix is transferred. By Season 9, he and Kathy reconcile, and Stabler learns to better deal with his problems. In the Season 12 finale, Stabler is forced to shoot Jenna Fox (Hayley McFarland), a young woman who opened fire in the Special Victims squad room on the men who raped and murdered her mother, killing them and recurring character Sister Peg (Charlayne Woodard). Jenna dies in his arms. After the shootout, Stabler is placed on administrative leave by the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau. Although he is eventually cleared, this shooting is the sixth such incident in his NYPD career. His superior, Captain Donald Cragen (Dann Florek), comments that if Stabler wants to keep his job, he will have to undergo a psychological evaluation, take an anger management class, and submit to an internal review of his entire personnel file. Benson is confident that Stabler will "tell them to go to hell", and he proves her right by retiring from the force off-screen during the SVU Season 13 premiere. Stabler appears in the Season 22 episode "Return of the Prodigal Son", having been absent from the series for 10 years. It is revealed that, after quitting the SVU, Stabler got a job as the NYPD's liaison in Rome 4 years prior to his return to the series, going after terrorists and organized crime. He comes back to New York to attend a ceremony honoring Benson, whom he has not seen or spoken to since leaving SVU. Stabler is targeted by mobsters who plant a bomb in his rental car, but it ends up killing Kathy instead. Stabler is devastated, but determined to bring her killers to justice, and joins the new NYPD's Organized Crime Control Bureau. Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 1 In the Organized Crime Task Force, Stabler is partnered with Sergeant Ayanna Bell (Danielle Moné Truitt). He comes to suspect that gangster Richard Wheatley (Dylan McDermott) ordered the bombing because Stabler was investigating him and his father, mob boss Manfredi Sinatra (Chazz Palminteri). Stabler, Bell, Detective Diego Morales (Michael Rivera), Detective Freddie Washburn (Ben Chase), and technician Jet Slootmaekers (Ainsle.... Discover the David Stabler popular books. Find the top 100 most popular David Stabler books.