What role did Dallas Roberts play in Law & Order SVU? Character arc and storyline, explored

Law & Order SVU is the first spinoff series of the Law & Order franchise. Created by Dick Wolf, who also helmed the original Law & Order series, the show premiered in September 1999 and has aired more than 500 episodes.

In their 26-season run, many actors have appeared on the police procedural show. One of them is Dallas Roberts, who has played six different roles in the Law & Order franchise. He portrayed the recurring role of Dr. Gregory Yates in season 15 of Law & Order SVU. He also appeared as Thomas Mathers in an episode in Season 4.

The show revolves around the detectives of the Special Victims Unit of the New York police department who investigate sexual crimes and catch the criminals. It stars Mariska Hargitay as Olivia Benson and Christopher Meloni as Elliot Stabler.

More about Dallas Roberts’s role as Gregory Yates in Law & Order SVU.

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Dallas Roberts played Gregory Yates in Law & Order SVU

Dallas Roberts’ character Gregory Yates first appeared in the crossover episode of Law & Order SVU, Chicago PD, and Chicago Fire. He is introduced as a psychopathic serial killer and a rapist.

In the crossover episode, Mariska Hargitay’s Olivia Benson visits Chicago to investigate a rape and murder case that looks similar to an unsolved case that she had investigated.

While working in MedCare in Chicago, he rapes and murders Victoria Lewyn, a nurse from his hospital. He later paints her nails green and burns her body and her house. This links him with the previous murders he committed in New York where he painted the nails green and burned two bodies of nurses.

Gregory Yates then kidnaps Nadia Decotis, the administrative assistant of the Chicago police department, and takes her to New York. He tortures her, rapes, and then kills her. He later buries her in his burial ground where he had also buried several of his earlier victims. In SVU’s episode titled, Daydream Believer, Roberts’s Yates is charged and convicted for murders that he had committed.

In another SVU episode, titled, Devil’s Dissection, Gregory helps the SVU unit catch another serial killer named Dr. Carl Rudnick. Initially, they suspect Yates of committing another murder but while investigating and based on his descriptions they find their Medical examiner, Carl Rudnick responsible for the new murders.

In his final appearance in the episode, The Song of Gregory Williams Yates, Dallas Roberts’ Yates flees prison and starts stalking Detective Lindsay of Chicago PD. He kidnaps his sister, Nellie Carr to find out about his father. He locates his father and threatens to kill him if Detective Lindsay doesn’t come to meet him.

As Lindsay visits him, he confesses all of his crimes to her and hangs his father to death in front of her. He even approaches to kill her and while defending herself, Lindsay ends up shooting Gregory Yates.

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More about Dallas Roberts from Law & Order SVU

Apart from Gregory Yates, Dallas Roberts also appeared as Thomas Mathers, a serial rapist in Law & Order SVU Season 4. Mathers was a mentally unstable man who attacked and raped women, blaming them for his homosexuality. He is convicted by Olivia Benson and Meloni’s Elliot Stabler.

Other than the Law & Order franchise, Dallas also appeared in The Walking Dead as Milton Mamet. His other TV roles also include The Good Wife and FBI.

He has appeared in many popular films like The Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and Dallas Buyers Club.

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Also Read: Law & Order: SVU Season 26 Episode 13: Release date, time, streaming details and more