Donnelly Rhodes plays Homicide Detective Leo Shannon, a battle-scarred, pragmatic senior cop who "has seen it all and done most of it." In 2002, Rhodes won the Gemini Award for Best Actor, his fourth nomination and third for his work on Da Vinci's Inquest. For his work on the series, he also won the Leo Award for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series.
During his long and distinguished career, Rhodes has turned his considerable talents to many roles. Born in Winnipeg, he originally trained as a warden in the National Park Service, before finally settling into his career as an actor. After making his debut on stage as Stanley in Death of a Salesman, he went to Montreal and attended the National Theatre School in its inaugural year. After landing a starring role in a CBC television movie, Rhodes was picked up as a contract player for Universal Pictures, landing film and television roles ranging from a gunslinger in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid to a country singer in The Hard Part Begins. He gained prominence with his role as the suave Phillip Chancellor Sr. on The Young and the Restless.
Over his career Rhodes has taken on a wide range of roles in a variety of television and theatrical movies, while also making guest appearances on more than 100 TV series. This is the tenth recurring role in a series for Rhodes, whose past shows include Soap, Double Trouble, Report to Murphy, Sidestreet, Street Legal, Famous Jury Trials, The Heights, The Young and the Restless and Danger Bay. Recent credits for Rhodes include the features Pressure and Snow Dogs, a recurring role on Hope Island, the television movies The Wedding Dress, Personally Yours, Roswell Project and Big and Hairy, the Japanese mini-series Proof of the Man, plus guest appearances on The Crow, Dead Man's Gun, Millennium, The Sentinel, The X-Files and American Dreams. In addition to his acting, Rhodes has also directed an episode of Da Vinci's Inquest.