Tony Almeida

Tony Almeida (born 1973) was a federal agent working for the Los Angeles CTU as Special Agent in Charge before his arrest. After his release from prison Almeida worked for the CTU on a provisional basis before moving away with Michelle Dessler. Tony Almeida is played by Carlos Bernard.

Background
Almeida graduated from San Diego State University with Bachelor's degrees in Computer Science and Engineering as well as a Master of Science in Computer Science from Stanford University.

Almeida served in the United States Marine Corps, attaining the rank of First Lieutenant and attended the 3rd Marine Division's Scout-Sniper School as well as the 1st Marine Division's Surveillance and Target Acquisition Platoon School. He is a certified instructor of the Krav Maga martial art.

Just before joining CTU, he worked for the Transmeta Corporation as a Systems Validation Analyst.

Family
During Day 2, Almeida and Michelle Dessler started casually flirting with each other and in the three years between Days 2 and 3 the two started dating and eventually got married.

The couple's relationship became strained during Day 3 as Almeida, recovering from being shot, began showing signs that he couldn't do his job. Dessler eventually went to Ryan Chapelle with her concerns but she was eventually proven to be incorrect.

Almeida was also involved in a covert operation with Jack Bauer and Gael Ortega which meant that he had to keep the information secret from his wife. When she found out, Dessler was upset at the fact that he had kept a secret from her and she hadn't even known. At the end of Day 3, Dessler was kidnapped by terrorists who told Almeida that they would kill her if he did not help Stephen Saunders to escape from the building he was in. Dessler was rescued but Almeida was arrested for treason.

After his release from prison, Almeida became an alcoholic and couldn't keep a job and consequently, Dessler divorced him. The events of Day 4 allowed them to become close again, and they decided to both retire from CTU and start a life together again.

Michelle Dessler was killed shortly after the assassination of David Palmer.

Day One
Almeida was an intelligence agent/information analyst and third in command of CTU Los Angeles during Day 1 with Nina Myers and Jack Bauer above him. Almeida did not trust Bauer at the start of the day because he had previously had a relationship with Almeida's lover Nina and subsequently called George Mason, saying that he believed Bauer was unfit to command the CTU. Mason initated a lockdown.

Later in the day, Almeida decides to help Bauer, when he is on the run, after he realises there may be a mole inside the CTU.

When he learnt that both Bauer and himself were betrayed by Myers, Almeida and Bauer form a bond together because of her.

Day Two
In the second season, Mason was exposed to lethal radiation. In a noble effort to remove an armed nuclear bomb from a populated area, he crashed a plane carrying the bomb into the Nevada desert, sacrificing his own life in the ensuing nuclear blast. This left the position of Special Agent in Charge open for Tony.

Day Three
He kept the role of Special Agent in Charge of CTU Los Angeles until the third season, when he was sent to prison for aiding a terrorist who was holding his wife Michelle Dessler hostage. The charge was treason, and his likely sentence determined to be at least 20 years imprisonment or at most execution. (The least possible without a partially suspended sentence or presidential commutation is five years in lock-up.)

After Day Three
Despite their conflicts and differences, Tony and Jack share a mutual respect and have worked together on several of their most important missions. Because both Jack and former President David Palmer defended Tony's actions which sent him to prison, Tony received a reduced sentence.

His wife, Michelle Dessler, left him after he was released from prison due to his drinking habits and because he pushed her away.

Day Four
After Michelle Dessler left him, he moved in with a woman named Jen Slater, where he laid low until about one-fourth of the way into Day 4, when Jack required assistance at a security building. Tony saved Jack and Audrey Raines's life, and they laid low at his house for roughly half an hour. Jack planned on apprehending a suspect by himself, respecting Tony's wishes to not be dragged further into the day's events, but Tony volunteered to come along, stating that it would be stupid to save Jack only to have him killed less than an hour later.

As Tony and Jack went through the investigation, Jack saw his friend "come back to life." Eventually, Jack was able to convince Tony to return to CTU on a provisional basis, where he would work Tactical for Jack. Tensions rose when the Deputy Director of Division Bill Buchanan and Michelle Dessler, took active command of CTU Los Angeles when incumbent Special Agent in Charge Erin Driscoll left for personal reasons.

Tony and Michelle clashed at first, but gradually, the two began to warm up to each other again, and near the end of the day, they had agreed to leave CTU together and start a new life. However, when Jack called Tony into the field, Tony was captured by an assassin. The assassin, a woman named Mandy, put Michelle in an ironic situation &mdash; move LAPD units out of the area and clear a path for Mandy to escape, or she would kill Tony. Michelle didn't comply, and thought she lost Tony. However, due to the swift actions of Jack Bauer and his tactical teams, Tony was rescued and returned to Michelle.

At the end of Day 4, when an overzealous member of the new Logan Administration decided that Jack Bauer needed to die, due to his part in an illegal raid on the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles, Tony played an intricate part in faking Jack's death. After smuggling him out of CTU, Tony allowed himself to have an emotional good-bye to his best friend, a man whom he might never see again.

Day Five
When Day 5 began, Tony was President of a private security technology company. Moments after receiving news that President David Palmer has been assassinated, Tony attempts to dissuade Michelle from going to CTU to assist in the investigation. He hesitates, but as he decides to follow Michelle outside, Michelle's car explodes violently. Rushing to get to her, he finds her unconscious, and presumably dead. As he holds her, the fuel tank in the car ignites causing a second explosion, critically injuring him. It is revealed through CTU conversations that Michelle is, in fact, dead.

Tony was transported to CTU Medical. Agent Curtis Manning requested he speak with Tony, but pressure to Tony's brain left him unable to speak before going into surgery. When Tony woke up, he asked about Michelle but CTU medical staff and Bill Buchanan lied about Michelle's death. Tony used a CTU computer to search for information about Michelle and discovered she had been killed in the blast at their home.

Later, he survived the contamination of CTU with Syntox gas. After discovering he was secured in an area with Christopher Henderson, one of the people responsible for the plot that resulted in Michelle's death at the beginning of the day, Tony made a decision to kill him. Tony initially obeyed Jack's request to spare Henderson's life, but later changed his mind. Tony prepared to stab Henderson with a syringe, but couldn't bring himself to kill him. Henderson, who was faking a coma, grabbed the syringe from Tony and stabbed him in the heart and escaped.

Jack entered the medical area and found Tony lying on the floor. As Jack tried to help Tony, Tony said, "I couldn't do it....." When Jack begged him to hold on and stay with him, Tony whispered, "She's gone." Tony died in Jack's arms* as the clock ticked to 8:00pm.


 * this has been confirmed by the producers and by the official Fox/24 website

Trivia

 * Tony Almeida will be a playable character in 24: The Game.
 * Tony has a Chicago Cubs coffee mug on his desk. Carlos Bernard, who plays Tony, was born in Chicago. He is also seen drinking a beer from this mug at his home during Season 4, and it was on his kitchen counter right before the explosion during Season 5.
 * Tony's supposed death was left ambiguous at the end of Day 5 7:00pm-8:00pm as he lost consciousness just before the final clock of the episode, which was not a silent clock. In an interviewwith Howard Gordon on March 14, 2006(the day after the episode aired), he refused to confirm that he was dead or alive, and said that viewers would have to tune in to the next episode to find out for sure.  This incident has caused the most debate among fans of any incident in the series.

Memorable Quotes

 * Milo: What do you think they're going to do to Jack?
 * Tony Almeida: Not going to name a street after him, that's for sure.


 * Tony Almeida: Remember that time we came into work together about a month ago? Mason made some wisecrack remark, and you came up with this really great BS story, early breakfast meeting with District 3. I was really impressed with how convincing a liar you were.


 * Tony Almeida: You mind telling me what's going on around here tonight?
 * Jack Bauer: What's going on? You mean besides a 747 falling out of the sky and a threat on a presidential candidate's life?
 * Tony Almeida: Yeah, besides that.


 * Tony Almeida: (To Michelle) So, uh, what are we saying here? If we save LA from a nuclear bomb, then you and I can get together for dinner and a movie?


 * Ryan Chappelle:' So what's up, my friend?
 * Tony Almeida: Well, it's like this, Ryan: Either fire me, or get out of my chair.


 * Tony Almeida: Chloe, I'm getting real tired of your personality.


 * Henry Powell: Who are you guys? Police? FBI?
 * Tony Almeida: Actually, I'm currently unemployed.


 * Tony Almeida: Some people feel more comfortable in hell.


 * Michelle Dessler: I'll go anywhere with you... as long as I don't have to cook.
 * Tony Almeida: [laughing] Sweetheart, if you promise not to cook I will take you with me anywhere.


 * Tony: How could you do this? Betray your country, be responsible for the deaths of people you work with?
 * Jamey: I told you, I didn't know any of that was going to happen.
 * Tony: Oh, that's right. You're just tappin' on your keyboard, right?


 * Tony: Let me save you some time, Mr. Chappelle. I'm not the biggest fan of Jack Bauer. I don't agree with the way he delegates authority, and I don't like the way he runs operations. But since midnight last night, you won't get me to disapprove of a single action he's taken.


 * Mason: Hey! Almeida. I'm on your side. Nina oughta be here right now, what does Jack need her for? You're busting your ass without any resources because she felt like taking a ride with him. If that works for you, great...
 * Tony: You know what works for me? You keeping out of my personal business, that works for me!


 * Teri: (hysterical) What do you mean you don't know where she is?
 * Tony: After the safehouse, she didn't trust us and I don't blame her. Get in!
 * Teri: We have to find her, Tony! We have to find her!
 * Tony: Believe me, we're looking. Teri, GET IN THE CAR!


 * Paula: I didn't know how you liked intel presented impromptu. Whether you like it sorted chroniologically with an alphabetical key or if you just like separate folders with access tabs...
 * Tony: Uhh... I don't really care.


 * Mason: Send somebody else. I need you here.
 * Tony: To do what, watch Paula die?


 * Tony: In case you haven't heard, George Mason was exposed to a lethal dose of plutonium this morning. I'm afraid he hasn't got much time. He just left the office and he won't be coming back, which means that I'll be in charge until further notice. Now, on a normal day, we'd be mourning George, just like we would've mourned Ivers, Clark, and Paula, and the rest of our co-workers who were killed here today. Unfortunately we're gonna have to hold our thoughts of them until we can get through this present crisis. So... let's get back to work.


 * Tony: Baby, you're alive. And nobody else got hurt because of what I did. Now that's more than I hoped for. I can live with that. Even in prison.

(Tony is about to kill Christopher Henderson)
 * Jack: Tony, this won't bring back Michelle!
 * Tony: No, but it will make me feel better.
 * Jack: No, it won't! Trust me!
 * Tony: Maybe you're right. I'll let you know.