Tony Almeida

Tony Almeida was a federal agent working for CTU Los Angeles. During that time, he was promoted to Special Agent in Charge, but later sent to prison on charges of treason. After his release, Almeida worked for CTU on a provisional basis before moving away with Michelle Dessler. Tony was killed by Christopher Henderson during Day 5.

Background

 * Age (on Day One): 29
 * Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois

Tony 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.

He 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 Krav Maga hand-to-hand combat defense.

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

Tony earned a Special Commendation for his work on Operation Proteus in 2000.

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

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

Tony 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, Michelle was upset that he had kept the secret from her. At the end of Day 3, Michelle was kidnapped by terrorists who told Tony that they would kill her if he did not help Stephen Saunders to escape from the building he was in. She was rescued but Tony was arrested for treason.

After his release from prison, Tony became an alcoholic and couldn't keep a job and consequently, Michelle left him. The events of Day 4 brought them close again, and they decided to both retire from CTU and begin a new life together.

Michelle was killed on Day 5 shortly after the assassination of David Palmer. Tony, critically injured in the blast that killed her, did not discover until hours later that she was dead. When Christopher Henderson was sent to CTU Medical during the Sentox nerve gas attack, Tony was killed in an attempt to avenge Michelle's death.

Day 1
Tony 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. Tony did not trust Jack at the start of the day because Jack had previously had a relationship with Tony's lover Nina. Tony called George Mason, saying that he believed Jack was unfit to command CTU, leading Mason to initiate a lockdown.

Later in the day, Tony decided to help Jack, realizing there may be a mole inside CTU.

When he learned that both Jack and himself had been betrayed by Nina, Tony and Jack formed a bond because of her.

Day 2
On Day 2, Tony was Chief of Staff under George Mason at CTU Los Angeles.

Early in the day, George Mason was exposed to a lethal dose of plutonium, and was told that he had a short time to live. Later in the day, after continuing work despite his failing health, Mason left the offices and put Tony in charge of CTU.

Tony was heavily criticized by Ryan Chappelle for continuing to support Jack in his search for evidence of the fabrication of the Cyprus recording. Chappelle was planning on transferring Tony because of his insubordination, but Tony and Michelle knocked Chappelle unconscious so that they could continue to help Jack. Brad Hammond from division came when Carrie Turner called in to report them, and Chappelle was found and Tony and Michelle arrested.

When Brian Jacobs informed Mike Novick of the situation, Novick called Chappelle and had Tony and Michelle released so that they could help him locate Jack. Tony later took over as Special Agent in Charge.

The Game
Tony continued to serve as Special Agent in Charge throughout 24: The Game. He apprehended Joseph Sin-Chung, who was posing as a crew member of the apprehended cargo boat Lee Jin-Yu. Tony prevented a terrorist threat at the Los Angeles Subway prior to the capture of CTU. During the hour that CTU was held hostage, Tony guided Kim Bauer to encrypt the hard-drive containing the data of the undercover CTU agents, significantly slowing down the terrorists' progress in getting the information.

Shortly after Kim's return to CTU, Tony led one of the tactical teams disarming one of the bombs at a construction site situated along a fault line. Hours after the threat, Tony had to rush to the scene of a crime, which involved a hostage situation with Governor James Radford. After restraining as many confused gunmen as he could, he negotiated with the leader, who was trying to save his sick son. Tony succeeded in calming down the gunman, but the gunman was dead by the time Tony opened the locked door. He started becoming suspicious of Radford as he checked the gunman's body, and his suspicions proved accurate when an assistant of Governor Radford called to set up a meeting at Fisher Pier.

Tony met up with the assistant and was given a keycard to Radford's office, after which a helicopter ambushed the pair, killing the assistant. Tony barely escaped with his life and drove off to the Governor's office building. After dealing with various gunmen on Radford's payroll and rescuing the trapped civilians, Tony found evidence that showed Radford's involvement with the terrorists. It turned out that Radford was seen conversing with Peter Madsen, Joseph Sin-Chung, and an unknown third man, later discovered to be Max. Tony tracked Radford and managed to eavesdrop on his conversation with Max. Radford attempted to walk out, but the assassin Mandy killed Radford before Tony could do anything.

While Jack and Chase were busy at Fort Lesker, Tony, Michelle, and Chappelle discovered that Kate Warner was still alive, but Chappelle restricted Tony from notifying Jack until he completed the mission. A few hours later, after berating Chappelle, Tony headed back out to the field to assist Jack and Chase at the L.A. Docks in a CTU helicopter. Tony picked up Chase first, and piloted the chopper to have Chase provide support fire for Jack before picking him up.

Tony maneuvered the helicopter around the yacht allowing Chase to mow down gunmen firing at them, while Jack rappelled onto the deck of the yacht. As the day ended, Tony stayed on the yacht with Kate to clean up the mess while Chase piloted the helicopter with a wounded Jack to a nearby hospital.

Day 3
Tony continued to serve at CTU during Day 3. He was part of the sting operation on Michael Amador that involved the prison break of Ramon Salazar. He worked with Jack as well as Gael Ortega. He was shot in the neck, by Salazar's thug Gomez, while trying to apprehend Kyle Singer, but went back to CTU so that he could stop the torture of Gael, who was wrongly believed to be a mole.

Tony continued to run point on the sting operation. When Kim Bauer questioned his ability to lead with his injury, he proved to Michelle and Ryan that he was still capable.

Tony was removed Special Agent in Charge of CTU Los Angeles 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 3
Despite their conflicts and differences, Tony and Jack shared 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 on Day 3, Tony received a reduced sentence.

However, after his release around six months before Day 4), Tony was withdrawn and began to drink heavily. Michelle left him soon after.

Day 4
After Michelle left him, Tony moved in with a woman named Jen Slater, where he stayed until about one-fourth of the way into Day 4, when Jack required assistance at a security building. Tony saved Jack and Audrey Raines' 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 Deputy Director of Division Bill Buchanan and Michelle Dessler took active command of CTU Los Angeles after 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 Mandy. Mandy demanded that Michelle move LAPD units out of the area and clear a path for Mandy to escape. Michelle didn't comply, and thought she had 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 Walt Cummings ordered Jack's death due to his part in an illegal raid on the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles, Tony played an integral 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 5
When Day 5 began, Tony was the head 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 exploded. Rushing to get to her, he found her dead. As he held her, the fuel tank in the car ignited causing a second explosion, critically injuring him.

Tony was transported to CTU Medical. 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, fearing that telling Tony the truth could put him in shock. Tony snuck out of medical and used a CTU computer to search for information about Michelle and discovered she had been killed in the blast at their home. Tony broke down in tears.

Later, he survived the contamination of CTU with Sentox 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 filled with an overdose of hyoscine-pentothol, but couldn't bring himself to kill him. Henderson grabbed the syringe from Tony, stabbed him in the heart, and escaped.

Jack entered the medical area and found Tony lying on the floor. Jack rushed to Tony's side and tried to help him. Tony opened his eyes and said, "I couldn't do it....." As Jack begged Tony to stay with him, Tony whispered, "She's gone, Jack." Tony lost consciousness in Jack's arms as the clock ticked to 8:00pm.

He was carried away, dead, in a body bag shortly after 8PM.

Trivia

 * Tony Almeida is a playable character in 24: The Game.
 * Tony appeared in all but one of the first 72 episodes of 24.
 * By the end of Day 5, Tony has appeared in a total of 95 episodes, the highest episode count of any character other than Jack.
 * 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. It is the only known inanimate object to appear in all five seasons of the show.
 * When shooting the bomb attack in season two, it was decided that the mug was not going to survive the attack. Bernard tossed the mug into the air, expecting it to shatter on impact, but it became caught on a camera wire and survived. After the mug was retrieved, it was decided to be indestructible and remained on the set. Fans have christened this mug Cubby.
 * Tony was originally supposed to die with Michelle during the first episode of Season 5.
 * Because Tony's death came in the final seconds of Day 5 7:00pm-8:00pm, there was much debate in the week following the episode as to whether or not he was truly, permanently dead. As many viewers noted, he died just before the final clock of the episode, which was not a silent clock.  In an interviewon March 14, 2006 (the day after the episode aired), Executive Producer Howard Gordon refused to confirm Tony's status, and said that viewers would have to tune in to the next episode to find out for sure.  (Tony's death was confirmed in the opening moments of Day 5 8:00pm-9:00pm.)
 * Tony's death scene appears to mirror that of Teri Bauer's. Their deaths were at CTU Los Angeles Headquarters and Jack had both cradled them in his arms while breaking down to tears.
 * According to an interview on the Sharon Osbourne show, Tony was originally going to be named Antonio. His name was changed when Kiefer Sutherland had difficulty saying it. Carlos Bernard said he was delighted that the name was changed.

Memorable Quotes

 * Tony Almeida: 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? Is that it?


 * 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: Some people are more comfortable in hell.

''See more memorable quotes by Tony Almeida....

After Day 1

 * The House Special Subcommittee's Findings at CTU

After Day 2

 * The Game
 * Stories