Personal and family life Robert O. Goren was born on August 20, 1961, and grew up in the
Canarsie neighborhood of
Brooklyn, near
The Rockaways. A phenomenally bright young man, he took the
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory in his senior year of high school and was sent to speak with the school counselor and school psychiatrist as a result. He was an altar boy in the Roman Catholic Church. Goren's mother Frances (
Rita Moreno) first started showing symptoms of
schizophrenia when Goren was seven years old. Goren is estranged from his older brother, Frank (
Tony Goldwyn), a drug addict who also has a gambling problem and is depicted as being sometimes homeless. Frank has a son, Donny, who asks for help when he is incarcerated. To that end, Goren goes undercover in the prison's psychiatric ward and uncovers a culture of
prisoner abuse. While he saves his nephew, he is suspended for his unorthodox investigation. When Frank refuses to help him help Donny, Goren disowns him. While high on drugs, Frank is murdered by Goren's nemesis
Nicole Wallace (
Olivia d'Abo). Frances' husband, whom Goren had believed to be his father (see "Mark Ford Brady" section below), gambled frequently on horse races and was a serial adulterer. He left Goren's mother when Goren was 11, making little effort to stay close to the family. In season 2, a personal friend of Goren's mentions a funeral, implying that the elder Goren had died before the series began.
Mark Ford Brady In the episode
"Endgame", serial killer Mark Ford Brady (
Roy Scheider), anxious to delay his scheduled execution, arranges for Goren and Eames to interview him about victims not yet attributed to him. Goren, with help from his brother, pieces together a story which shows that Brady and Frances Goren had an affair, which continued until Robert was four and Frank was seven; the relationship ended after Brady raped and beat Frances within an inch of her life. Goren asks his mother on her deathbed about Brady; she replies that she doesn't know whether Brady is his father. At a later date, Goren reveals that he has
DNA evidence that Brady was his biological father. His mentor, FBI criminal profiler Declan Gage (
John Glover), taught him how to use his intelligence, empathy and imagination to construct complex psychological profiles of suspects. Goren also learned how to use his physicality to intimidate and unsettle people while interrogating them, the most famous example being his habit – introduced in the pilot episode, "
One" – of cocking his head at odd angles in order to maintain eye contact with someone who is trying to avoid his gaze. == Major Case Squad ==