Similar, and often all too standardized, roles followed as the industry's "typing" of LaPaglia as characters "whose names end in a vowel or who carry a gun" provided a steady diet of work. Although George Gallo's "29th Street" (1991) did cast him as a NYC Italian-American, the richly seasoned script offered him one of his better roles as the son of Danny Aiello, and he portrayed Barry 'The Blade', a flashy organized crime underling in the commercial courtroom suspense drama "The Client" (1994) with the express purpose of catching the eye of independent filmmakers whose work he prefers. The successful strategy led to his critically-acclaimed angst-ridden hit man in "Bulletproof Heart" (1995) and a part in indie-heavyweight Steve Buscemi's "Trees Lounge" (1997). LaPaglia increased his profile further with his TV series debut on the ABC legal drama "Murder One", joining the cast for the 1996-97 season as Jimmy Wilder, a former district attorney turned defense counsel who was willing to bend the law to his clients' needs. Despite offering a strong performance, he shed few tears when its cancellation freed him from the grind of series production.

LaPaglia has returned again and again to indulge himself with fine portrayals on the NYC stage. 1993 saw him Off-Broadway as the co-star of a Steve Tesich play, "On the Open Road". He received raves for his performance opposite Mercedes Ruehl in the 1995 Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams' "The Rose Tattoo" and he was back on the Great White Way as Eddie Carbone in a revival of Arthur Miller's "A View From the Bridge" (1998), for which he picked up a Tony Award. Among his many TV appearances, LaPaglia garnered a CableACE Award nomination for his work in the HBO movie "Criminal Justice" (1990) and played college basketball coach Jim Valvano in the CBS biopic "Never Give Up: The Jimmy V Story" (1996). LaPaglia has also acted in two Australian features with his significant other and fellow Aussie Gia Carides, "Paperback Romance" (1994) and "Brilliant Lies" (1996).

La Paglia appeared in several high profile movies over the next five years, including "Summer of Sam" and "Sweet and Lowdown," both in 1999 and "The House of Mirth" and "Lantana," for which he received rave reviews and a wealth of awards and nominations, in 2001. He also has a brief but memorable recurring stint on the popular sit-com "Frasier" as Daphne's boorish brother Simon Moon, a role that earned him and Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 2002. That same year he also appeared in "The Salton Sea" and starred with Keifer Sutherland in the action movie "Dead Heat." After years of solid performances and the respect of his professional peers, LaPaglia finally achieved mainstream recognition when he took on the lead role of FBI Missing Persons investigator Jack Malone in the popular television crime drama "Without a Trace" (CBS, 2002 - ), for which he won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series Drama in 2004. He also starred alongside Sigourney Weaver in "The Guys" (2003), a film inspired by the heroism of New York City firefighters during the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. After playing a once promising writer hiding in the shadows of his famous author father in the low-budget indie, “Happy Hour” (2003), LaPaglia gave a strong performance as a New Jersey widower trying to get on with life with his two teenage sons (Aaron Stanford & Mark Webber) in the well-reviewed ensemble drama, “Winter Solstice” (2005).