King Cole! The Ubiquitous Gary Cole: King of the Character Actors--OFFICE SPACE, FATAL VISION, AMERICAN GOTHIC, VEEP, SON OF THE MORNING STAR, MIDNIGHT CALLER, THE BRADY BUNCH MOVIES & More!

The prolific chameleon, in my mind the most versatile and fun-to-watch actor of the last 30+ years, celebrates his 67th birthday on September 20th, 2023.

Cole has mastered all mediums: film, TV, stage, video gaming, etc.

Cole and Molly Ranson in the 2009 London production of AUGUST OSAGE COUNTY--

he was sleazy Steve Heidebrecht (a juicy role that I've had the good fortune to play as well), winning critical acclaim for his performance

Me and Morgan Stouffer in the Little Theater of Virginia Beach's

AOC in 2012

Cole has never become a movie star, basically because he's way too versatile & talented!

For years Cole was overlooked at awards time--probably because he never gives a bad performance & he makes it look so effortless--but he finally snared an Emmy & SAG nod for his work on the lauded HBO comedy series VEEP in 2014.

Facing off against Julia Louis-Dreyfus on VEEP

Cole can play anything & anyone! Gen.Custer, Snoopy, Bill Kunstler, Andrew Klein, Bill Lumbergh, Harvey Birdman, Reese Bobby, Cotton McKnight, Mike Brady, Vice President Bob Russell, Kent Davison, ''Uncle'' Bill, Sheriff Lucas Buck, The Nighthawk, Carlos the Spy, Capt. Matthew Gideon, Jerry Shakespeare, Principal Sheperd, Ted Jones, Capt. Jeffrey MacDonald, Dirk Chunley, etc. Cole's range is staggering! He's had a career most actors would dream of.

As Gideon in the short-lived BABYLON 5 spinoff

CRUSADE (TNT 1999)

''Uncle Bill!

The 2002-03 CBS revival version of FAMILY AFFAIR (with Cole in the Brian Kieth role Tim Curry as Mr. French and Caitlin Wachs, Sasha Pieterse & Jimmy ''Jax'' Pinchak as the kids) was no match against FRIENDS

A decade-by-decade look at some of Cole's best, most changeling, and high profile work. Plus my favorite Cole roles.

1980's:

A Chicago-based actor, Cole was born in beautiful Park Ridge, Illinois, growing up in nearby Rolling Meadows. He studied theater at Illinois State University, with fellow actors Laurie Metcalf & John Malkovich, later joining them as a member of the Steppenwolf Theater Company.

Cole as Brick and Moira Harris as Maggie in a 1986 production of

CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF

SIDE MAN 1999 at Steppenwolf

In 1984, the fairly unknown Cole burst onto TV screens, playing real-life Dr. Jeffrey R. MacDonald, the Special Forces Green Beret Captain convicted of killing his pregnant wife and 2 daughters in the mini-series FATAL VISION.

In 1988 Cole did his first regular series work, playing former burned-out policeman turned late-night talk radio host Jack Killian aka ''The Nighthawk'' on MIDNIGHT CALLER. The fan favorite ran for 3 seasons on NBC (1988-91).

With Wendy Kilbourne

Other '80's TV credits for Cole included: the tele-films VITAL SIGNS, THOSE SHE LEFT BEHIND & ECHOES IN THE DARKNESS and guest spots on MIAMI VICE & MOONLIGHTING.

THOSE SHE LEFT BEHIND

MIAMI VICE

On the big screen he played a small role in LUCAS with Corey Haim and was chased by William L. Peterson in TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A..

1990's:

Tom Pruitt in the 1990 TV version of Hemingway's THE OLD MAN IN THE SEA opposite Anthony Quinn

In 1991 Cole played maybe his best leading role on the boob tube: The Boy General--George Armstrong Custer, in the mini-series SON OF THE MORNING STAR. Variety Magazine called it ''a master work''. The production won 4 Emmy's, but Cole was stunningly overlooked for his excellent performance.

Larry McAfee, paralyzed from the neck down and wanting to die from THE SWITCH,

a 1993 TV movie co-starring Craig T. Nelson

On the big screen in 1993's

IN THE LINE OF FIRE, playing aging Secret Service Agent Clint Eastwood's wary, pain-in-the-ass boss Bill Watts

Stroke-suffering Nicollette Sheridan's devoted husband in the 1994 tele-film A TIME TO HEAL

Back on TV in a regular role--

as evil Lucas Buck, a Sheriff with supernatural powers, who corrupts, rapes and kills

in the cult classic AMERICAN GOTHIC (CBS 1995-96)

Cole with AG cast mates Paige Turco, Jake Weber and

Lucas SLING BLADE Black

Playing Robert Reed...I mean, Mike Brady, in

THE BRADY BUNCH franchise--2 feature films (THE BRADY BUNCH MOVIE & A VERY BRADY SEQUEL) and a TV movie (THE BRADY BUNCH IN THE WHITE HOUSE). Groovy!

President Mike and First Lady Carol Brady (Shelly Long)

DEA Agent Richard Simms in GANG RELATED

With Tupac Shakur and his old TRUE WEST stage partner Jim Belushi in

Baxter, the man who wants his money, in A SIMPLE PLAN

His third regular series role: Capt. Matthew Gideon on CRUSADE

The CRUSADE cast:

Daniel Dae Kim, David Allen Brooks, Marjean Holden,

Cole, Tracy Scoggins, Carrie Dobro, and Peter Woodward

D.A. Solomon Trager on ABC's THE PRACTICE--he also later played Attorney Brian Seabury on the series

With Jessica Capshaw and Camryn Manheim on THE PRACTICE

Cole closed out the '90's with his most enduring role:

Initech's smug, slick, inconsiderate Vice-President Bill Lumbergh in Mike Judge's 1999 cult classic OFFICE SPACE

''You can just go ahead and move a little bit to the left. Yeah, that's it. Great.''

More classic Bill Lumbergh Quotes:

''So, Peter, what's happening? Aahh, now, are you going to go ahead and have those TPS reports for us this afternoon?''

''Oh, oh, and I almost forgot. Ahh, I'm also gonna need you to go ahead and come in on Sunday, too.''

''Oh, and remember: next Friday... is Hawaiian shirt day. So, you know, if you want to, go ahead and wear a Hawaiian shirt and jeans.''

2000's

The New Millennium saw Cole become busier than ever--in ten years he appeared in over 60 TV shows, tele-films and major motion pictures!

The man was everywhere.

On FRASIER he played Luke, Roz's cheating boyfriend who is The New Friend of Kelsey Grammer

With Peri Gilpin on FRASIER

Reunited with his A SIMPLE PLAN director Sam Raimi, playing crooked D.A. David Duncan in THE GIFT with Cate Blanchett

With Greg Kinnear & Chelcie Ross in THE GIFT

SavMart Manager Bill Owens, the boss of Robin Williams in ONE HOUR PHOTO

Hilary Duff's stepfather, General Joe ''Sir'' Maxwell, in the 2002 Disney Channel movie

CADET KELLY

The only reason to watch the 2002 box-office bomb I SPY (which bears very little similarity to the classic 1960's TV series)

is the pleasure of Cole's tongue-in-cheek take on the super spy Carlos, Owen Wilson's arch-rival

One of my favorite Cole roles is ESPN 8 The Ocho sports announcer Cotton McKnight in

DODGEBALL: A TRUE UNDERDOG STORY

Cole and Jason Bateman (dim-witted color commentator Pepper Brooks) are hilarious together in DODGEBALL

Classic Cotton quotes:

''It's time to separate the wheat from the chaff, the men from the boys, the awkwardly feminine from the possibly Canadian.''

''Las Vegas. A city built of hot sand, broken dreams and $5 lobster. A city where you can get a happy ending, if you pay a little extra. A city home to a sporting event greater than the World Cup, World Series and World War II combined.''

''Ladies and gentlemen, I have been to the Great Wall of China, I have seen the Pyramids of Egypt, I've even witnessed a grown man satisfy a camel. But never in all my years as a sportscaster have I witnessed something as improbable, as impossible, as what we've witnessed here today!''

Family man bank loan officer Jerry Harden/KISS-like Rock Toxin band member Dagger in the 2004 TV film POP ROCKS

Kate Bosworth's star struck dad in WIN A DATE WITH TAD HAMILTON!

Cole tries to impress TAD (Josh Duhamel)

Vice-President of the United States Bob Russell in 21 episodes during the last 3 seasons of NBC's acclaimed series THE WEST WING

A starring role, task force team leader Lt. Conrad Rose, on the short-lived TNT

2005 police drama WANTED

Re-teamed with his DODGEBALL co-star Jason Bateman in the ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT episode Exit Strategy, as a cab driver who turns out to be CIA Agent

Richard Shaw

''You'll have plenty of time for ice cream in prison. Ice cream sandwiches.''

Another classic Cole performance,

Reese Bobby, Will Ferrell's no-good, peyote-taking, tough-love dad in TALLEDEGA NIGHTS: THE RICKY BOBBY STORY

Classic Reese Bobby quotes:

''Applebee's has Rats! I found a whole rat in my Cobb Salad!''

''Your teacher wants you to go slow, and she's wrong because it's the fastest who get paid and it's the fastest who get laid.''

''There's nothing more frightening then driving with a live goddamn cougar next to you.''

''Oh hell, Son, I was high that day. That doesn't make any sense at all, you can be second, third, fourth... hell you can even be fifth.''

WWII Interment camp commander Billy Burrell in 2007's AMERICAN PASTIME

A fictionalized version of real-life FBI Agent Richard Garcia in BREACH

Cole with Ryan Phillippe in BREACH

The recurring role of police officer Wayne Davis, the doomed, hostage-taking ex-husband of Dana Delany on DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES during it's 4th season

Cole with Delany & Marcia Cross on DH

Murderous drug lord Ted Jones in 2008's PINEAPPLE EXPRESS

With Rosie Perez in EXPRESS

Rugby Coach Larry Gelwix in FOREVER STRONG

With Sean Faris in FOREVER STRONG

Estranged husband/father Stan Talmadge in 2009's

A GOOD FUNERAL

SWAT Team Commander Cameron Lutz in the PSYCH episode

Gus Walks Into a Bank

12 appearances as troubled, sex-addicted talent manager Andrew Klein on HBO's ENTOURAGE

With Rex Lee & Jeremy Piven on ENTOURAGE

This decade also saw Cole become one of the top actors in TV animation.

He lent his very recognizable voice to such shows as:

HARVEY BIRDMAN: ATTORNEY AT LAW (the title role as well as Judge Hiram Mightor), FAMILY GUY (as Principal Shepherd, Mike Brady & more), BOB'S BURGERS (as Sgt. Bosco), ARCHER (as Special Agent Hawley), SCOOBY DOO! MYSTERY INCORPORATED (as Mayor Fred Jones Sr. & others), THE PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR (as The Commissioner), JUSTICE LEAGUE (as J. Allen Carter), THE LEGEND OF KORRA (as Dai Li Sgt.), DC SHOWCASE (as Jim Corrigan/The Spectre), THE TOM AND JERRY SHOW (as the Narrator), KIM POSSIBLE (as Kim's dad, rocket scientist Dr. James Timothy Possible) and PENN ZERO: PART TIME HERO (Brock Zero).

2010's:

Lucky for us, Cole keeps working non-stop!

Henry O'Hare in HOP

With Elizabeth Perkins in HOP

Lawyer and civil rights activist William Kunstler in 2011's

THE CHICAGO 8

Jack Burton, father of Yvonne Strahovski, on 2 episodes of CHUCK

Dennis Farina's old colleague Lenny in

THE LAST RITES OF JOE MAY

Earl Stackhouse in the TRUE BLOOD episode

She's Not There

Real-life Canadian Forces Col. Russell Williams, convicted of murder, rape and other crimes in the Lifetime movie AN OFFICER AND A MURDERER

The recurring role of Gabriel Macht's disgraced mentor, former Manhattan D.A.

Cameron Dennis on SUITS

Another recurring role: principled, conservative, gun-loving ballistics expert Kurt McViegh, the lover and later husband of Christine Baranski's character Diane Lockhart on CBS's THE GOOD WIFE

Earl, Susan Sarandon's beau, in 2014's TAMMY

With Mark Duplass and Sandra Oh in TAMMY

On VEEP with Julia Louis-Dreyfus--as poll obsessed, numbers-cruncher Kent Davison

With Anna Chlumsky on VEEP

''Details are important. A misplaced decimal point can kill a diabetic.''

A sampling of Cole's many other film and TV credits include:

THE JONESES, FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON (as Astronaut Ed Mitchell), WHEN LOVE KILLS: THE SEDUCTION OF JOHN HEARN, FOR MY DAUGHTER'S HONOR, FALL FROM GRACE, SANTA FE, I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS, THE RING TWO, MOZART AND THE WHALE, CRY WOLF, KISS THE SKY, THE DUKES OF HAZZARD: THE BEGINNING, CONSPIRACY, EXTRACT, BATMAN: UNDER THE RED HOOD, VAMP U, DATE AND SWITCH, THE TWILIGHT ZONE, DEAD MAN'S GUN, THE OUTER LIMITS, FAMILY LAW, BATMAN BEYOND, TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL, HACK, MONK, KAREN SISCO, THE CLEANER, KING OF THE HILL, SHARK, SUPERNATURAL, 12 MILES OF BAD ROAD, THE GOOD GUYS, THE CLOSER, CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, POUND PUPPIES, HART OF DIXIE, 30 ROCK, ROYAL PAINS, RICOCHET, LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT, CRIMINOLOGY 101, THE RISING PLACE, CYCLOPS, BABY, LIES HE TOLD, FIRST STEPS, STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS, ROOM 104, DARKNESS FALLS, and many more.

Cole has a memorable death scene in THE JONESES

As the owner of the L.A. Dodgers in the CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM episode

''The Divorce''

FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON

With Carla Gugino on KAREN SISCO

Cole recent work includes: FBI Special Agent Alden Park on NCIS, Harrison Jackson on MIXED-ISH, the voice of Q-FORCE's Dirk Chunley, Kurt McVeigh on THE GOOD WIFE spin-off THE GOOD FIGHT with Christine Baranski, James Green on the PBS series MERCY STREET, a guest spot in the pilot of ANGIE TRIBECA, the voices of Edward MacDell on BIG MOUTH, Officer Jones on the ARCHIBALD shows, Mark Armstrong on STRETCH ARMSTONG AND THE FLEX FIGHTERS & Sky Toronto on TROLLS: THE BEAT GOES ON!, Chief Grissom on NBC's CHICAGO FIRE, and roles in such feature films and TV movies as BLOCKERS, UNDER THE EIFFEL TOWER, UNBROKEN: PATH TO REDEMPTION, CHRISTMAS EVE, LIBBY AND MALCOLM, SMALL CRIMES, HOT AIR, THE BRONZE, THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN, COTTON, HARVEY BIRDMAN, ATTORNEY GENERAL, THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN and DIVINE ACCESS.

NCIS

Q-FORCE

Cole with Veronica Cartwright and Addison Timlin on the set of

THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN

MERCY STREET

STRETCH ARMSTRONG AND THE FLEX FIGHTERS

CHICAGO FIRE

With Baranski on THE GOOD FIGHT

As Don Kitch in THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN

Some of Cole's Off-Broadway, Chicago, and other regional theater credits include: THE COLLECTED WORKS OF BILLY THE KID (as Pat Garrett), THE EXONERATED, BALM IN GILEAD, TRACERS, LOVE LETTERS, DEATH AND THE MAIDEN, CLOSER, AMERICAN BUFFALO, THE COUNTRY, SPEED-THE-PLOW, TRUE WEST, HEARTLESS, SIDE MAN, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF (as Brick), BANG!, SIN, A CARDINAL DEPOSED, FLYOVERS, PLAYLAND, and more.

As Pat Garrett with Brian Vander Ark (Charlie Bowdre) in

BILLY THE KID

With Jim Belushi in TRUE WEST

The 2012 Signature Theater cast of Sam Sheppard's HEARTLESS

Did you know...?

In high school, Cole played Snoopy in YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN.

He was one of the founders (along with longtime friend William Peterson) of Chicago's Remains Theatre Ensemble.

Peterson & Cole in 1998's KISS THE SKY

Cole was a finalist for the role of Sonny Crockett on MIAMI VICE, which went to Don Johnson.

He won Chicago's 1987 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actor in a Principal Role in a Play for BANG! at the Steppenwolf Theatre.

His late wife was actress Teddi Siddall (PRIZZI'S HONOR, MIDNIGHT CALLER, FADE TO BLACK, GREY'S ANATOMY, BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25th CENTURY, WINGS, HAPPY DAYS, PROMISED LAND, FOREVER STRONG). She passed away in 2018 at age 64.

Teddi on BUCK ROGERS

Cole quotes:

On the re-birth of OFFICE SPACE after it's unspectacular run in theaters:

''It lasted maybe five weeks in theaters, if that. The first time I got a sense of it was probably a year later. I was doing a play in Chicago in the summer of 2000, because here [in L.A.], you don't spend a lot of time on the street. You're always driving. But in Chicago, I lived next door to the theatre, so I was always walking up and down this big boulevard in Chicago, Halsted Street, and going to restaurants and just down the street a lot. And people started coming up to me, doing Lumbergh's dialogue. And this is a year and a half later, and I was really surprised, because I thought the movie was a flop. I didn't know that it had gained an audience on video. And it happened consistently. I started going to restaurants and people would be like, "Hey Lumbergh!" I went to the ballpark at Wrigley Field, people were shouting out Lumbergh's name. I thought, "My God, somebody's actually watching this thing"