Gary Cole

Gary Cole began at Steppenwolf in Chicago in 1985 and broke through on television as Jack Killian, the late-night radio host in NBC's Midnight Caller, which ran from 1988 to 1991. He was being positioned as a dramatic lead and he had the jaw for it. Then Office Space happened, and a generation decided he was the funniest man alive.

Bill Lumbergh is a small masterpiece of underplaying. Cole gives him a coffee cup, a mild upward lift at the end of every sentence and infinite patience, and never once raises his voice. Nothing in the performance signals comedy, which is exactly why it is devastating. The same technique built Reese Bobby in Talladega Nights, Cotton McKnight in Dodgeball and the drug boss in Pineapple Express: Cole plays absurd men with total sincerity and leaves the laughing to the audience.

The dramatic career never actually stopped, which is what people miss. He was Sheriff Lucas Buck in American Gothic, Vice President Russell on The West Wing, the ballistics expert on The Good Wife, Kent Davison on Veep, and since 2021 he has led NCIS as Alden Parker. One Hour Photo and A Simple Plan are both worth the detour. He is also, quietly, one of the busiest voice actors in American animation, from Harvey Birdman to Family Guy, Kim Possible, Archer and Commissioner Gordon in Batman: Under the Red Hood. Very few actors are this useful in this many rooms, and almost none of them make it look this easy.