Gary Cole

Gary Cole
Cole at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival.
Born	Gary Michael Cole (1956-09-20) September 20, 1956 (age 68) Park Ridge, Illinois, U.S.
Education	Illinois State University (BFA)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1983–present
Spouse	Teddi Siddall (m. 1992–2017/18)[a] Michelle Knapp ​ (m. 2021)​
Children	1

Gary Michael Cole (born September 20, 1956) is an American actor. Cole began his professional acting career on stage at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 1985. His breakout role was playing Jack 'Nighthawk' Killian in the NBC series Midnight Caller (1988–1991). Further prominent television roles include American Gothic (1995–1996), The West Wing (2003–2006), The Good Wife (2010–2016), Veep (2013–2019), and NCIS (2021–present). Cole's voice roles include Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law (2000–2007, 2018), Family Guy (2000–present), Kim Possible (2002–2007), Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (2010–2013), and Bob's Burgers (2012–present). His most notable film roles are The Brady Bunch Movie (1995) and Office Space (1999).

Gary Michael Cole was born on September 20, 1956, in Park Ridge, Illinois, and raised in nearby Rolling Meadows. His father, Robert, was a municipal finance director, and his mother, Margaret or "Peggy", was a school administrative assistant.^[1][2] Cole has an older sister, Nancy.

While attending Rolling Meadows High School, Cole made his acting debut as Snoopy in a high school production of Clark Gesner's Peanuts musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Cole attended Illinois State University, where he studied theater as a classmate with fellow future actors Laurie Metcalf and John Malkovich.

Cole began his professional career in 1983 as a stage actor in Chicago, where he joined the ensemble of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 1985. In an early role, Cole played accused Army triple-murderer Capt Jeffrey MacDonald in the mini-series Fatal Vision. Cole has also appeared in several off-Broadway productions in New York City. He has done voice work on several animated series (Family Guy; Kim Possible; Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law; Archer) and had a recurring role on the drama The West Wing as Vice President Bob Russell. He also starred as Captain Matthew Gideon on the short-lived Babylon 5 spin-off Crusade, and had notable guest appearances on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Arrested Development. He also played Joe Maxwell on DCOM Cadet Kelly and appeared as real-life astronaut Edgar Mitchell in HBO's recreation of Project Apollo, From the Earth to the Moon. One of his most notable roles in 1991 was as Lt. Col. George A. Custer in the much acclaimed television film Son of the Morning Star.

Between 1988 and 1991, Cole became popular on TV for playing the part of Jack "Nighthawk" Killian in the series Midnight Caller. In 1999, Cole starred in the film Office Space, in which he portrayed the micromanaging office supervisor Bill Lumbergh. When asked about the oft-quoted character, Cole said:

Everyone in Office Space thought that this movie had died. So that's how I knew the movie was actually some kind of success because people were coming up doing some lines from the movie ... It never gets old because it reminds you that something you did had some impact. You could work your whole career and have nothing like that last that long.^[3]

He played The Brady Bunch patriarch Mike Brady in the 1995 film The Brady Bunch Movie, the 1996 sequel A Very Brady Sequel, and the 2002 television film The Brady Bunch in the White House.

Cole starred as Lieutenant Conrad Rose on the TNT series Wanted, he is also the voice of the title character on the Adult Swim series Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, and starred as Sheriff Lucas Buck on the one season 1995 show, American Gothic. Cole also appeared in the films Talladega Nights, Forever Strong, and American Pastime.

Cole played Katherine Mayfair's ex-husband Wayne on Desperate Housewives^[4] and has played the dangerous drug lord Ted Jones in Pineapple Express with Seth Rogen and James Franco. He also appeared in an episode from the third season of the USA Network series Psych as S.W.A.T. commander Cameron Luntz. Cole also played Bill Owens, Sy Parrish's (Robin Williams) boss, in the film One Hour Photo.

In 2008, Cole appeared on Chuck as Sarah's con-artist father (in "Chuck Versus the DeLorean"), a role which he reprised in 2011 (in "Chuck Versus the Wedding Planner"). He also appeared in the fifth season of HBO's Entourage playing Ari Gold's old pal Andrew Klein for a 3-episode story arc prior to joining the regular cast in the sixth season.

He played ballistics expert Kurt McVeigh on The Good Wife and on The Good Fight. On both shows, he played opposite Christine Baranski, who portrayed lawyer Diane Lockhart.

Cole had a guest-appearance on the fourth season of the HBO series True Blood, playing Sookie Stackhouse's grandfather.

In 2011, Cole joined Fox's comedy pilot Tagged, but the series was not picked up.^[5]

In 2013, Cole began a recurring role on Suits as Cameron Dennis, the former mentor of Harvey Specter, one of the show's main characters. Also in 2013, Cole began a major recurring role as Kent Davison on the HBO comedy series Veep, joining the main cast at the start of the show's second season. In 2014, he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his work in season three. Additionally, Cole was nominated with his fellow cast members for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series for seasons 2, 3, 4, and 5 before ultimately winning the award in 2017 for season 6.

Cole currently provides the voice of Sergeant Boscoe on Bob's Burgers and Principal Shepherd on Family Guy. He appears in triplicate as 10 Minutes, 10 Days and 10 Years in the Future Spokesguy in Kabbage's 2019 commercial campaign.^[6]

Cole married actress Teddi Siddall on March 8, 1992.^[2] They have one daughter, Mary, who is autistic.^[7] On June 19, 2017, Siddall filed for divorce;^[8][9] she died the following year.^[10] On July 7, 2021, Cole married interior designer Michelle Knapp.^[11]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gary Cole.

• Gary Cole at IMDb
• Gary Cole at the TCM Movie Database
• Gary Cole at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• The Onion A.V. Club Random Roles article Archived August 8, 2008, at the Wayback Machine with Gary Cole