Jack Coleman’s birthday: Looking back at Chicago PD’s Bob Ruzek

Jack Coleman celebrates his birthday Wednesday, so we’re looking back at the actor’s Chicago PD character, the gregarious ‘Disco Bob’ Ruzek.

Today is the birthday of Jack Coleman, who’s known and loved (okay, maybe not loved) by fans of Chicago PD for his role as Bob Ruzek.

Bob Ruzek was introduced in the Chicago PD season 2 episode “Disco Bob” as that happens to be his not so flattering nickname.

He’s the father of Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) and a former colleague of both Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) and Alvin Olinsky (Elias Koteas).

None of those people, however, were especially thrilled to see him when he turned up on Chicago PD.

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Bob Ruzek was still working patrol in the 26th District when Intelligence showed up to take over a double murder case, and it came out that Bob had previously accused Voight of being a dirty cop. To be fair, Voight doesn’t exactly have a great reputation to begin with.

But while we did get a bit of a heartwarming moment between Bob and Adam, with Bob saying he wanted to do well by his son, we never really learned that much about his history with Voight or Olinsky.

Heck, we’re still not quite sure why his nickname is “Disco Bob.”

Still, it was a kick to have Jack Coleman on Chicago PD, because anyone who’s watched TV in the last decade knows that Jack Coleman is a hoot on any show in which he appears.

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Coleman will also be known to NBC viewers for his part as Noah Bennet, aka the man behind the Horn-Rimmed Glasses, in Heroes and its revival series, Heroes Reborn. He also played Senator Lipton on NBC’s The Office.

If you like crime shows, then you probably recognize him from his recurring role on ABC‘s Castle, as Senator Bracken, the key figure behind the murder of Kate Beckett’s mother.

But Jack Coleman has been on our TV screens since 1981. Some of his many other roles include Daniel Douglas Langston (the husband of Molly Langston) on ABC’s Scandal and Bill Forbes (the dad of Caroline Forbes) on The CW’s The Vampire Diaries. He’s been around, and every time he turns up he leaves an impression, just as he did when Disco Bob arrived!

While he only appeared in the one episode, we hope he’ll come back around someday. After all, Ruzek could certainly use all the help he could get considering what trouble he’s in at the moment, so why not have Bob pop by to see what all the fuss is about?

In the meanwhile, if you don’t remember Jack Coleman, watch the Heroes video below to put a face to the name (and check out how cool he is in real life):

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Do you miss Jack Coleman as Disco Bob? Would you like to see Bob Ruzek resurface on Chicago PD? Let us know in the comments.