Gary Cole’s history of jerks before Chicago Fire

3. Reese Bobby, Talladega Nights

Back in 2006, Gary Cole appeared in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby as the deadbeat dad of Will Ferrell’s title character. Reese Bobby was definitely a jerk, knew he was a jerk and did not care, and managed to do legitimate damage in his son’s life.

Reese is a stereotypical deadbeat father; there’s an honestly sad plot point where the audience finds out that Ricky has always left a ticket for his dad at every one of his NASCAR races, but his dad never shows up. That’s not funny, but Gary Cole wrings every ounce of possible humor out of playing a terrible parent who seems to almost revel in being that terrible.

He re-emerges from whatever bender he was on after Ricky’s career stumbles, declaring that he’s going to teach his son how to drive again. Unfortunately for Ricky (but hilariously for the viewer), his methods are insane. It’s Gary Cole who gives us that infamous Talladega Nights scene where Reese puts a live cougar in the car. He also gets Ricky involved in a police chase. That is definitely not good parenting!

Reese is another character you love to hate, for abandoning his family and then coming back to do some things that are completely bizarre. But he does congratulate his son at the end of the movie, and Gary Cole is wonderful in the part, while teaching us that one can indeed get kicked out of an Applebee’s.