Gary Cole plays a jerk as Chicago Fire’s Carl Grissom, but he’s kind of used to it. Here’s a history of Gary Cole’s best difficult characters.
Gary Cole became the man we loved to hate in Chicago Fire season 6, and there might be a big reason for that: he’s pretty good at this sort of thing.
The Emmy Award nominee recurred throughout the most recent season of Chicago Fire as Chief Carl Grissom, who was first introduced as a friendly face from Kelly Severide’s (Taylor Kinney) past before becoming a present-day nemesis for Chief Wallace Boden (Eamonn Walker). He made the character someone who became completely insufferable, and based on how the season ended, he is only getting started causing trouble.
But if you think Grissom is a pain, you haven’t seen some of the other characters Gary Cole has portrayed over the years. Both in TV and film, he’s come up with some other roles where he’s not the greatest guy in the world (even if some of them are really fun to watch!). We’ve put together this list of five of Gary Cole’s most memorable characters who have given audiences just as much of a hard time as Grissom.
It should be noted that Gary Cole himself is a great person, and that he has played a number of characters who are not jerks—he played Jesse Lee Soffer‘s dad in the The Brady Bunch Movie, after all!
But we admire his ability to take a character who is totally unlikeable and make them utterly watchable. In honor of how much chaos he’s brought to One Chicago, click through this slideshow to see other Gary Cole characters who make Carl Grissom look like a saint.
5. Kurt McVeigh, The Good Wife
Since 2010, Gary Cole has had a recurring role on CBS‘s The Good Wife and now its CBS All Access spinoff The Good Fight as Kurt McVeigh, the love interest of Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski). And while Kurt is not a jerk like Carl Grissom, he’s done some pretty jerky things over almost 20 episodes.
Kurt is a ballistics expert who meets Diane in The Good Wife‘s fifteenth episode “Bang” during one of her firm’s cases. Though the two are on opposite sides of the political spectrum, they are both equally strong personalities, and they begin a relationship and eventually marry. However, the show throws a big wrench into their marriage near the series’ end, when it reveals that Kurt has cheated on Diane with his protege Holly Westfall (former Smash star Megan Hilty).
That’s definitely not great behavior, but at least The Good Fight has worked on rebuilding that bridge. Kurt and Diane are estranged when the spinoff series starts, but Kurt is obviously still in love with Diane.
He ends up being on the other side of the same problem when Diane cheats on him with a bartender in The Good Fight season 2, and even so, he tells her he’s not leaving and the two stay together even in the face of mounting legal problems. Kurt may be a jerk at times, but he clearly loves his wife and has learned from his mistakes.
4. Sergeant Bosco, Bob’s Burgers
Yes, that’s Gary Cole who provides the voice of the embittered police sergeant who has become a recurring character on FOX‘s hit animated series. Bosco is definitely a jerk and he’s unapologetic about it, like Grissom, but he’s mostly hot air (and drunk texts).
Bosco is introduced in the episode “Bob Day Afternoon” when a man tries to rob the bank across the street, so the police seize Bob’s Burgers as their base of operations. Bosco soon establishes himself as loud, cynical, and not nearly as great at his job as he thinks he is. He’s made a few more appearances on the show since, and it’s great fun to hear Gary Cole say the ridiculous things that come out of his mouth.
The character is so clearly stuck up that it’s hilarious, including refusing to help Bob’s wife Linda when Bob goes missing in a later episode while showing off the drunk texts he sent to his own ex-spouse. He also makes a terrible attempt at Valentine’s Day speed dating that proves he should probably never be allowed to marry again.
However, for all his bluster and all the cringe-worthy things he says, Bosco seems relatively harmless. He does a lot of talking, but Bob’s Burgers makes it pretty clear that he’s equally likely to be drinking or just not caring as he is to actually follow through on anything.
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.
2. Cameron Dennis, Suits
One of Gary Cole’s best antagonist roles came on USA‘s Suits, and it was actually quite similar thematically to what he’s playing now on Chicago Fire. He was introduced as the former boss and mentor of Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht), only to reveal what a jerk he really was.
Cole’s character Cameron Dennis was the District Attorney when Harvey was an Assistant District Attorney, well before the start of Suits. Harvey had plenty of respect for Cameron, until he found out that Cameron had been falsifying evidence in a number of cases in order to boost his number of convictions. Sound familiar?
Though Cameron was forced into resigning as District Attorney in Suits season 1 (but only after trying to sell out Harvey to save his own behind), he returned during Suits season 3 as a special prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney. He was even more of a jerk then. There are an awful lot of similar aspects between Cameron Dennis and Carl Grissom, and none of them are good.
However, what is good is the chemistry that Gary Cole has with Gabriel Macht. If you thought that his tension with Taylor Kinney was interesting, watch Suits and see what he does there. Although Severide might try his best to salvage a relationship with Grissom, Harvey does no such thing and there are some real fireworks.
1. Bill Lumbergh, Office Space
Office Space is almost 20 years old, but Gary Cole’s finest jerk role will always be this cult classic from Mike Judge. Yes, the same man who gave us Beavis & Butt-Head and Silicon Valley also stuck us with Bill Lumbergh.
Lumbergh is every stereotype of the corporate boss rolled into one and deliberately exaggerated, and that’s why he’s such a memorable character. He’s purposefully designed to be the guy that you love to hate; unlike Chicago Fire, he doesn’t even pretend that he isn’t a walking headache. It is a larger than life performance for Gary Cole, because it’s clear that Bill Lumbergh has no idea how much of a tool he is, and if he did he wouldn’t care.
Everyone has had a boss who reminds them of Lumbergh in some way. Whether it’s asking you to work on Saturday or speaking to you like you’re the one who doesn’t have a clue, he’s everything you hate about work in one man. He’s a terrible boss, although based on what we’ve seen so far, we’re convinced that Carl Grissom will be worse.
Lumbergh is arrogant, stupid and short-sighted, but he’s meant to be that way. And Gary Cole is pitch-perfect in the role. He’s clearly having a great time being this bad, which makes it great for fans every time he shows up. Just make sure you file those TPS reports, mmkay?
Next: 5 reasons Chief Grissom will be a terrible boss
Do you have a favorite (or least favorite) Gary Cole character? Did you recognize him when he turned up on Chicago Fire? Let us know in the comments!
Chicago Fire returns to NBC on Sept. 26.