Gary Michael Cole (born September 20, 1956) is an American actor.
Cole was born and raised in Park Ridge, Illinois to a school-administrator father and a director-of-finance mother, and attended the Rolling Meadows High School, where his first dramatic appearance was as Snoopy in a high school production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. He later attended Illinois State University, where he majored in theater alongside actors Laurie Metcalf and John Malkovich.
He began his professional career as a stage actor in Chicago. He also appeared in several off-Broadway productions in New York City. In addition to his film and television credits listed above, he has done voice work on several animated series (Family Guy; Kim Possible; Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law) 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 as Joe Maxwell on DCOM (Disney Channel Original Movie) Cadet Kelly and appeared as real-life astronaut Edgar Mitchell in HBO's recreation of Project Apollo, From the Earth to the Moon.
He is remembered for the comedy film Office Space where he plays the annoying boss Bill Lumbergh. He starred as Lt. Conrad Rose on the TNT series Wanted, is 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. Most recently, he was featured in Talladega Nights and Forever Strong. He has recently appeared in the film American Pastime in which he plays a minor league baseball player who is assigned as a guard at the Topaz Internment Camp during World War II. He played Katherine Mayfair's ex-husband Wayne on Desperate Housewives and has more recently played drug lord Ted Jones in Pineapple Express co-starring 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.
On October 2008, it was reported that he will appear on Chuck as Sarah's dad during November sweeps. He also appeared in the fifth season of HBO's Entourage for a 3-story episode arc prior to joining the regular cast in the upcoming sixth season.
He has an autistic daughter and is active in Autism related charities.