If you know Gary Cole only as Alden Parker from NCIS, you’re missing a huge part of his story.
Long before he joined the NCIS team, Cole had already built a remarkable career across television, film, theater, comedy, drama, and voice acting. He’s played everything from a serious law-enforcement figure to one of the most hilariously irritating bosses in movie history.
Then, in Season 19 of NCIS, Cole stepped into a particularly challenging role: taking over as the team’s new supervisory special agent after the departure of Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
So who is the actor behind Alden Parker?
Here are 25 fascinating facts about Gary Cole that show just how much more there is to this veteran performer.
1. Gary Cole Was Born in Illinois
Gary Michael Cole was born on September 20, 1956, in Park Ridge, Illinois. He grew up nearby in Rolling Meadows, where his father worked as a municipal finance director and his mother worked as a school administrative assistant.
That Chicago-area upbringing would eventually lead him toward one of the city’s most respected theater communities.
2. His First Acting Role Was Snoopy
Cole’s acting career began much earlier than many fans might expect.
While attending Rolling Meadows High School, he played Snoopy in a production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. According to his biography, he subsequently appeared in every show while attending the school.
Not exactly the intimidating Alden Parker introduction you might expect, right?
3. He Studied Theater at Illinois State University
Cole attended Illinois State University, where he studied theater. He was also a classmate of future acting stars John Malkovich and Laurie Metcalf.
That’s quite a group of future performers to have in one classroom.
Cole eventually left university during his third year, but his theater education and Chicago experience became an important foundation for his career.
4. He Started His Career on the Chicago Stage
Before television made him recognizable, Cole was a stage actor.
He helped establish the Remains Theatre Ensemble and later became a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago in 1985.
His theater résumé includes works by major playwrights such as Sam Shepard and David Mamet.
That theatrical background helps explain something about Cole’s screen performances: even when he’s barely moving, he can command a scene.
5. He Worked as a Bartender
Hollywood wasn’t always paying the bills.
Before his acting career took off, Cole worked various jobs, including bartending and house painting.
It’s a reminder that the polished actor audiences now recognize from NCIS spent years building his career the old-fashioned way—one job at a time.
6. His Breakthrough Came With Fatal Vision
One of Cole’s earliest major screen breakthroughs came with the 1984 television miniseries ** Fatal Vision **.
He portrayed Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald, a role that brought him significant attention. The Television Academy notes that Cole first gained prominence through the miniseries.
Cole later described getting the role as something of a fluke, saying he landed it after several other actors had turned it down.
Sometimes one unexpected opportunity can completely redirect an actor’s career.
7. He Became a TV Star on Midnight Caller
From 1988 to 1991, Cole starred as Jack “Nighthawk” Killian in NBC’s Midnight Caller.
Killian was a former police officer who became an overnight radio host.
The role gave Cole an opportunity to demonstrate something that would become a signature of his career: the ability to play serious, complicated characters without making them feel one-dimensional.
8. He Played a Supernatural Sheriff in American Gothic
Cole took an entirely different direction in ** American Gothic **.
He played Sheriff Lucas Buck, a mysterious and menacing figure with supernatural abilities. The series aired from 1995 to 1996.
The role showed just how naturally Cole could play authority figures who seemed calm on the surface but carried something much darker underneath.
9. He Played Mike Brady
Yes—that Mike Brady.
Cole played the father of the Brady family in ** The Brady Bunch Movie ** in 1995 and its sequel, ** A Very Brady Sequel **, as well as the later television film The Brady Bunch in the White House.
The performance allowed Cole to lean heavily into deadpan comedy.
And that brings us to perhaps his most famous comedy role.
10. He Played Bill Lumbergh in Office Space
For many movie fans, Gary Cole will forever be Bill Lumbergh.
In the 1999 cult comedy Office Space, Cole played the passive-aggressive boss who somehow manages to make every workplace conversation feel like a bureaucratic nightmare.
His slow delivery and painfully polite management style became iconic.
The Television Academy describes Lumbergh as one of Cole’s memorable comedic performances, while TV Insider notes how the film’s home-video popularity eventually turned his performance into a cult favorite.
11. “That’d Be Great” Became a Signature Line
One of the reasons Lumbergh became so memorable was Cole’s delivery.
His drawn-out “That’d be great” became one of the character’s defining phrases and a lasting meme from Office Space.
It’s a perfect example of Cole’s ability to make understatement hilarious.
He doesn’t need to shout.
Sometimes, a completely calm sentence is much funnier.
12. He Appeared in In the Line of Fire
Cole appeared in the 1993 Clint Eastwood thriller ** In the Line of Fire **.
He played Bill Watts, a Secret Service agent.
The role also feels like a fascinating early preview of the kind of authority-driven characters Cole would portray throughout his career.
13. He Has Worked Across Comedy and Drama
One of the most impressive things about Cole’s résumé is how easily he moves between genres.
He has worked in serious dramas, crime stories, political satire, sitcoms, thrillers, animated series, and broad comedy. His film credits include Office Space, One Hour Photo, Dodgeball, Talladega Nights, Pineapple Express, Breach, and The Brady Bunch Movie.
That versatility is a major reason he’s been able to remain a familiar face on television for decades.
14. He Played Vice President Bob Russell on The West Wing
Cole joined the world of political drama with a recurring role on ** The West Wing **.
He played Vice President Bob Russell, adding another powerful political character to his résumé.
It’s another example of Cole’s knack for playing men who operate inside systems of power.
15. He Had a Major Role in The Good Wife
Cole later appeared in ** The Good Wife ** as Kurt McVeigh, a ballistics expert.
The role brought him into the show’s legal and political world, and he appeared opposite Christine Baranski. He later reprised the character in The Good Fight.
So if you’re watching NCIS and thinking, “I know this guy from somewhere,” there is a very good chance you’ve seen Cole in one of these major television series.
16. He Was Part of Veep
Cole joined HBO’s political comedy ** Veep ** as Kent Davison, a highly intelligent but socially awkward political strategist.
The character was almost tailor-made for Cole’s dry comedic style.
Kent’s ability to analyze political data was impressive.
His ability to understand normal human interaction?
Not quite as impressive.
17. His Veep Performance Earned an Emmy Nomination
Cole received a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for playing Kent Davison on Veep.
The nomination is particularly fitting because Cole’s comedy often works through subtlety.
He doesn’t need an elaborate punchline.
Sometimes his expression is the punchline.
18. He Won a SAG Award With the Veep Cast
Cole and his Veep castmates were nominated for Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series across several seasons.
The cast ultimately won in 2017 for Season 6.
That’s a nice recognition of something Cole has demonstrated throughout his career: he’s exceptionally good at making an ensemble even stronger.
19. He Has a Long Voice-Acting Career
If you’ve only watched Cole’s live-action performances, you may not realize how much voice work he’s done.
He has voiced characters in shows including ** Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Family Guy, Kim Possible, Bob’s Burgers, and Archer**.
Voice acting requires a different set of skills.
Without facial expressions or physical gestures, the voice has to do the heavy lifting.
Cole clearly knows how to make that work.
20. He Played the Lead Character in Harvey Birdman
Cole provided the voice for the title character in Adult Swim’s ** Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law **.
The absurd animated comedy gave Cole an opportunity to explore a much more exaggerated style of performance than his dramatic television roles.
It’s another reminder that his career has never fit neatly into one box.
21. He Has Appeared on Bob’s Burgers
Cole has also contributed his voice to the animated comedy ** Bob’s Burgers **.
So yes, Gary Cole has somehow managed to have a career that includes NCIS, Office Space, political satire, theater, crime dramas, and animated hamburgers.
That’s quite the résumé.
22. He Joined NCIS in Season 19
Now we get to the role most relevant to NCIS fans.
Cole joined ** NCIS in Season 19** as FBI Special Agent Alden Parker.
Parker arrived at a difficult moment for the team.
Gibbs had been the central figure for years, and replacing the show’s longtime leader was never going to be simple.
Cole had to introduce a character who could stand on his own without simply becoming “the new Gibbs.”
And that distinction matters.
23. Alden Parker Wasn’t Designed to Be Another Gibbs
Parker’s personality is noticeably different from Gibbs’s.
Where Gibbs often communicates through silence and intimidating looks, Parker can be more conversational, eccentric, and openly humorous.
Cole himself has discussed the evolution of Parker’s relationship with the team, noting that the character gradually developed more of a “crazy uncle” energy.
That shift helped Parker become his own character rather than a replacement copy of Gibbs.
24. Gary Cole Had to Follow Mark Harmon
Taking over as the leader of the NCIS team after Mark Harmon was a huge challenge.
Harmon had played Gibbs for nearly two decades, making Gibbs inseparable from the show’s identity.
Cole entered NCIS knowing that Parker would inevitably be compared with his predecessor.
Instead of trying to imitate Gibbs, Cole brought his own style to the role.
That was probably the smartest move possible.
You don’t replace an icon by pretending to be the icon.
You create something new.
25. Gary Cole Has Built a Career That Spans Decades
Perhaps the most impressive fact about Gary Cole isn’t one individual role.
It’s the sheer range and longevity of his career.
From Chicago theater to Fatal Vision, Midnight Caller, American Gothic, The Brady Bunch Movie, Office Space, The West Wing, The Good Wife, Veep, voice acting, and finally NCIS, Cole has spent decades moving comfortably between dramatically different worlds.
And that’s why Alden Parker feels so convincing.
He’s not a newcomer who suddenly appeared on NCIS.
He’s an actor who spent decades learning how to play practically every kind of character. 