M. C. Gainey

M. C. Gainey
Gainey at WonderCon 2010
Born	Michael Connor Gainey (1948-01-18) January 18, 1948 Jackson, Mississippi, U.S.
Other names	M.C. Gainey, Mike Connor Gainey, Michael Connor Gainey
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1954–present
Spouse	Kim Novicki ​ (m. 2002)​

Michael Connor Gainey (born January 18, 1948) is an American character actor best known for his appearances in Lost, Con Air, Sideways, Tangled, and Django Unchained.

Early life

Gainey was born in Jackson, Mississippi. In the early 1970s, he attended the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, California, with Ken Hixon. Prior to this, he attended the University of Southern Mississippi. He worked as a mortician's apprentice before he decided to study acting. He served in the U.S. Army and was the company mailman at his post in Chakmakli, Turkey in 1969.

Career

In 1981, he made his big-screen debut in Herbert Ross's musical Pennies from Heaven starring Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters. Since the early 1980s, he has been in over 50 films, including Two Idiots in Hollywood (1988), The Mighty Ducks (1992), The Fan (1996), Breakdown (1997), Con Air (1997), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Sideways (2004), Are We There Yet? (2005), The Dukes of Hazzard (2005), Wild Hogs (2007) and Mr. Woodcock (2007).

Gainey was one of the stars of the short-lived series Against the Law and played Tom Friendly on the series Lost. He also played murderous drug dealer Bo Crowder in season one on the hit FX series Justified. He has guest starred on over 40 television shows, including The Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider, Designing Women, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., Walker, Texas Ranger, Criminal Minds, CSI, Girl Meets World, Cheers, Days of Our Lives, The X-Files, Desperate Housewives, The Mentalist, Burn Notice, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

In 2003, Gainey appeared in The Last Cowboy, playing the role of Lance Henriksen's friend, along with Bradley Cooper and Jennie Garth. In 2004, Gainey appeared as a cuckolded husband in full frontal nudity in the award-winning arthouse film Sideways. He played Kurtz / The Wizard in the controversial road-revenge short film Apocalypse Oz. In 2007, he appeared in Mr. Woodcock, Wild Hogs, and Unearthed. In 2010, he appeared in Love Ranch and voiced the Captain of the Palace Guard in Tangled and he reprised this role for the TV series Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure in 2017–2020. In 2012, he appeared in Quentin Tarantino's film Django Unchained.

Personal life

He has been married to his wife Kim Novicki since 2002.

On being typecast, Gainey stated:

With a face like this, there aren't a lot of lawyers or priest roles coming my way. I've got a face that was meant for a mug shot and that's what I've been doing for the past thirty years. If I play a cop, it's always a racist cop, or a trigger-happy cop or a crooked cop - but by and large I play cowboys, bikers, and convicts.

On his favorite of the villainous characters he has played, Gainey said:

"Swamp Thing" in Con Air. In a movie that has so many villains, take a look at my character closely - not that it supports the weight of a careful examination - and you'll see that I don't really get in anyone's face, I don't really kill anyone, I'm not really a bad guy - I'm just a guy who likes to fly. He made the mistake of landing his plane full of controlled substances in the wrong place and finds himself in the system. In terms of bad guys though, the character I played in Breakdown was a very bad human being. There's nothing redeeming about that character.

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1975	Hard Times	Party Guest at Mansion	(uncredited)
1979	Time After Time	London Bobby	(credited as Mike Gainey)
1981	Pennies from Heaven	Policeman
1982	Frances	Reporter / Publicist / Photographer
1984	Starman	Cop #2
1986	Ratboy	Police Officer
	Soul Man	Man in Cell
1987	Fatal Beauty	Detective Barndollar
1988	Spellbinder	Brock
	Two Idiots in Hollywood	Sergeant Albert
1989	An Innocent Man	Malcolm
	Caddie Woodlawn	Hankinson
1992	The Mighty Ducks	Lewis
	Ulterior Motives	Max
	Leap of Faith	'Tiny'
1993	Geronimo: An American Legend	Unafraid Miner
1995	Citizen Ruth	Harlan
1996	One Tough Bastard	Hank
	The Fan	Man Behind Man
	The Secret Agent Club	Jock Dad
1997	Breakdown	Earl
	Con Air	Earl 'Swamp Thing' Williams
1998	Meet the Deedles	Major Ed Flowers
	Ringmaster	Trucker
1999	Happy, Texas	Bob Allen Maslow
	The Haunting	Large Man
	Tyrone	Sheriff Haggard
2001	Diary of a Sex Addict	Theatre manager	(Video)
2002	Run Ronnie Run!	Hark Trellis
	Highway	Steven
	The New Guy	Clem
	The Country Bears	Roadie
2003	The Cooler	Highway Officer
	King of the Ants	Coach Rack
	Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines	Roadhouse Bouncer
	Wonderland	Detective Billy Ward
2004	Club Dread	Hank
	Sideways	Cammi's husband
	Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie	Bartender	(Video)
2005	At Last	Earl Singleton
	Are We There Yet?	Al
	The Dukes of Hazzard	Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane
2006	Two Tickets to Paradise	Barbosa
	The TV Set	Hutch
	Beerfest	Priest
	Relative Strangers	Spicer
	Apocalypse Oz	Kurtz	(Short)
2007	Wild Hogs	Murdock
	Unearthed	Rob Horn
	The Death and Life of Bobby Z	'Boom-Boom'
	Mr. Woodcock	Hal
2009	Tripping Forward	Jim Rose - Interviewer
	All About Steve	Norm the Truck Driver
2010	The Not Goods Anthology: This Is Absolutely Not Good	M.C. Not Good	(Video short)
	Love Ranch	Warren Stamp
	Tangled	Captain of the Guard
	Trim	Ron
2011	Leave	Gus
2012	Stolen	Hoyt
	The Babymakers	Officer Malloy
	Django Unchained	John 'Big John' Brittle
	Ghost Quake	Principal Alger Danforth
2013	The Pardon	Gibbs Duhon
2015	Father's Day	Dad	(Short)
	The Week	Doc
2016	Greater	Coach Ford
2017	The Corridor Defended	Bartender	(Short)
2018	Shifting Gears	D.H. 'Dirty Harry' Hawkins
	Town of Samhain	Marquee (voice)	(Short)
	Boogeyman Pop	Ed
	Deadman Standing	Hugh Anderson
2019	The Orchard Girl	Wheelchair	(Short)
	Bit	Enoch
2020	Emperor	Randolph Stevens
2021	The Cleaner	Doug

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1981	Dynasty	Worker	Episode: "The Bordello"
1982	Bring 'Em Back Alive	Miller	Episode: "Escape from Kampoon"
	Father Murphy	Foreman	Episode: "The Reluctant Runaway: Part 2"
	Happy Days	Elmo	Episode: "Hi Yo, Fonzie Away"
	Knight Rider	Jason Keller	Episode: "A Plush Ride"
	The Dukes of Hazzard	Peters	Episode: "Bad Day in Hazzard"
	The Blue and the Gray	Sykes	Episode: "Part 1"
1983	T. J. Hooker	Earl Banks	Episode: "Too Late for Love"
	Wizards and Warriors		Episode: "The Kidnap"
	The A-Team	C.W. Watkins	Episode: "A Nice Place to Visit"
	Night Partners	Rapist	TV movie
1984	Blue Thunder	Saver	Episode: "Arms Race"
	Hart to Hart	Hayward	Episode: "The Shooting"
	Whiz Kids		Episode: "The Sufi Project"
	The New Mike Hammer	PeeWee	Episode: "Too Young to Die"
1985	Street Hawk	Frankie Monroe	Episode: "The Arabian"
	The Rape of Richard Beck	Sonny	TV movie
1986	Cheers	Irving	Episode: "Suspicion"
	Knight Rider	Jerry Nash	Episode: "Out of the Woods"
1988	Frank Nitti: The Enforcer		TV movie
	Police Story: Gladiator School	Rafferty	TV movie
	Something Is Out There	Deputy	Episode: "The Keeper"
1983-1988	Simon & Simon	Clarence 'Buzz-Saw' Cooder / Mr. Bad / Dexter	3 episodes
1989	CBS Summer Playhouse	Benger	Episode: "Elysian Fields"
	Major Dad	Zaff	Episode: "Just Polly & Me, and the Kids Make Five"
	The Young Riders	Gabe Colter	Episode: "Ten-Cent Hero"
1990	Doctor Doctor	Darren DuFine	Episode: "Doctors and Other Strangers"
	Hunter	Magruder	Episode: "Street Wise: Part 2"
	El Diablo	Bebe	TV movie
1989-1990	Hardball	Moose Dobson	2 episodes
1988-1991	Designing Women	T. Tommy Reed / Junior	3 episodes
1990-1991	Against the Law	J.T. 'Miggsy' Meigs	17 episodes
1991	Matlock	Marty Jensen	2 episodes
	The Commish	Si Prince	Episode: "Nothing to Fear But Fear"
	L.A. Law	Jack Markell	Episode: "Monkey on My Back Lot"
1992	Night Court	Eddie the Machete	Episode: "Shave and a Haircut"
	Ned Blessing: The True Story of My Life	One-Armed Jack Sample	TV movie
	Raven	Fat Boy Ochoa	Episode: "Return of the Black Dragon"
1993	The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air	Luther	Episode: "Robbing the Banks"
	Danger Theatre	George 'Mad Dog' Munson (segment "Vengeance in the Grass")	Episode: "Comes a Searcher/Vengeance in the Grass"
	The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.	Big Smith	2 episodes
	Hearts Afire	M.C.	Episode: "The Stud Club"
1994	Renegade	Mick Russell	Episode: "The Posse"
	Dead Man's Revenge		TV movie
	Blind Justice	Bull	TV movie
	Thunder Alley	Mr. Ohrt	Episode: "Give 'Em Hell, Bobbi"
	Touched by an Angel	Smoky	Episode: "The Heart of the Matter"
	New Eden	Thor	TV movie
1995	Women of the House	Moving Man #2	Episode: "Miss Sugarbaker Goes to Washington"
	Marker	Floyd	Episode: "High & Wild"
	Naomi & Wynonna: Love Can Build a Bridge	Gaylon	TV movie
	Misery Loves Company	Scar	Episode: "Uneasy Rider"
	M.A.N.T.I.S.	Cabin Dweller	Episode: "Ghost of the Ice"
1996	Silk Stalkings	Lucien 'Bayou' Boudreau	Episode: "Uncivil Wars"
	Death Benefit	D.K. Graham	TV movie
	Don't Look Back	Red	TV movie
	The Lazarus Man	Everett Henderson	Episode: "The Angel Maker"
1997	Nash Bridges	Neil Gallow	Episode:: "Payback"
1998	The Pretender	Sharpton	Episode: "Amnesia"
	Last Rites	'Quinn' Quint	TV movie
	Buddy Faro	Dyer	Episode: "Get Me Cody Swift"
1999	The Magnificent Seven	Earl	Episode: "The New Law"
	Pensacola: Wings of Gold	Clyde Donaldson	Episode: "Sortie"
	Horse Sense	Twister	TV movie
1993-2000	Walker, Texas Ranger	Craig / Tingley	2 episodes
2001	The X-Files	Bo Taylor	Episode: "Vienen"
	Dead Last	Hagerty	Episode: "Teen Spirit"
	UC: Undercover	Cubby	Episode: "Zero Option"
2002	Days of Our Lives	Big Chauncey O'Hanrahan	5 episodes
2003	The Last Cowboy	Amos Russell	TV movie
	The Pitts	Curtis	Episode: "Ticket to Riot"
	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Frank Maddox	Episode: "Homebodies"
2005	Criminal Minds	Moretti	Episode: "Derailed"
2005–2008	Lost	Tom Friendly	19 episodes
2008	Bones	Braxton Smalls	Episode: "The Man in the Mud"
	The Young and the Restless	Dick Dentner	2 episode
	Cold Case	Coach Walters '08	Episode: "Glory Days"
2009	Burn Notice	Jacob Orr	Episode: "Seek and Destroy"
	Life	William Ford	Episode: "I Heart Mom"
	ER	Darrion Walters	Episode: "Shifting Equilibrium"
2010	Happy Town	Sheriff Griffin Conroy	6 episodes
	Human Target	Donnelly	Episode: "The Wife's Tale"
2010-2011	Justified	Bo Crowder	6 episodes
2011	Enlightened	Rick	Episode: "The Weekend"
2012	The Finder	Pete Steck	Episode: "Eye of the Storm"
	Haunted High	Danforth	TV movie
2013	Glee	Santa	Episode: "Previously Unaired Christmas"
2014	Revolution	Gen. Frank Blanchard	2 episodes
	The Walking Dead	Walker	Episode: "Slabtown" (uncredited)
2010-2015	The Mentalist	Pete Barsocky / Pete	3 episodes
2015	Married	Ed	Episode: "Thanksgiving"
	Girl Meets World	Pappy Joe	2 episodes
2014-2015	Kingdom	Rick	6 episodes
2016	The Magicians	Stanley	2 episodes
	Lopez	Broughton Goodson	2 episodes
	Maron	Gus	2 episodes
	American Gothic	Al Jenkins	Episode: "The Oxbow"
2017	Outcast	Bob / Junkyard Bob Caldwell	8 episodes
	Speechless	Dom	Episode: "S-H-- SHIPPING"
2018	Riverdale	Papa Poutine
2017-2018	Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure	Captain of the Guard	14 episodes
2018	9-1-1	Charlie	Episode: "Under Pressure"
	The Conners	Group Leader	Episode: "The Separation of Church and Dan"
2019	The Passage	Bob	Episode: "Last Lesson"
	Bosch	Ryan Rodgers	5 episodes
2020	A Teacher	Wyatt Wilson	3 episodes
2023	Tacoma FD	McSwiggins	Episode "Gone Dutch"

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2008	Lost: Via Domus	Tom Friendly (voice)

External links

• M. C. Gainey at IMDb