Great Character Actors of Today #12

Name: Glenn Morshower.

Persona: A solidly-built Texan whose slight but slow drawl has typed him in military and rural cop roles.  Morshower: “The only people who have done more military roles than me — what they all have in common? They are dead.”

Overlap: For a four-month period in 2001, Morshower was recurring on C.S.I. (as a sheriff), The West Wing (as a presidential adviser), and 24 (as a secret service agent).  A self-proclaimed “dialectician,” Morshower affected a slightly different accent for each show.

Career-Defining Role: Along with the equally sublime Mary-Lynn Rajskub (Chloe, the goofy IT whiz) and Jude Ciccolella (the nefarious, Dick Cheney-ish Beltway dealmaker), Morshower was one of the long-term 24 background players who brought some humanity to a show that dispatched its heroes and villains with a cold-blooded consistency.

Payoff: Morshower enjoyed a beautiful climactic arc on 24 – a forbidden and mostly unspoken attraction to a fragile first lady (Jean Smart) – which was perfect material for his understated style.

Also Recurring On: JAG, Friday Night Lights, the new Dallas, and the Transformers movies.

Goes Back As Far As: The Dukes of Hazzard, in 1980.  Somebody else can dig up those clips.

He’s Also a Motivational Speaker: … but let’s not hold that against him.