Why Bob Stivers From NCIS Looks So Familiar
Warning: Contains spoilers for "NCIS" Season 20, Episode 8, "Turkey Trot"
On the recently aired Thanksgiving episode of "NCIS," the show starts with a bumbling, inept stalker — Bob Stivers — dressed up in NCIS gear and attempting to infiltrate a crime scene. But he isn't there to solve any crime. He's there to commit one. His target is Navy Rear Admiral Martha Stock (Gillian White), and while in the process of stalking her, he takes a series of photos that ironically helps the NCIS agents solve a completely different crime.
If Bob looked familiar to you, you're not alone. He is played by an actor named Gregg Binkley, and he has been in a ton of different Hollywood productions over the years. His acting credits go all the way back to 1988, and he's even dipped his toe in the director pool a few times. If you still can't quite remember where you've seen him before, let's take a trip down memory lane and take a closer look at some of his more memorable work. At least one of these is sure to jog your memory.
He was everywhere in the 90s (1992 -- 1999)
His career may have started in the late 1980s, but Gregg Binkley has been a familiar presence on the small screen all throughout the 90s. He had several walk-on roles in some pretty popular sitcoms and network shows all throughout that particular decade. It started with an episode of "Quantum Leap" in which he plays an unnamed deputy. But that got the ball rolling for him to play an unnamed security guard during a Season 7 episode of "Full House." Next, he played an unnamed production assistant on "Coach" alongside Craig T. Nelson right before his luck changed. His first named role on a major sitcom was playing Lionel, an obvious nerd, in an episode of "Family Matters," followed by Mike the Co-Pilot in an episode of "Team Night Rider." He also got to play a character named James in a battle of the bands episode of "The Drew Carey Show" before reuniting with Jaleel White on "Grown Ups," right after a guest spot on "The Hughleys" as Mr. Carter.
Speaking of Binkley being typecast as a nerd, he had a prominent role in the TV movie "Revenge of the Nerds III: The Next Generation," where he played a character with a surname: Harold Skolnick. He reprised the role of Harold a couple of years later with the straight-to-TV sequel "Revenge of the Nerds IV: Nerds in Love." Binkley was so popular in the '90s that he even got his foot in the door with feature films.
He hit the silver screen in Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)
Gregg Binkley's biggest role by far on the big screen happened in the middle of the decade when he teamed up with some major players in the comedy world for "Dracula: Dead and Loving It." It wasn't just a spoof of the popular Bram Stoker novel, but also of vampire movies throughout the years. It starred Leslie Nielsen when he was at the top of his game in Hollywood comedic films and was directed by Mel Brooks, the king of 90s comedy spoofs.
In the movie, he plays a small but memorable role that relies heavily on slapstick comedy for laughs. Brooks, who has a habit of writing himself bit parts in his own movies, played Professor Van Helsing. At one point, Van Helsing puts 10 of his med students through a bit of hazing by making the autopsy as gross as humanly possible in order to make every man pass out. Woodbridge (Binkley) is the last man standing, but not for long. His pride isn't strong enough to keep him standing after witnessing Van Helsing crush the cadaver's skull open with a blunt mallet and having the dead man's brain thrown right in his face.
He was Kenny James on My Name is Earl (2005 -- 2009)
"My Name is Earl" was a popular early '00s sitcom starring Jason Lee and Jaime Pressly, among others. The titular character (Lee) is living an unfulfilling life and decides he's going to try and turn his bad karma around by atoning for his past mistakes. Sure enough, as soon as he starts righting his past wrongs and expanding his goodwill, things start coming up Earl. And one of the first wrongs he tries to make up for is all the bullying he did to Kenny James.
Gregg Binkley, of course, is the actor who plays Kenny on the show. Earl is determined to help Kenny make friends since his bullying in the past eroded Kenny's self-confidence and made it difficult for him to form friendships both as a child and in the present day. After that particular plot conflict is resolved, Binkley remained on as a series regular but didn't get nearly as much screen time or incorporation into main story plots as he did in the first few episodes.
He was Raising Hope for a few years (2010 -- 2014)
Gregg Binkley's next long-term stint on network TV came when series creator Gregory Thomas Garcia (who was also the creator of "My Name is Earl") began a new sitcom called "Raising Hope." The name has a bit of a double (and ironic) meaning. Hope is the name of the infant daughter that young protagonist Jimmy (Lucas Neff) sires after a one-night stand with a serial killer. When Hope's mother is caught and put on death row, Jimmy is left to raise the baby by himself, although his horrendously dysfunctional family is right there and eager to help. So not only is he literally raising a daughter named Hope, but he's doing so in the midst of a hopeless and poverty-stricken situation. Hijinks ensue.
In the show, Binkley plays Barney Hughes, Jimmy's boss at the local grocery store. In the premiere episode of the series, he is introduced to the audience holding a couple of vandalized melons that have silly faces drawn on them. He laments that the "Produce Doodler" has struck again, throwing away the melons in despair. Binkley's appearances throughout the series play out much the same way — just a bland, average Joe feeling exasperated by annoying inconveniences.
He played a member of the Boyle clan on Brooklyn 99 (2021)
"Brooklyn Nine-Nine" is probably one of the best shows (and certainly one of the funniest sitcoms) in modern TV history. And it has plenty of critical acclaim to back that up. It stars Andy Sandberg as (sometimes) detective-slash-genius Jake Peralta, an immature manchild who works for the Brooklyn Police Department and investigates crimes. The ensemble cast is full of hilarious and amazingly talented people; but one of the show's longest-running gags is how Detective Charles Boyle (Joe Lo Truglio), Jake's very clingy and co-dependent best friend, comes from a very weird family.
That's where Gregg Binkley comes in. During Season 8, Episode 7, "Game of Boyles" (the title likely being a humorous parody of HBO's "Game of Thrones"), Charles has to attend a Boyle family reunion/funeral after Pappy Boyle (Hal Alpert) passes away. But some suspect foul play. Jake leads the investigation, and at one point suspects Lyndon Boyle (Binkley) of being the murderer. Eventually, DNA evidence exonerates everyone and the death is ruled an accident. But the DNA also reveals a devastating truth: Charles Boyle is not genetically related to the rest of the Boyle family.