Why Mayor Grover From Amazon's Reacher Looks So Familiar
In "Reacher," Prime Video's 2022 TV adaptation of Lee Child's written work, Grover Teale was the mayor of a small town in Georgia called Margrave (which Prime Video built from the ground up). Being the overachiever that he was, and by "overachiever," we really mean "serially crooked trash politician," Teale was also the self-appointed chief of police. This is all housed in the past tense because a distinctly less corrupt police detective introduced his skull to a nasty metal slug. He deserved it, mind you, and the subsequent burial-by-burning-warehouse.
But before he was forcefully renovated to feature extra cranium ventilation, Teale probably looked familiar because his onscreen performer has been in the industry since the late '70s.
Bruce McGill is a Texan actor with over 150 projects credited to his name. While he's rarely the titular character, his resume is littered with gnarly villains, gruff mentors, and comic wackadoos (that's the technical term, roll with it). Also, ironically, McGill plays a lot of cops. Just so, so many cops. It's nearly impossible to trim his history down into something easily digestible, especially if all the highlights are to be given their fair due. With that in mind, here are some of McGill's more popular roles.
A high profile, low brow career kick starter
In 1978, Universal released "National Lampoon's Animal House," a raunchy college comedy that follows a group of fraternity hopefuls and their disastrous escapades at Faber College. These kids — young adults, really — trash everything they touch, including their grades and a very unfortunate parade, the latter of which gets terrorized by something they literally call the Deathmobile. Typical National Lampoon content. Starring talents such as Donald Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, Tom Hulce, and the late John Belushi, "Animal House" was critically well-received, so much so that it spawned a 1979 spinoff series called "Delta House" which ran for a single season before being canceled.
In both "Animal House" and its spinoff, Bruce McGill portrays Daniel Simpson Day, the one-time president of Delta Tau Chi. But nobody ever calls him Daniel. The mustachioed motorcyclist prefers to go by his fraternity nickname, "D-Day," which is distressingly more literal than it sounds because he is walking, talking, throat-singing mayhem. There's a reason he goes into hiding at the end of the movie. Some people find shenanigans in college charming. After university, though? That's just considered criminal behavior.
Second fiddle to Mr. Duct Tape himself
In 1985, ABC released "MacGyver," an action-adventure series that ran for seven seasons and ended in 1992. The story follows Angus MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson), a secret agent with a certain set of skills — the dude can kitbash a hot air balloon with nothing but a parachute, a refrigerator, and some duct tape, probably. Otherwise, MacGyver was a live-action mixture of Captain Planet and Batman in that he never used guns if he could help it, and he spent most of his time dealing with global social and environmental issues. Surprisingly progressive for the '80s, if we're being honest. Totally unrelated, but "MacGyver" featured the one and only Henry Winkler as an Executive Producer. So that's neat.
In "MacGyver," Bruce McGill portrays Jack Dalton, a jack-of-all-trades bush pilot with a penchant for following money instead of his brain. He's a loyal friend to MacGyver, sure, but his greed tends to get them both in a heap of trouble. He's also an unrepentant, mostly unsuccessful, womanizer. Also, fun fact! McGill returned for the 2016 CBS reboot of "MacGyver" but not in his original role. In Season 2 Episode 11 ("Bullet + Pen"), he portrays Detective Greer. As we mentioned earlier, McGill plays a lot of cops.
How is Matuzak not a villain name?
In 1994, Universal released "Timecop," a science fiction film with a plot as deep as its title. There's time travel and cops. What else is there to say? Oh, right, it's also a Jean-Claude Van Damme flick, which means that everyone not played by Jean-Claude Van Dame gets to suffer from an intense bout of fancy kicks and cinematic gymnastics. Without diving too deep, the story sees Max Walker (Van Damme) travel through time to stop a criminal from doing the same thing.
In "Timecop," Bruce McGill portrays Eugene Matuzak, the first Commanding Officer of the Time Enforcement Commission. Despite sporting a moniker that sounds as though a group of writers attempted to chemically fabricate the perfect villain name, Matuzak is actually a good guy. Before Walker went back and corrected the timeline, Matuzak sacrificed his own life to ensure that Walker's mission would be a success. He got better, but that's just how time-travel movies work.
A desk abiding district attorney
In 2009, Overture Films released "Law Abiding Citizen," an action thriller that follows a jaded vigilante as he exacts his bloody brand of justice on a broken legal system. Starring Gerard Butler as the vigilante and Jamie Foxx as a really crappy lawyer, this brooding B Movie asks the question, "what would happen if the serial killer Jigsaw drastically expanded his operation?" Look, pretty much everyone dies except for Nicholas Rice (Foxx), who walks away with a better appreciation for family bonding time. It's not the lesson Clyde Shelton (Butler) needed him to learn, but at least he's trying, right?
In "Law Abiding Citizen," Bruce McGill portrays Jonas Cantrell, the unfortunate District Attorney that Clyde murders during a funeral with a weaponized bomb disposal robot. Before transforming into so much plant food, though, Cantrell was another cog in the machine. He cared about those around him, sure, but he wasn't exactly implementing any systemic change to prevent people like Clyde from getting their own Joker origin story. It's a very depressing movie.
The definition of gruff mentor
In 2010, TNT aired "Rizzoli & Isles," a crime drama series based on the written works of Tess Gerritsen, which ran for seven seasons and ended in 2016. The story follows Jane Rizzoli (Angie Harmon), a homicide detective, and Maura Dorothea (Sasha Alexander), a medical examiner, as they combine their skill sets to solve cases. They also butt heads because Rizzoli is kind of a tool, and Isles is kind of a goody-goody. After all, sometimes, the conflict has to be softer than the actual murder.
In "Rizzoli & Isles," Bruce McGill portrays Vincent Walter Korsak, an aging police detective who spends the entire show careening towards retirement. As a former Marine and later Rizzoli's former field partner, Korsak is a guy stuck in the past. But his career takes off when he finally learns how to move forward. He becomes a Sergeant-Detective, then shortly after, a Lieutenant. And then he gets married, and when he finally retires, he takes over ownership of a bar that his friends and family frequent. Out of all the characters on this list, Korsak easily gets the happiest ending. Good for him.