Michael Connor "Mike" Gainey (born January 18, 1948), better known as M. C. Gainey, is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 and television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

 whose distinctive mustache, 6'2½" height, and threatening look have given him supporting roles as Southern

Southern United States

The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...

/Southwestern

Southwestern United States

The Southwestern United States is a region defined in different ways by different sources. Broad definitions include nearly a quarter of the United States, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah...

 types, thugs, and criminals.

Gainey attended the University of Southern Mississippi prior to moving to California. He worked as an undertaker's apprentice before he decided to study acting.

In the early 1970s, he attended the American Conservatory Theater

American Conservatory Theater

American Conservatory Theater is a large non-profit theater company in San Francisco, California, that offers both classical and contemporary theater productions. A.C.T. was founded in 1965 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Playhouse and Carnegie Tech by theatre and...

 in San Francisco along with Ken Hixon

Ken Hixon

Ken Hixon is a screenwriter whose films include City by the Sea , Inventing the Abbotts , Incident at Deception Ridge , Morgan Stewart's Coming Home , and Grandview, U.S.A....

.

In 1981, he made his big-screen debut in the Steve Martin

Steve Martin

Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician and composer....

 musical Pennies from Heaven

Pennies from Heaven

Pennies from Heaven may refer to:* "Pennies from Heaven" , a popular American song by Johnny Burke and Arthur Johnston* Pennies from Heaven , starring Bing Crosby and Madge Evans, and introducing the song...

. Since the early 1980s he has been in over 50 movies and made for TV movies, including Breakdown

Breakdown (film)

Breakdown is a 1997 American thriller film, written and directed by Jonathan Mostow. The film stars Kurt Russell, J. T. Walsh and Kathleen Quinlan. The original music score was composed by Basil Poledouris...

, Two Idiots in Hollywood, Con Air

Con Air

Con Air is an Academy Award–nominated 1997 American action-thriller film directed by Simon West and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. It stars Nicolas Cage, John Cusack and John Malkovich...

, The Mighty Ducks

The Mighty Ducks

The Mighty Ducks is the first film in The Mighty Ducks trilogy, produced by Avnet–Kerner Productions and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures and originally released on October 2, 1992. In the UK and Australia, the film was titled Champions...

, Are We There Yet, Terminator 3

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, commonly abbreviated as T3, is a 2003 science fiction action film directed by Jonathan Mostow and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes and Kristanna Loken...

, Sideways

Sideways

Sideways is a 2004 comedy-drama film written by Jim Taylor and Alexander Payne and directed by Payne. Adapted from Rex Pickett's 2004 novel of the same name, Sideways follows two forty-something year old men, portrayed by Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church, who take a week-long road trip to...

, and 2005's The Dukes of Hazzard

The Dukes of Hazzard (film)

The Dukes of Hazzard is a 2005 comedy film based on the American television series of the same name. The film was directed by Jay Chandrasekhar and released on August 5, 2005 by Warner Bros. Pictures...

.

Gainey was one of the stars of the short-lived television series Against the Law. He has guest starred on over 40 television shows, including The Dukes of Hazzard

The Dukes of Hazzard

The Dukes of Hazzard is an American television series that aired on the CBS television network from 1979 to 1985.The series was inspired by the 1975 film Moonrunners, which was also created by Gy Waldron and had many identical or similar character names and concepts.- Overview :The Dukes of Hazzard...

, Knight Rider, Designing Women

Designing Women

Designing Women is an American television sitcom that centered on the working and personal lives of four Southern women and one man in an interior design firm in Atlanta, Georgia. It aired on the CBS television network from September 29, 1986 until May 24, 1993. The show was created by head writer...

, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.

The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.

The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., often referred to as just Brisco or Brisco County,The series is referred to as just Brisco or by Brisco County by the creator and executive producer Carlton Cuse, actors involved with the show, and by many critics. Some examples include:* Cuse, Carlton, DVD extra...

, Walker, Texas Ranger

Walker, Texas Ranger

Walker, Texas Ranger is an American television action crime drama series created by Leslie Greif and Paul Haggis, and starring Chuck Norris as a member of the Texas Ranger Division. The show aired on CBS in the spring of 1993, with the first season consisting of three pilot episodes. Eight full...

, CSI

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...

, Cheers

Cheers

Cheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television for NBC, and was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles...

, Days of our Lives

Days of our Lives

Days of our Lives is a long running daytime soap opera broadcast on the NBC television network. It is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday in the United States since November 8, 1965. It has since been syndicated to many countries around...

, The X-Files

The X-Files

The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...

, Desperate Housewives

Desperate Housewives

Desperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. Executive producer Cherry serves as Showrunner. Other executive producers since the fourth season include Marc Cherry, Bob Daily, George W...

, Burn Notice

Burn notice

A burn notice is an official statement issued by one intelligence agency to other agencies. It states that an individual or a group is unreliable for one or more reasons...

, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from September 10, 1990 to May 20, 1996. The show stars Will Smith as a fictionalized version of himself, a street-smart teenager from West Philadelphia who is sent to move in with his aunt and uncle in their...

, and had a role as Tom Friendly

Tom (Lost)

Tom Friendly, often referred to as Tom or Mr. Friendly, is a recurring fictional character portrayed by M. C. Gainey on the American Broadcasting Company television series Lost. The series follows the lives of around forty survivors from the crash of Oceanic Flight 815...

 on the series Lost

Lost (TV series)

Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...

, a character who appeared in 20 episodes, as many as some former main cast members. He also played the murderous drug dealer Bo Crowder in a recurring role in the 2010 season of the hit FX TV show Justified

Justified (TV series)

Justified is an American television drama series created by Graham Yost. It is based on Elmore Leonard's novels Pronto and Riding the Rap and his short story "Fire in the Hole". Its central character is Raylan Givens, a deputy U.S. Marshal. The series is set in the city of Lexington, Kentucky...

.

Gainey attended the 2007 Emmys

59th Primetime Emmy Awards

The 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards were held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California on September 16, 2007 and were televised live on Fox at 8:00 p.m. EDT for the first time in high definition...

 with Lost's show runner

Show runner

Showrunner is a term of art originating in the United States and Canadian television industry referring to the person who is responsible for the day-to-day operation of a television seriesalthough such persons generally are credited as an executive producer...

s Damon Lindelof

Damon Lindelof

Damon Laurence Lindelof is an American television writer and executive, most recently noted as the co-creator and executive producer for the television series Lost. He has written for and produced Crossing Jordan, and wrote for Nash Bridges, Wasteland, and the MTV anthology series Undressed...

 and Carlton Cuse

Carlton Cuse

Carlton Cuse is an AmericanEmmy Award winning screenwriter and producer, most famous as executive producer andscreenwriter for the American television series Lost for...

.

Gainey played Kurtz/The Wizard in the controversial road-revenge short film Apocalypse Oz

Apocalypse Oz

Apocalypse Oz is a 2006 short fantasy film. It is based on the novel by L. Frank Baum. The film is a hybrid between the two classic films Apocalypse Now and The Wizard of Oz, and uses only dialogue from these films.-Plot:...

, containing no original dialogue as it is all taken from Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American war film set during the Vietnam War, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The central character is US Army special operations officer Captain Benjamin L. Willard , of MACV-SOG, an assassin sent to kill the renegade and presumed insane Special Forces...

 or The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...

. In 2007 he appeared in a trio of films including Mr. Woodcock

Mr. Woodcock

Mr. Woodcock is a 2007 comedy film directed by Craig Gillespie, and starring Seann William Scott, Billy Bob Thornton, Susan Sarandon, Amy Poehler, and Ethan Suplee. The film was released on September 14, 2007.-Plot:...

, Wild Hogs

Wild Hogs

Wild Hogs is a 2007 comedy film directed by Walt Becker and starring Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence, and William H. Macy. It was released nationwide in the United States and Canada on March 2, 2007, though preview film screenings were held in select areas on February 24, 2007.-Plot:Doug...

, and the sci/horror film Unearthed

Unearthed (film)

Unearthed is a 2006 horror film, directed by Matthew Leutwyler and starring Emmanuelle Vaugier . This monster movie opened sometime on November 9, 2007 as one of the "8 Films to Die For" in the After Dark Films Horrorfest....

; in 2010 he appeared in Love Ranch

Love Ranch

Love Ranch is a 2010 drama film directed by Taylor Hackford and starring Helen Mirren and Joe Pesci.-Background:The film is based on the lives of Joe and Sally Conforte, a married couple who opened the first legal brothel in the United States, the Mustang Ranch in Storey County, Nevada. Violence...

.

In 2010, he voiced one of the characters of Tangled as Captain of the Palace Guard.

In 2012, he will appear in Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...

's anti-slavery film Django Unchained 

Early life

Gainey was born Michael Connor Gainey in Jackson, Mississippi

Jackson, Mississippi

Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...

 on January 18, 1948.

Personal quotes

On being typecast:

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 the characters he has played:

"Swamp Thing" in Con Air

Con Air

Con Air is an Academy Award–nominated 1997 American action-thriller film directed by Simon West and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. It stars Nicolas Cage, John Cusack and John Malkovich...

. 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

Breakdown (film)

Breakdown is a 1997 American thriller film, written and directed by Jonathan Mostow. The film stars Kurt Russell, J. T. Walsh and Kathleen Quinlan. The original music score was composed by Basil Poledouris...

 was a very bad human being. There's nothing redeeming about that character.

External links