Hater Hall of Fame: John McGinley Edition

John Christopher McGinley, Born August 3, 1959

John C. McGinley was born in the Greenwich Village area of New York City, and is one of five children born to Patricia and Gerald McGinley.  He was raised in New Jersey and attended Millburn Senior High, where he played on the school’s football team.  After graduating high school, John enrolled at Syracuse University; while still an undergraduate, he then decided to transfer to NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts due to an interest in acting.  He received his Bachelor of Arts degree, and in 1984, he earned his Masters in the same field.  After completing his college education, McGinley found work in both Off Broadway and Broadway productions, as well as playing a character named Ed on the soap opera Another World from 1985-86.  While working as John Turturro’s understudy on a play titled Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, he was noticed by a casting scout who worked for director Oliver Stone.  This led to a successful audition for the role of Sergeant Red O’Neill in the 1986 Oscar-winning film Platoon.  It was also the first in a series of collaborations between he and Stone, which includes Wall Street, Talk Radio, Born on the Fourth of July, Nixon and Any Given Sunday.

McGinley continued to appear in a variety of films throughout the 90′s, and some of the roles he played were more memorable (Point Break) than others (Highlander 2).  Yet, many of the characters he portrayed always seemed to have similar personality traits – like anger, sarcasm and intensity, with a little bit of humor mixed in as well.  John has never confined himself to high profile films, however, and is widely known as an actor with a solid commitment to the independent film community.  His first foray into comedy films was in the ill-conceived film adaptation of the 60′s TV series Car 54, Where are You? – which is listed at # 63 on IMDB’s “Bottom 100.”  His second comedy film, Wagons East!, didn’t fair much better, and is mainly known for being the last performance of John Candy.  The film was a box office disaster, and was destroyed by critics like Roger Ebert, who called it a “sad way to end Candy’s career.”  McGinley would atone for the previous two efforts in 1998 though, with the release of Mike Judge’s Office Space.  Although he didn’t have what most would consider to be a major role, his Bob Slydell character will forever be remembered as a “Michael Bolton fan who celebrates the guy’s entire catalog.”

In 2001, he was cast as Dr. Perry Cox on the NBC sitcom Scrubs, and soon established himself as a legitimate star on the small screen.   Several years passed before I actually watched the show for the first time, because of a bad association directly linked to the multitude of terrible shows on TV involving hospitals.  Although I still don’t consider myself to be a die hard fan, McGinley’s character alone is a good enough reason to tune in every week.  It is also more than enough to earn him an induction into the Hater Hall of Fame, and an honorary Playa Hatin’ Degree.

Peter makes quite an impression on the Bobs in this classic scene from Office Space:

A couple of great “Best of Dr. Cox” videos: