Tim Bagley

Tim Bagley is a character actor of the specific American kind: the one whose face you know from eleven different shows and whose name you have never once retained. Born in Minneapolis in 1957, he has recurred on Will & Grace, Hope & Gloria, Strip Mall, According to Jim, The King of Queens, Monk, Help Me Help You, 10 Items or Less and $#*! My Dad Says. That is a list rather than a career summary, and the length of it is the point.

What he plays is politeness stretched thin. Harold Krenshaw on Monk is the clearest version, a man whose composure is always about four seconds from leaving him, and the Will & Grace recurring role as Larry runs on the same tension. He is who you cast when a scene needs somebody being reasonable at slightly the wrong volume.

Film has used him almost entirely a scene at a time, and one of those he got to play twice: Dr. Pellagrino in Knocked Up in 2007 and again in This Is 40 five years later, where the credits spell it Pellegrino. Add Irv in The Mask, the friendly dad in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Tommy in The Day After Tomorrow, a character named Glen Gary in Employee of the Month, and Roger Pelton in The Perfect Couple.

The best of the recent television is Somebody Somewhere, where he plays Brad Schraeder, and Grace and Frankie, where Peter gave him a longer run than most of his recurring parts. He played Richard Pratt in both versions of Web Therapy, the 2008 one and the Showtime series that grew out of it.