Mike Connor Gainey (born June 15, 1948) is an American film and television character actor whose distinctive mustache, 6'2½" frame, and threatening visage often land him supporting roles as Southern/Southwestern types, thugs, and criminals.
Since the early 1980s he has been in over 50 movies and made for TV movies, including Breakdown, Two Idiots in Hollywood, Con Air, Terminator 3, Sideways, and 2005's The Dukes of Hazzard. He 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, Knight Rider, Designing Women, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., Walker, Texas Ranger, Days of our Lives, Desperate Housewives, and currently has a recurring role as Tom on the series Lost. Gainey admitted in an ABC podcast that he did not know that his character's beard on Lost was fake until midway through season two.
Recently, Gainey played Kurtz/The Wizard in the controversial road-revenge film Apocalypse Oz, a film containing zero original dialogue as it is all taken from Apocalypse Now or The Wizard of Oz. Slated for 2007 are featured performances in a trio of films including Mr. Woodcock, Wild Hogs, and the sci/horror film Unearthed. His classmates included Ken Hixon.
On being typecast:
With a face like this, there aren't a lot of lawyers or priest roles coming my way. I've gotta 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. 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 was a very bad human being. There's nothing redeeming about that character.
