Christopher McDonald

McDonald often plays a man who sees no reason to doubt himself. His comic timing makes that certainty funny, while allowing the unpleasantness to remain. We like him for it. Darryl Dickinson, the condescending husband in Thelma & Louise (1991), was the breakthrough; Shooter McGavin in Happy Gilmore (1996), opposite Adam Sandler, became his most recognised part. Those roles explain the attraction of having him around: an antagonist can be enjoyable company without the film having to pretend he is a decent man.

Quiz Show (1994) gives that assured presence a useful setting. As Jack Barry, the game-show host in Robert Redford's drama, McDonald belongs in a story concerned with who gets believed. We were more unsettled by the film than we expected, because its attention to credibility makes the television fraud difficult to dismiss as somebody else's foolishness. The sharp writing and performances complicate easy judgement, and his casting fits that approach. The film runs a little long, but it gives a familiar supporting actor something more interesting to inhabit than a routine obstacle for the lead.

The danger of such recognisable casting is that we can decide what a character is before he has done much. McDonald's succession of smug or sleazy authority figures invites that shortcut, even when his comic timing deserves closer attention. Tappy Tibbons, the sleazy self-help television host in Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream (2000), makes the potential for menace explicit. It is a useful reminder that these parts need more than a reliable supplier of laughs.

His later television work includes Hacks (2021), where he plays casino owner Marty Ghilain. Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder are the chief reason we recommend the programme, and McDonald is well suited to its comedy about people making a difficult job harder. It is funny and sometimes moving, though the writing can press the generational differences too hard. We would not demand a wholesale reinvention from an actor whose timing remains an asset, but we would welcome more parts that complicate our first impression of him. Quiz Show is the place to start; try Hacks when a single evening of difficult people does not seem quite enough.