Gary Cole

Gary Michael Cole (born September 20, 1956) is an American actor and voice artist. Cole began his professional acting career on stage at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 1985. On television, he had starring roles in the series Midnight Caller, American Gothic and Crusade. On film, Cole had supporting roles in The Brady Bunch Movie, One Hour Photo, Office Space, Dodgeball and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Cole is also known for voicing the title character of Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.

He currently plays Kent Davidson on the HBO comedy series, Veep for which he received his first Primetime Emmy Award nomination.

Early life

Cole was born in Park Ridge, Illinois and raised in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. His father was a school administrative assistant and his mother was a director of finance. While attending Rolling Meadows High School, Cole made his acting debut as Snoopy in a high school production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. He later attended Illinois State University, where he studied theater with actors Laurie Metcalf and John Malkovich.

Gary Cole (footballer)

Gary Cole (born 5 February 1956) is an Australian football (soccer) player, who played for the Australia national football team 40 times and scored 20 goals between 1975 and 1984. He was most recently the Football director for A-League club Sydney FC, made redundant in December 2012.

Playing career

Transferred from Ringwood Wilhelmina to Fitzroy Alexander (later called Heidelberg United) in 1976 for a transfer fee of 6,000 after three years at Ringwood. Cole became one of the early stars of the National Soccer League as a striker, scoring 88 goals in six seasons at Heidelberg. In 1984, Cole moved to rival NSL club Preston Lions FC after injuring his ankle badly in 1983, and went on to score 21 goals for the club before retiring in 1986.

On 14 August 1981, he scored seven goals against Fiji, and set an Australian record for the most goals scored in an international match. His record was broken in 2001, when Archie Thompson scored 13 goals against American Samoa.

Coaching career

Abdul Jeelani

Abdul Qadir Jeelani (born Gary Cole on February 10, 1954) is a retired American professional basketball player. Born in Bells, Tennessee, he was a 6'8" and 210 lb small forward and played collegiately at the University of Wisconsin–Parkside. He had a brief career in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Jeelani is University of Wisconsin–Parkside's career leader in points scored (2,262) and rebounds (1,237) and he holds records in the top four of seven other single-game, single-season and career statistical categories. He twice scored 47 points in a game, one of the top records for a single game scoring performance. He was a member of two NAIA National Tournament teams in 1974 and 1975 and was named an NAIA All-American in 1975 and 1976.

Jeelani was drafted on June 8, 1976 by the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers in the third round of the 1976 draft, but he was later waived in October of that year. He was later signed by the Detroit Pistons on September 2, 1977 but was again waived a month later, prior to the start of the 1977-78 season. He played one season with the Portland Trail Blazers in 1979–80 and was made available in the expansion draft on May 28, 1980, where he was taken by the Dallas Mavericks prior to their inaugural season in 1980–81. He was part of the starting lineup for the Mavericks' first NBA game in 1980 and scored the first points in franchise history. In his first season with the Mavs, he seemed to have a knack for scoring in the final quarter of games. As of January 20, 1981, when he had played 43 games, 142 of his 350 points had come in the last period.