John Spencer, icon of the bureaucracy, is dead

I had just finished reading Terry Teachout’s remarkable post on his brush with possible death (one thankfully sidestepped), when I arrived at Ain’t It Cool and found the incredibly saddening news that actor John Spencer, best known as Leo McGarry on The West Wing, had died.

I’ve been on the Spencer bandwagon a while; he’s a great actor who absolutely defined our cultural image of The Government Man. Big Bad Bureaucracy, as villainous as it might be, always looked better when John Spencer was at its helm. Especially in his later years, with roles like FBI director Womack in The Rock, Spencer personified the bureaucratic curmudgeon like no other, putting a face on the seedy upper levels of government management with devastating, and highly entertaining, effectiveness.

As McGarry on The West Wing, Spencer nailed Aaron Sorkin’s blisteringly fast, precisely timed dialog, bringing to it a real sense of moral gravity. Other actors on that show had passion; Spencer had gravitas. He played McGarry as a take-no-shit hardass of the first order, demanding always, above all, that Things Be Done Right. But beneath that crotchety exterior, he let us in on the very personal world of a man, just a man, who had trouble keeping his wife, even talking to his daughters. Sorkin may have written the words, but Spencer gave them life.

I suppose I’ll have to retire my ongoing plea that someone make a Donald Rumsfeld movie with Spencer in the lead role. So here’s to a great actor, and the final role he should’ve played.