Geoff Pierson

Geoffrey Pierson is an American actor known for his starring television roles on Dexter, Unhappily Ever After, Grace Under Fire, 24, Ryan's Hope, and Designated Survivor. He has also guest-starred in dozens of other TV shows such as Friends, Monk, Fringe and Homeland.

Geoff Pierson
Pierson in 2006
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1980–present

Career

Pierson appeared with George C. Scott on Broadway in Tricks Of The Trade, before continuing on to do several New York soap operas and many regional theater plays. Some notable theatrical roles include Angelo in Measure For Measure at the Yale Rep, Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Penn Ctr. Stage, Bobby in Speed The Plough at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, and Ricky in Glengarry Glen Ross and Teach in American Buff a lo at the Virginia Stage Company.^[1] His most prominent daytime role was as Frank Ryan on Ryan's Hope, a role he played from February 1983 through September 1985.

Pierson's first high-profile prime-time television role was as Jack Malloy, the head of a dysfunctional family, in The WB sitcom Unhappily Ever After, which was created by Ron Leavitt, one of the creators of FOX's Married... with Children. Other TV roles include a leading role as R.T. Howard on That 80's Show, and recurring roles on Grace Under Fire, In Plain Sight (USA) and The Firm (NBC). He also had a recurring role as Rodney's long lost dad on the ABC comedy Rodney. In 2001, he guest-starred in a Season 8 episode of Friends, "The One with Rachel's Date," playing Chandler's boss, Mr. Franklin.^[2]

In 2005 and 2006, he appeared in two episodes of Veronica Mars as Stewart Manning, the father of Meg Manning.^[3] In 2006, he guest-starred in Criminal Minds, playing Max Ryan, a former FBI agent-turned-author and Jason Gideon's mentor who comes out of his retirement to capture a serial killer known as the Keystone Killer in the episode, "Unfinished Business". From 2006 to 2013, he portrayed Miami-Dade Police Captain Tom Matthews on the Showtime series Dexter.

He appeared in the 2008 Clint Eastwood-directed film Changeling as the flamboyant defense attorney Sammy "S.S." Hahn. In 2011 he portrayed Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer in Eastwood's J. Edgar.^[4] He appeared in Touched by an Angel, Season 9, Episode 16.

Beginning in 2010, he had a recurring role in Boardwalk Empire as Senator Walter Edge. In 2011, Pierson played Midas Mulligan in Atlas Shrugged, based on Ayn Rand's novel of the same name. He played Russell Dunbar's wealthy father in Rules of Engagement and he had a recurring role as the mysterious Mr. Smith on Castle. In 2014 he appeared in an episode of Suburgatory.^[5]

In 2015, he co-starred as Defense Secretary Pierce Grey on HBO's The Brink. He starred in the ABC and Netflix political thriller Designated Survivor, where he portrayed Former President of the United States and Secretary of State Cornelius Moss alongside Kiefer Sutherland.^[6]

Filmography

Film

Film
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995	Two Bits	Dr. Wilson
1997	Leave It to Beaver	Coach Gordon
1998	The Right Way	Michael Peretti
2001	Behind Enemy Lines	Admiral Donnelly
	Venomous	General Arthur Manchek
2004	Spartan	Pearce
2005	The Poseidon Adventure	Admiral Jennings
2006	Stay	Dad
2007	D-War	Secretary of Defense
	Already Dead	Pierce
2008	A Line in the Sand	The Mayor
	Changeling	S.S. Hahn
	Get Smart	Vice President
2009	World's Greatest Dad	Principal Anderson
	Better off Ted	Elijah Palmer
2011	Atlas Shrugged: Part I	Michael 'Midas' Mulligan
	Something Borrowed	Dexter Thaler Sr.
	God Bless America	Frank's Boss
	J. Edgar	A. Mitchell Palmer
	Jack and Jill	Carter Simmons
2014	Revenge of the Green Dragons	FBI Director Sam Higgins
	You're Not You	Kate's Father
2016	Rules Don't Apply	Merrill Lynch Executive
2020	The Wrong Missy	Jack Winstone
2024	Watchmen Chapter 1	Hollis Mason / Nite Owl I (voice)	Direct-to-Video[7][8]
	Watchmen Chapter 2	Hollis Mason / Nite Owl I, Prison Guard #1 (voice)

Television

Television
Years	Title	Role	Notes
1980–81	Texas	Detective Donovan	19 episodes
1983–85	Ryan's Hope	Frank Ryan	126 episodes
1985	The Equalizer	Lawyer	Episode: "Bump and Run"
1989	Days of Our Lives	Barney Gillespie	4 episodes
1994–98	Grace Under Fire	Jimmy Kelly	30 episodes
1995–99	Unhappily Ever After	Jack Malloy	100 episodes
2000–01	Nash Bridges	Deputy Chief Max Petit	3 episodes
2001	Becker	Mr. Tipton	1 episode
	Friends	Mr Franklin	1 episode: "The One With Rachel's Date" (Season 8)
2002	That '80s Show	R.T. Howard	13 episodes
2002–03	The West Wing	Senate Minority Leader Tripplehorn	4 episodes
2003–05	24	Senator John Keeler / President John Keeler	20 episodes
2004	Monk	Harry Bolston	1 episode
2005–08	Rodney	Dale Hamilton	3 episodes
2006	Criminal Minds	Max Ryan	1 episode
	NCIS	Roy Carver	1 episode
2008	Medium	Sam Winters	1 episode
2009	The Mentalist	Noah Plaskett	1 episode
2012	The Firm	Judge Ken Walsh	4 episodes
2010–12	Boardwalk Empire	Senator Walter Edge	4 episodes
2006–13	Dexter	Tom Matthews	43 episodes
2012; 2019-2022	Young Justice	Jay Garrick / The Flash	Voice; 5 episodes
2015	The Brink	Pierce Gray	10 episodes
2011–15	Castle	Michael Smith	6 episodes
2016	Person of Interest	FBI SAIC Roberts	1 episode
2017–19	Designated Survivor	Cornelius Moss	16 episodes
2018–19	Splitting Up Together	Henry	13 episodes
2019	Homeland	Senator Richard Eames	1 episode
	The Face of Evil	Narrator	6 episodes
2022	The Terminal List	Senator Joe Pryor	1 episode
2023	City on Fire	Bill Sr	7 episodes

Video games

Video games
Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source
2025	Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii	Spade Tucker		[9]