The NCIS Character You May Not Remember Riverdale Star Lochlyn Munro Plays

For the better part of the past decade or so, "Riverdale," and "NCIS" have been working on distinctly opposite sides of the narrative coin, with the latter sticking to their storytelling playbook with near militaristic fidelity, and the former giddily rewriting the rules of teen drama almost every single week. Given the dramatically different stories they tell, you'd likely be right in assuming "Riverdale" and "NCIS" never shared many viewers. But the two shows have at least one thing in common — ace supporting work from one Lochlyn Munro.

As it was, "Riverdale" provided Munro a lot more screen time, with his Hal Cooper character playing a major role in the action during the show's first two seasons, and returning on the regular in almost every season thereafter. All in, the actor logged 51 appearances on "Riverdale," eclipsing his "NCIS" run by a full 50 episodes. As for Munro's lone "NCIS" gig, it came way back in the show's second season. And it came during an episode titled "Bikini Wax," during which Munro portrayed local surfer boy and low-key playboy Kevin Holt.  

Set during Spring Break week in Virginia Beach, Virginia, the episode finds the NCIS team investigating the murder of a pregnant bikini contest participant. The team soon set their eyes on Holt as a suspect since he had intimate relationships with both the victim and her bestie, who he's also engaged to. And those who've seen Munro at work on "NCIS" can attest he's at his smarmy best throughout. 

Lochlyn Munro has, of course, made a bit of a name for himself for bringing the smarm to dozens of roles on screens big and small over his decades-long career. As he did with both Hal Cooper and Kevin Holt, when the role calls for it, Munro has frequently done so while peppering those cocksure smarm-meisters with a disarming sense of sincerity. Of course, his role hasn't always called for such depth, with Munro earning early raves for his work in slapsticky comedies of "Dead Man on Campus," "Scary Movie," "A Night at the Roxbury," and "White Chicks," among others. And the actor's ability to say, or do nearly anything on screen with a straight face was most recently on display in Season 1 of "Peacemaker."

As for Munro's dramatic work, it might surprise some to learn he's played serious in his career far more than he has silly. And a brief glance at the actor's more than 260 screen credits on IMDb will confirm he's delivered such work in nearly every television drama of note in the past couple of decades, including "21 Jump Street," "Charmed," "Monk," "CSI," "Bones," "Smallville," "Castle," "Chicago Med," "Longmire," "The Good Doctor," and "Supernatural," to name just a few. Munro even played serious for Clint Eastwood in the legendary filmmaker' award-winning Western "Unforgiven."

Of late, Munro has also become a regular player in the Hallmark Channel realm, booking roles in numerous projects for the greetings card company. And later this year, he'll appear opposite Kiernan Shipka and Julie Bowen in the hotly-anticipated slasher "Totally Killer."