He might be better known for hosting game shows than acting but Drew Carey gave an amazing performance as John Ross in a season 15 episode of NCIS. Drew Carey is well-known as the host of long-running game show The Price Is Right which he’s fronted since 2007 after taking the reins from Bob Barker. Before that, Carey made a name for himself as host of improv comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway? which he emceed for eight seasons.

Drew Carey is no stranger to acting, of course. He starred in short-lived sitcom The Good Life in the early 1990s before getting his own self-titled sitcom The Drew Carey Show which co-starred Ryan Stiles and Craig Ferguson and aired for almost a decade. He’s also had bit parts in Home Improvement and Community and once played the title role in Geppetto, a made-for-TV Disney musical based on Pinocchio.

That said, his acting career has taken a bit of a backseat lately to game shows so it was surprising to see him pop up on NCIS season 15 as a man suspected of murder. Joining series regulars Mark Harmon and Maria Bello, Drew Carey played the role of retired Marine Sergeant John Ross in the episode “Handle With Care” – an appropriate role for the actor-comedian who served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves for six years in the 1980s before embarking on an entertainment career.

The episode opened with the death of a young, healthy petty officer deployed in Spain. The NCIS team discover he was poisoned by a cyanide-laced cookie which leads them to Carey’s John Ross who sends care packages overseas to Marines on active duty. They quickly deduce the patriotic John isn’t to blame for the petty officer’s death and set about trying to clear his name while searching for the real culprit.

John Ross is more than just a stock character, however, and gives Carey a rare serious role that really shows off his acting chops. His backstory details how he was a prisoner of war in Iran for five years and was assumed dead after two failed rescue attempts. Back home, John’s pregnant girlfriend gave birth to their daughter but settled down with someone else thinking he wasn’t coming back. When he did return, a PTSD-suffering John promised his girlfriend not to tell their daughter about him. John finds a kindred spirit in Maria Bello’s character Jack Sloane who was a prisoner of war in Afghanistan for nine months. With the help of the NCIS team John’s name is cleared and he shares an emotional reunion with his daughter.

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