Spencer’s loss leaves huge hole in ‘Wing’

It’s no coincidence that John Spencer was on two series that won a combined five best drama Emmys while he was on board.

David Kelley, who was running “L.A. Law” when Spencer joined in 1990, chose Spencer, who suddenly died of a heart attack Friday at 58, as the perfect man to play rumpled attorney Tommy Mullaney. And another small-screen genius, “The West Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin, figured out that Spencer was the only actor who had the gravitas to give life to his Leo McGarry.

Those decisions came years after Spencer, who won his own Emmy for “West Wing” and was nominated four other times, found his way as a successful actor. It was only after a short stint on “The Patty Duke Show” in the early 1960s and then bopping around regional theater for a couple of decades that Spencer made a name for himself. By his own admission, if he hadn’t been cast opposite Harrison Ford in the 1990 thriller “Presumed Innocent,” he might’ve still been playing occasional off-Broadway gigs and eking out a living.

But for viewers of quality TV over the last decade, Spencer will always be McGarry, President Josiah Bartlet’s right-hand man, the chief of staff who made the big decisions when Bartlet or anyone in his administration wasn’t up to the task.

Unlike any other character on the show, he had more baggage than the claim area at O’Hare. McGarry was a drug abuser and alcoholic, and every day in the White House had to battle his demons and hang on to his sobriety.

In his most touching episode from season one, a young White House staffer reveals to the press that there are people in the West Wing with a history of drug use, and the finger eventually is pointed to McGarry. The staffer is soon fired by Bartlet confidante Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) and is packing her desk when McGarry confronts her.

Expecting a tongue-lashing, instead she gets a dose of compassion when he learns that her father was a drunk and that she was afraid he’d be making monumental decisions under the influence. He calls her decision to speak out brave and then asks her to stick around and use that courage on the job.

McGarry was the voice of reason in the Oval when others got caught up in self-righteousness. It didn’t take much for Brad Whitford’s Josh Lyman or Richard Schiff’s Toby Ziegler to lose it, and McGarry was often calming them down, telling them the politically correct move, minus the party vengeance.

But McGarry and Bartlet began to fall out of favor last season, and in a scene that now has eerie implications, McGarry had a heart attack in the woods outside Camp David and lay motionless on the ground. Eventually he would be found and make his way back to work, but with Allison Janney’s C.J. Cregg replacing him as chief of staff.

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