Did you know that Chris Pine’s dad, actor Robert Pine, played a super-tiny role on “The Office” as the father of John Krasinski’s Jim Halpert? You probably didn’t — but on a recent podcast, stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey discussed the elder Pine’s time on their set.
In the 109th episode of “Office Ladies” — a recap podcast about the hit NBC mockumentary sitcom — Fischer and Kinsey tackled the first half of season 6’s “Niagara,” which centers around the wedding of Jim and Pam (Fischer). “This is where we are going to meet Jim’s parents for the first time,” Fischer says as the two discuss the scene featuring the couple’s rehearsal dinner. “We have Betsy Halpert, played by Perry Smith, and Gerald Halpert, played by Robert Pine, who is the father of actor Chris Pine.”
“People were so excited,” Kinsey said, and Fischer agreed: “We were a little bit excited.” As Kinsey put it, the proximity to the “Star Trek” lead was exciting for some. “First of all, he’s a lovely, lovely person and was so nice to everyone,” she recalled. “But there are a few folks excited that Chris Pine’s dad was there.” Still, as Fischer pointed out, the older Pine, who once starred on “CHiPs,” is also pretty famous: “It’s true, even though Robert Pine is like an incredibly successful actor in his own right.”
What the “office ladies” didn’t point out is that this isn’t the only Greg Daniels show to feature Robert Pine in a small role. So where else does he pop up?
Robert Pine went on to play a (slightly) bigger role on a different Greg Daniels show
In the fourth season of “Parks & Recreation” — which was initially concocted as a sort of spin-off of “The Office” by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur — Parks department deputy director Leslie Knope fields a pretty strange request from a local guy named Herb, played by Robert Pine. As the leader of the town’s cult, who call themselves the “Reasonabilists,” Herb wants to book one of Pawnee’s parks for a party that will celebrate the end of the world, which he insists will fall on a specific day. (As Leslie explains to the camera, the cult centers around a “being” called “Zorp” and has been acting completely out of pocket in the small town for years; everyone not in the cult calls them the “Zorpies” and, after Herb turns out to be wrong about the apocalypse, he shows up in the final minutes of the episode to book the park for the real end of days.)
The episode primarily centers around Leslie’s interest in her work superior Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) and the “end of the world” party thrown by Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) and Jean-Ralphio Saperstein (Ben Schwartz) that features a drumline and a live tiger, but Pine’s Herb is in a fair amount of the episode … and he’s really funny. That makes sense; Pine is a veteran of TV comedies, and his resumé is quite long.
Both Robert Pine and his son Chris Pine have pretty stacked resumés
As it happens, both Robert and Chris Pine are pretty successful — and one could certainly argue that Chris has a ways to go before he catches up to his famous dad’s level of success. From 1977 to 1983, Robert starred as Sergeant Joseph Getraer on the cop drama “CHiPs” alongside Larry Wilcox and Erik Estrada (and his real wife and Chris’ mother Gwynne Gilford, who played Sergeant Getraer’s wife on the series), but he has also appeared in an enormous number of TV shows. Throughout his career, Robert has appeared in projects like “Gunsmoke,” “The Mod Squad,” “Charlie’s Angels,” “The Love Boat,” “Knight Rider,” “Dallas,” “Dynasty,” “L.A. Law,” “Chicago Hope,” “The West Wing,” “Six Feet Under,” “24,” “Criminal Minds,” and “The Mentalist,” just to name a few.
Robert’s son Chris is no slouch, though. After getting his start in romantic comedies like “Just My Luck” and “The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement,” he showed off his considerable range in everything from “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” (where he played the title role) to the acclaimed Western “Hell or High Water” to the recent fantasy comedy “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.” (Yes, he also plays James T. Kirk in the modern “Star Trek” films, and he also appeared in both “Wonder Woman” movies.)
Talent obviously runs in the Pine family — but you likely didn’t know the father and son had such a direct connection to “The Office.” You can revisit Robert Pine’s brief cameo on the series and his turn on “Parks and Recreation” on Peacock, the exclusive home of both beloved shows.