It’s interesting to find out just what happens to some people when their shows end since some folks go on to do great things and are easy to notice, while others kind of fade out either because they were extras, supporting characters, or had nothing else when the show ended and kind of just got lost in the shuffle since they couldn’t adapt. When it comes to William Charles Schneider, or Creed Bratton as he’s known in The Office, the decline didn’t exactly take him out of show business, but it hasn’t been as good to him as you might think. The character of Creed Bratton was one of those that was hard to equate with anything other than a wild card in the office setting that was there to simply trip people up occasionally and make them wonder what in the hell this guy was doing there and why in the world anyone paid attention to him.
Fans of The Office should be able to remember that Creed was something of an oddball, a kleptomaniac, a compulsive liar, and the kind of guy that you stuck in a corner and tried not to talk to as much simply because he would say the strangest things. For all that though he was an addition to the show that was kind of hard to ignore most times since whenever he was on screen he was kind of funny and did throw a wrench in the works simply because he wasn’t the most stable person there. But given that the Scranton branch wasn’t exactly the mecca of calm and rational human beings however Creed kind of managed to fit in all the same. Since the show however he’s stayed fairly busy and he’s still acting today, though a lot of his appearances seem to have been one-time appearances or guest spots as himself. In a big way Schneider has been the kind of guy you like to see when he’s part of a cast and not someone that’s on his own since the idea doesn’t seem to work as well. He’s not the leading man in other words and needs a crew around him to really make his act work. Whether this is because he doesn’t have the charisma he needs or some other factor is hard to say, but he’s more or less the guy you call when you need a filler for a certain spot, otherwise he’s easy to lose track of while focusing on other characters.
The fact that he’s still acting into his 70s might be impressive if he’d gone a little further and made more of a name for himself. But at this point it would seem that he’s the kind of guy that’s there to do the job and be a part of the background really since stating that he’s there for anything else either means that the show or movie he’s in really isn’t going to get that much attention or is just expected to fill a time slot. that might sound harsh and kind of cynical but let’s face facts here, on The Office he was such a strange character that it’s amazing that there’s a ‘best of’ clip of Creed‘ on YouTube that exists. The fact is that he came on the show and was just interesting enough to keep around and to focus on from time to time since he was the quirky character that no one could figure out and was kept on for some reason that no one could think of other than that no one wanted to try and get rid of him. As a quality assurance director he does play the kind of guy that would make a person wonder just what the Scranton branch was thinking of when they went through the hiring process since Creed has more than a few issues that you would think most companies would want to stay well away from.
Schneider does appear to be doing just fine in his career as he moves from one project to another so it’s fair to say that he’s definitely distanced himself from Creed, which might be a good thing since the character of Creed was an absolute nut that would be the kind of office employee you’d want to steer well clear of. How much longer he’ll be in the business is anyone’s guess since he is starting to get up there in years, though it does appear as though he’s still got enough gas in the tank to keep going for a while. It’s kind of a hope that he would be seen on a show or a movie that could elevate his career just a bit more since obviously he does have talent and he does have the ability to get people to notice his character, now it’s just a matter of making it stick.
Follow Us
