Rob Lowe's 10 Best TV Roles, Ranked!

We can only imagine that, if you're a Hollywood casting director looking for a genial, purposeful leading man with a streak of gleeful geekery, Rob Lowe is high on your speed dial.

What a coincidence: That same blend makes the 9-1-1: Lone Star actor one of our favorite performers, whose small-screen work has been a hit with discerning TV viewers over the past four decades. So who better to kick off a new, occasional TVLine feature than the West Wing alum?

We've reviewed Lowe's 40-plus(!)-year TV career and whittled it down to his 10 best roles. Before you scroll down to see where your personal favorite Lowe character landed, a few quick notes. We kept our choices to series regular and recurring parts, but allowed for notable one-off guest appearances. We chose to limit voice roles to just one slot on the countdown. And though it was agonizing, we ultimately decided to keep TV movies out of the running (though you should definitely watch HBO's Behind the Candelabra for Lowe's make-up alone and facial expressions — or lack thereof — alone).

Scroll down to see the Lowe roles we loved the most. And when you're done, hit the comments to tell us where we got it right, where we got it wrong and what other actors you'd like to see get the 10-best treatment!

The CBS medical drama about a beleaguered Los Angeles emergency room was... fine? And Lowe's character, a military doctor added to zhush up Season 2, was... also OK? Though Lowe did his solidly dependable thing for two seasons, and Ethan saved countless lives in dramatic fashion, the role won't be one for which Lowe is remembered.

We wouldn't blame you if you didn't remember this quickly cancelled CBS medical drama set in Sin City, but we would like to point out that a slick Lowe — in yet another doctor role — breezed around in very entertaining fashion during the show's short run.

Who do you go to when you need a reassuring dad-voice to play the adult version of a beloved childhood character? Lowe, of course, who gives Simba — all grown up since Disney's The Lion King — a warmly commanding feel in the Disney Junior cartoon.

There's a steadiness to Lowe that serves him well in Fox's spinoff of the very popular 9-1-1. As Owen, a former New York City firefighter/Sept. 11 first responder who was brought to Texas to help rebuild a decimated firehouse, Lowe is strong but not aggro, commanding but not dictatorial, macho but deeply invested in his exfoliating regime. Is the character anything new for the actor? Nah, but we also can't imagine any of his previous characters singlehandedly stopping a military tank with only a monlogue. So there's that.

Lowe played against type in the British dramedy, in which he was a cursing, chain-smoking Vatican priest charged with tracking down the second coming of the messiah as the world was about to end. As the disillusioned and angry man of the cloth, Lowe provided a grounding balance to the out-there premise and a nice counterpoint to the affability that usually gilds his roles.

Add a slight edge, a soapier sensibility and a polar opposite set of political values to The West Wing's Sam Seaborn, and you've got Lowe's character on the ABC family drama. As a Republican senator, Lowe charmed Calista Flockhart's Kitty and meshed well with the deep-bench ensemble, making for an enjoyable — if not exactly groundbreaking — run.

Over-the-top in every way possible, Lowe's recurring stint on the Showtime series started with his tackling star David Duchovny in a hotel lobby and only got more outrageous from there. The say-anything, Oscar-winning Eddie was unabashedly narcissistic and nakedly ambitious, and the NSFW joy Lowe exuded in the part made him quite fun to watch.

The manic glee! The precise enunciation! The just-this-side-of-toxic positivity! Lowe leaned into Chris' bizarre quirks hard, a choice that could've veered annoying but instead made him into a lit-rally lovable weirdo who was missed when he left the show in Season 6.

Fox's short-lived comedy cast Lowe as a sweet, shallow TV star whose fame from years of leading a legal procedural became a boon for his (actual) lawyer brother. And Lowe took to the task with gusto, immediately nailing Dean's tricky balance of obliviousness and heart. Lowe deployed his natural charisma to skewer the industry that's rewarded him with continued success, producing a meta-beautiful performance we still think about.

President Jed Bartlet's deputy communications director was sincere, clear-headed and a true believer in the power of government as a beacon for its citizens. That mix put the role right in the sweet spot of what Lowe does best: a mash-up of earnest enthusiasm, fervent intellectualism and nerdy passion for niche topics (though we'd expect no less from the recording secretary of the Princeton Gilbert and Sullivan Society).