Who Is the Creepy Dad on 'The Night Of'?

modest spoilers through tonight ’s instalment ofThe Night Ofahead .

Last workweek onThe Night Of , the eczema - footed John Stone tracked down one of many lacking art object to the puzzler that isNaz ’s eccentric : that Don Taylor , the murder dupe ’s stepfather lurking on the courtroom ’s back benches , is a thrice - bankrupt womanizer with a fat stack of delinquent bills . Meanwhile , the brownstone his ex-wife - married woman leave to the victim is worth a coolheaded $ 10 million . Last night , Stone cross down one of Taylor ’s ex - wives and tail the guy cable to his work – and Taylor ’s reaction was nothing inadequate of piss - your - pants terrifying .

" He ’s a bit of a scalawag,“according to Paul Sparks , the actor represent Don . After watching Don nearly crush John Stone to death with a barbell , we wo n’t indicate him on that . Plus , Sparks ' air ofWhere do I live that guy from?lends even more mystery to the character . We might not be able to assure you whether Don did it just yet , but wecanhelp you enter out why he look so dang familiar .

hbo the night of dad paul sparks

The Night Of|HBO

He’s nominated for an Emmy onHouse of Cards

As Thomas Yates , Sparks had the dubious honor of co - writing a book – and finally sharing a flirtation – with Frank Underwood ( Kevin Spacey ) . That execution earned him anEmmy nominationfor Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series – though in aninterview withEntertainment Weekly , Sparks said , " I literally have no estimation " if he ’ll be back forHoC ’s upcoming Season 5 .

He steamed up your screen inThe Girlfriend Experience

If your tastes are a picayune racier , you might spot Sparks from his work in this spring’sThe Girlfriend Experience , Lodge Kerrigan and Amy Seimetz ’s cable - TV remaking of the arty Steven Soderbergh film about a high - end call girl . At the series ' start , Christine ( Riley Keough ) spends her day at an entry - level lance reporting to sleek down lawyer David ( Sparks ) – until they cross professional limit and headspring to the chamber .

He laid down the law as Agent Miller inMidnight Special…

In this supernatural - tingedJeff Nicholsflick , Sparks played a theatrical role Nichols pitched to him as " a little flake of a peg in the clay " : one of the FBI agent tracking down Roy Tomlin ( Michael Shannon ) and his superpowered son . Ironically , Sparks and Shannon are great pals offscreen : as he say a newsprint in his native Oklahoma back in 2013 , " Mike is believably one of my best , if notmy best friend . " They process together anterior toSpecial , too …

… and broke it as bootlegger Mickey Doyle onBoardwalk Empire

HBO was a good home plate to him throughoutBoardwalk Empire ’s five - season run . As Sparks explained his eccentric toThe New York Times , " He ’s a gangster without a gang . He ’s a loner and a minute of a weasel who will say and do whatever . " He may have taken a varlet out of Doyle ’s lone - wolf playbook to get into Don Taylor ’s menacing headspace .

And he’s no stranger to the stage

Like many NYC - establish working role player , Sparks has had quite the house career . He ’s been constitute for the Drama Desk Award five times ! Oh , and he used to toy around townsfolk in a rock radical , which went by the lowly name ofLess the Band . Their internet site does n’t seem to have been updated since 2009 , which was belike when Sparks depart for theBoardwalk .

Now that we jazz more about the guy behind Don Taylor , do we think he ’s guilty of his stepdaughter ’s murder ? In his 2010Timesinterview , Sparks identified a through line in his roles that seems to hold honest for Don : " The characters I ’ve played that I like the most are people that have a lot of obstacles … They have a lot of bad things going on . They ’re seeking to do something good amidst all the detritus around them , and they ’re cognisant of how badly they ’ve screw it up . That kind of self - awareness is tragical . "

Tragic , indeed . Jury ’s still out on whether Don will get wise before next weekend ’s finale , but he certainly has n’t done much to conserve his innocence thus far .