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Gene Cousineau is the deuteragonist of the HBO tragicomedy crime series Barry.
He is an egotistical acting teacher who mentored Barry Berkman, who was struggling with his life as a hitman working for Monroe Fuches, which was unknown to Gene. Not long after Barry joined his class, he met Detective Janice Moss, who he developed feelings for and eventually started to date her. After Janice gets killed by Barry for getting too close to discovering his secret, a devastated Gene tries to get justice alongside Janice’s father Jim Moss.
He was portrayed by Henry Winkler, who portrayed The Fonz in Happy Days, and Fritz in Monsters at Work
Bio[]
Gene Cousineau is an eccentric acting coach and Barry's mentor whose glory days as a performer are long behind him, having alienated his industry colleagues and loved ones. Cousineau is self-absorbed and rarely seems to help his acting students, in whom he instills a nearly fanatical devotion, unless it directly benefits him. Despite this, he makes a connection with and serves as a father figure to Barry, helping him come to terms with his past atrocities and grow as a person until he learns of his criminal activity.
Personality[]
Cousineau is not necessarily an easy person to get along with. He can be extremely cruel in his criticisms and he's enormously egotistical, but he does generally have good intentions. When Barry is having a minor freak out on stage due to the students mocking him for sympathizing with someone who would commit murder, Gene rushes onstage to calm everyone down and attempt to offer Barry some comfort, though he obviously thinks it stems from the war rather than Barry's Professional Killerjob. He also genuinely loved Janice Moss, was heartbroken by her disappearance and was broken completely on finding her body. Also, he truly does care for his son Leo even after he abandoned him. Out of the show's leading men, he is the only one shown to be genuinely attempting atonement after his near death experience with Barry by reaching out to those he's done wrong and trying to make amends for his behavior. Even though his fate at the end of the series is caused by his own poor decisions, the fact that he has been trying to fix things only makes what happens tragic.