In 1985 he played Larry Hutchins, the brother of the President of the United States who assigns his brother to assemble a covert team of female counter-intelligence operatives reporting only to him, in the short-lived NBC television series Code Name: Foxfire starring Joanna Cassidy. Since March 1987, he has played the role of Eric Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful. He portrayed the character of Lance Prentiss on The Young and the Restless from October 1975 to February 1980, leaving at the time the show moved to the hour format. In addition, he has appeared as a guest in episodes on dozens of primetime series. B&B co-star Winsor Harmon once starred with McCook on an episode of Acapulco H.E.A.T. filmed in Mexico. Harmon told Soap Opera Digest about their guest stint on H.E.A.T.:
"I hung out with John McCook the whole time and I kept watching all these people from other countries asking for his autograph. I'm thinking to myself, 'Who the hell is this guy?' So one night, we were drinking Coronas and I asked him why he had so many fans and he explained how B&B was so popular around the world. I had no idea. The more he talked about it, the more I was thinking, 'I want to be on that show.'... The first time I drove into the parking lot, there was John, just pointing at me and laughing. He asked what I was doing here and I told him that I was Thorne. That's when he told me that he was going to be playing my dad. That was just too wild."
Currently McCook and Katherine Kelly Lang are the show's two longest-serving actors, and both debuted in the first episode. McCook is only seven years older than Ronn Moss, who formerly played his son on the show. McCook was dressed as F. Scott Fitzgerald in a costume-party scene in an episode of Magnum, P.I. In 2001, 2012, and 2018, McCook received a Daytime Emmy nomination in the Outstanding Lead Actor category for his portrayal of Eric Forrester.
Personal life
John McCook has been married since 1980 to former actress Laurette Spang, with whom he has three children, Jake Thomas, Rebecca Jeanne, and Molly who is also an actress. He was married twice previously, including to dancer/actress Juliet Prowse, by whom he had one son, Seth, born in August 1972. John McCook lives with his family in the Greater Los Angeles Area.
