McGill tried sitcoms again when he essayed the role of football player Billy Clyde Puckett (originated by Burt Reynolds) in "Semi-Tough" (ABC, 1980) but then opted to concentrate on guest work (including a recurring role on ABC's "MacGyver"), TV-movies (like "Baby M") and features ("Silkwood"). He had a rare lead as American expatriate author Ernest Hemingway in "Waiting for the Moon" (1987) and offered memorable turns as the officious sheriff in "My Cousin Vinny" (1992) and a nasty treasury agent in "Cliffhanger" (1993). He once again tried series work in a recurring role on "Black Tie Affair" (NBC, 1993) and as an experienced news producer on UPN's "Live Shot" (1995), but both met an early demise. The prolific performer delivered a chilling portrait of a Southern racist who teaches his son to hate in John Singleton's overlooked "Rosewood" (1997). McGill offered a small but memorable turn as a district attorney questioning whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe) in director Michael Mann's "The Insider" (1999) and portrayed the hedonistic golf pro Walter Hagen in "The Legend of Bagger Vance" (2000).

McGill continued to rack up an impressive resume, essaying character turns in a diverse array of films including the crime thriller "Exit Wounds" (2001), Billy Crystal's historical baseball drama "61*" (2001), the Farrelly brothers' manic "Shallow Hal" (2001), Michael Mann's disappointing biopic "Ali" (2001) and the Tom Clancy thriller "The Sum of All Fears" (2002). McGill got one of his best supporting roles when he played the charismatic and unflappable real-life CNN journalist Peter Arnett in the excellent HBO Gulf War drama "Live From Baghdad" (2002), and he got to sink his comedic teeth into a broad but endearing role as a Southern senator with a gay dog opposite Reese Witherspoon in "Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde." McGill stayed on a roll, with standout character turns as Nicolas Cage's not-so-innocent mark in "Matchstick Men" (2003) and as a strict New Orleans judge in the John Grisham thriller "Runaway Jury" (2003). More solid supporting roles reunited him with his collaborators from "The Insider": director Mann's stylish "Collateral" (2004) cast McGill as a lawman tracking Tom Cruise's ice-cold contract killer, as "Gentleman" Jim Braddock's skeptical fight promoter Jimmy Johnston in director Ron Howard's warm-hearted boxing biopic "Cinderella Man" (2005), opposite Russell Crowe. He delivered an especially wry and lively performance as an old, occasionally untrustworthy family friend of Orlando Bloom's late father in writer-director Cameron Crowe's romantic comedy "Elizabethtown" (2005).