 He played the role of Colonel Francis Clay Mosby in 42 episodes of the Western television series Lonesome Dove : The Series ( 1994 ) and Lonesome Dove : The Outlaw Years ( 1995 ) . McCormack commented that it was a " fantastic role " . In an interview with The Guardian in 2003 , McCormack admitted to auditioning " two or three times " for the part of Ross Geller , which ultimately went to David Schwimmer , for the situation comedy Friends . In 1995 , he appeared in the television film The Man Who Wouldn 't Die . He was cast in the 1997 made @-@ for @-@ television movie Borrowed Hearts , where he portrayed a selfish businessman who learns to love , and in the HBO film Exception to the Rule , in which he played a cheating husband . 
