Robert Ray Shafer (born April 10, 1958) is an American character actor who has appeared in film and television. Shafer, sometimes credited as Bobby Ray Shafer, is best known for playing Bob Vance on the American sitcom The Office. In 1989, he portrayed Officer Ted Warnicky (also known as Joe Vickers) in the horror-comedy Psycho Cop and later reprised the role in Psycho Cop 2.
Robert Ray Shafer, Jr. was born in Charleston, West Virginia, in 1958. His father, a heavy equipment operator, died in a car accident when he was nine years old. He attended high school in Romeo, Michigan, and graduated in 1976.
Shafer attended Broward College in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, before moving to Los Angeles where he modeled and took acting classes with Peggy Feury.