The 1999 film “Office Space” has become one of those quintessential rental phenomena — a film that failed substantially at the box office (raking in only $10 million despite a nationwide opening), but has since become nothing short of a cult classic. Today, it stands as an instantly identifiable work of its time; turn on cable any time of night and you’ll have a decent chance of coming across the movie, about ho-hum everyman Peter Gibbons becoming fed up with his bureaucratic office job and deciding he’s simply not going to care anymore.

As “Office Space” has made its way to more DVD shelves, so has Peter — played with an air of bemused detachment by actor Ron Livingston — become something of an icon of late-’90s ambivalence. So it seems odd now, knowing what “Office Space” became, that Mr. Livingston disappeared from movie screens entirely for years afterward. When he did return, it was to television, and he had adopted a far more serious and substantial demeanor. First came the 2001 HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers”; then he found recurring roles on both “Sex and the City” and “The Practice.” Part by part, Mr. Livingston countered whatever popular estimation of him remained.

Over the next two weeks, audiences can see what could be regarded as the homestretch on Mr. Livingston’s eight-year marathon, as two serious and compelling dramas with him in the central role arrive in New York theaters. “Music Within,” which opens today, chronicles the life of Richard Pimentel, one of the most adamant advocates for the rights of the disabled. After returning from Vietnam hearing-impaired, Mr. Pimentel led the battle that would eventually result in the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Then on November 9, Mr. Livingston takes on his darkest role yet in “Holly,” as an American transporter of stolen artifacts who is mortified upon visiting Cambodia and discovering the sex trade operating relatively unchecked. Befriending one young girl, 12-year-old Holly, whose family sold her to a Phnom Penh brothel, Mr. Livingston’s character experiences something akin to a moral rebirth, evolving from a hands-off tourist to a hands-on activist, committing himself to freeing at least this one girl.

For those New Yorkers without a television, Mr. Livingston’s reemergence may seem surprising. But as he sees it, it’s been a long time coming. “They are both about a year and a half old,” he said of his new films. “But that’s the natural life cycle of independent movies, to take a year touring the festival circuit in hopes of getting some attention. As an actor, it’s a little less like yachting, where you chart a course, than like surfing, where you try to catch a wave. Sometimes your ideal project comes up, but I’ve found it doesn’t work that way — you end up doing some pretty crazy things because they appear out of the blue and happen to appeal to you at that moment.”

Hence “Office Space,” a quirky role in a mid-range movie with a cultish director that came into Mr. Livingston’s field of vision at just the right time. He said that his role in “Band of Brothers,” which has proven instrumental as a professional stepping-stone, came to him with equal randomness, primarily because he looked like Captain Lewis Nixon, the World War II soldier he portrayed on the small screen.

“It’s harder to get roles like these in ‘Holly’ and ‘Music Within’ until people get the idea of you as a dramatic actor into their heads,” Mr. Livingston said. “So in a way ‘Brothers’ led me to ‘The Practice’ and some other roles, which then encouraged people to consider me. It’s not just over the last couple of years that I’ve been looking for these roles, but more that my career has finally grown into them.”

Still, Mr. Livingston did not entirely dismiss the suggestion that his latest roles seem like a reaction against the mentality of Peter in “Office Space.” Unlike that comedy, in which he played a man who craves only detachment, his new characters begin their respective stories detached and are compelled to care about something so passionately that they risk everything on its behalf.

“There’s a definite archetype of this type of character, who is only concerned about himself and who takes care of himself, but who becomes gradually aware that he can help the people around him,” he said. “It’s a tradition that goes back to even Han Solo and Humphrey Bogart in ‘Casablanca. And it seems particularly relevant today, when we look at a lot of the things we’re facing, whether it be global warming or America’s place in the world. It raises the same questions that we’re all wrestling with now: ‘Do I behave selfishly or do I behave in a way that’s good for all of us?'”

Judging by his pursuit of dramatic roles, and the serious way in which he regards the subjects of discrimination and rape that fuel his latest films, it was impossible not to ask Mr. Livingston if he had regretted the way “Office Space” became such a touchstone.

“I don’t get tired of people enjoying it, though I’ve noticed it’s still on the TV circuit and still out there,” he said. “I’m sure Jimmy Stewart must have gotten annoyed of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ but how could he — it’s such a great movie, it’s something great to go back to. And I wouldn’t put ‘Office Space’ into that league, but some people do return to it that way. It makes their heart and soul feel better to watch. And I’m proud of that.”

ssnyder@nysun.com