Guest Stars on Law & Order

[wknt3]

On 8/23/2016 at 3:54 PM, WendyCR72 said:

I'm betting it was because Jill Hennessy was the lead of Crossing Jordan. They didn't want the soap opera trope of "Hey, you look just like a dead ADA I once knew!" and decided to avoid it altogether.

I think that it was that they didn't want to bring back that particular actress and have the audience recalling her character during the episode. The way she left was so powerful and had such an impact that there would just be too much baggage to overcome. If it was say a former cop who now played a tycoon/sex symbol on another series or a different ADA who played a cop on another procedural they would have no problem bringing them back to crossover and could have had fun with it or completely ignored it and the audience would have rolled with it. But not Jill Hennessy as Jordan Cavanaugh.

[KHenry14]

Gotta mention one more. S4E8 "American Dream" features Zeljko Ivanek as Phillip Swan, a slick guy who was convicted of Murder without a body. Later the body is found, but in a different place than was earlier thought. Swan gets a retrial and beats the charge and sues Stone and the DA's office. But he slips up and eventually Stone convicts him of a different murder. 

I mention this because Zeljko just steals every scene he's in. He is so slick, so arrogant, so smug that you just want to punch him right through the TV screen. He's one of those actors who seemingly is in everything, and the show or movie is always better because of it. He's in Madame Secretary right now and doing a great job there. 

But boy, this is one of those episodes that really gets your emotions going. 

[Totale]

I never watched the really late episodes at the time, so they're all new to me when I watch them now.  I watched  one today where the blond villain was outsmarting the DAs at every turn, thinking all the time "Damn, who is that - I know I've seen her before".  I ran to the computer to look it up afterwards, and it was January Jones, years before Mad Men.

[Maherjunkie]

He is also really good as the dog psychiatrist on Frasier.

[Totale]

These late episodes I'm just watching for the first time (this one "Sweetie" from season 19) have turned up another future star, Laverne Cox.  Apparently in the same year she was also on SVU which I never watch and was apparently cast on several shows including L&O as some variation on "tranvestite Hooker".

[wanderingstar]

Quote

I never watched the really late episodes at the time, so they're all new to me when I watch them now.  I watched  one today where the blond villain was outsmarting the DAs at every turn, thinking all the time "Damn, who is that - I know I've seen her before".  I ran to the computer to look it up afterwards, and it was January Jones, years before Mad Men.

Ah, "Quit Claim." I love that episode, and I love JJ's performance in it, though it is frustrating that we never find out who her character really is, and the case is basically unsolved.

Edited November 4, 2016 by Gillian Rosh

[merylinkid]

I feel really old now.  I am watching Sweeps, which is Season Four, episode 1.   It's the one where the guest on a tv show got shot by the father of the kid, the guest had molested.   The kid who was molested was played by .... David Krumholtz.   Who I watched as a grown up on Numb3rs.   But I saw Sweeps when it originally aired.    

[WendyCR72]

I'll forever associate poor David Krumholtz more for his stint on ER as schizophrenic law student, Paul Sobricki, who stabbed both Carter and Lucy (killing the latter) because he believed they tried to steal his organs during a lumbar puncture. I still can't listen to "Battleflag" by Lo-Fidelity All Stars without remembering that!

[Epeolatrix]

I always associate David Krumholtz as Wednesday's summer camp friend Joel Glicker in "Addams Family Values" because that's the first thing I saw him in. When it came out. In 1993. Sigh...

[Cobalt Stargazer]

19 hours ago, Violet Impulse said:

I always associate David Krumholtz as Wednesday's summer camp friend Joel Glicker in "Addams Family Values" because that's the first thing I saw him in. When it came out. In 1993. Sigh...

It gets better! Krumholtz went on to play Mr. Universe, the robot-loving techno geek, in 2003's Serenity.

[Ambrosefolly]

Saw Sheltered with Ty Burrell and Sebastian Stan playing a kidnapper and his brainwashed victim that went on to shot 4 people with a rifle. I thought SS did an amazing job at playing an emotionally disturbed teenager. I didn't know who he was at first and looked the episode up because Sebastian was so engaging. 

Edited March 12, 2017 by Ambrosefolly

[biakbiak]

On 10/30/2016 at 7:48 PM, Totale said:

ran to the computer to look it up afterwards, and it was January Jones, years before Mad Men.

That episode was in 2008, Mad Men started in 2007 and she was highlighted in the promos.

[KHenry14]

I want to jump in again to tout Gerry Becker. In a show that grows sleezy defense lawyers like weeds...Gerry is just about the sleeziest. He  was in 6 episodes on the mothership, playing the unctuous defense lawyer Gerald Wills 3 separate times. In particular he's particulary sleezy in 2004's "Can I get a witness?" This ep is about witness intimidation, and he represents all that bad defense lawyers do. I needed a shower after watching this ep today.   

[MadyGirl1987]

Law and Order never fails to amuse when I recognize actors from other shows or films. The 13th season episode "Sheltered" was playing on TV just now and Ty Burrell and Sebastian Stan were guest stars as father and son. Knowing them as Phil Dunphy and the Winter Soldier makes it very amusing to see them paired up.

[Sharpie66]

I just saw Indifference (based on the Lisa Steinberg case, regardless of the extended disclaimer at the end) again. I had forgotten how utterly creepy it is, but I was pleased to be reminded of the sheer awesomeness of Lorraine Touissant as Shambala Green, one of my two favorite recurring defense attorneys (Tovah Feldshuh's Danielle Melnick is the other). She and Michael Moriarty had really great chemistry together, just like Tovah did with Sam Waterston.

Edited August 18, 2017 by Sharpie66

[wanderingstar]

Just heard of the passing of the wonderful Jan Maxwell. I know she was best known for her work on Broadway, but I'll always remember her as quack Dr. Nancy Haas from "Second Opinion" and that crooked judge from "Floater." Her performances were always riveting, and I think she is one of the most memorable guest actors on this show. May she rest in power.

[Xeliou66]

Never even realized those characters were the same actress, both were very memorable as well, especially as the corrupt, murdering civil court judge who presided over divorce cases and was a former friend of Arthur Branch. She was a good actress, RIP.

[wanderingstar]

From Deadline: Jan Maxwell Has Died; Five-Time Tony Nominee Praised Law and Order as "the Mother Ship"

Quote

 

Maxwell also was one of countless New York stage actors who found crucial employment and paychecks in Dick Wolf’s Gotham-based cop procedurals, beginning with Law & Order. In a 2010 Op-Ed for The New York Times, she wrote, “We claimed the show as our own; not only did it give us stage actors a temporary job, but it also employed old theater pros, like Jerry Orbach and Sam Waterston, in leading roles.” Some 700 speaking roles, she said, “played by actors from all walks of New York life, were doled out yearly by what we eventually called ‘the mother ship.’ “

In the final paragraph, she described a scene with Waterston that had begun conventionally. “But then, he turns and walks away into one of the most beautiful New York snowfalls I’ve ever seen,” Maxwell wrote. “At that moment I fell in love with the city all over again, and with the show, too. It reminded me that for New York theater actors, Law & Order did more than just pay for dinner. It was a part of our family.”

 

Edited February 15, 2018 by Gillian Rosh

[GHScorpiosRule]

It was a throwaway line in one of other shows that finally had me pull up and watch The Sopranos. OMGEEEEEEE!!!!!

About 98% of the guest stars who played mobbed up, capos, or dons on THIS show-original recipe--ended up as main and supporting characters on The Sopranos. Well, except for Gandolfini (May he still RIP) and Bracco. I think.

The wonderful Nancy Marchand (May she RIP), who played the snobby mother of her psycho killing murdering son in "Blood is Thicker" played Tony's mother.

And Vincent Curatola, who played Joey Dantoni, Senior (mob boss), in season 10's "Trade This" and testified that his son was a MORON.

• Vincent Pastore
• Michael Imperioli
• Edie Falco
• Steven Schirripa
• Toni Sirico

To name just the top few! And a handful who play the Feds and cops.

Edited September 17 by GHScorpiosRule

[AnnieBananie]

On 11/3/2016 at 9:48 PM, wanderingstar said:

Ah, "Quit Claim." I love that episode, and I love JJ's performance in it, though it is frustrating that we never find out who her character really is, and the case is basically unsolved.

Also guest starring Jim True-Frost, who, like the Sopranos actors, is one of a million The Wire actors to guest on L&O. He played Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski, the cop who went on to be a teacher.

[ByTor]

23 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

About 98% of the guest stars who played mobbed up, capos, or dons on THIS show-original recipe--ended up as main and supporting characters on The Sopranos.

I liked Janice as the ditzy receptionist in I.D. (even though that doesn't really count since she did that before Law & Order).

[GHScorpiosRule]

17 minutes ago, ByTor said:

I liked Janice as the ditzy receptionist in I.D. (even though that doesn't really count since she did that before Law & Order).

Do you mean before The Sopranos? Actually Aida Turturro appeared in one scene in season one as a prostitute. "Happily Ever After" where the wife (Roxanne Hart) planned the murder of her husband, Alan in the garage, by her lover.

Edited September 18 by GHScorpiosRule

[ByTor]

6 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Do you mean before The Sopranos? Actually Aida Turturro appeared in one scene in season one as a prostitute. "Happily Ever After" where the wife (Roxanne Hart) planned the murder of her husband, Alan in the garage, by her lover.

According to IMDB she was in 3 episodes. And yes, all before The Sopranos.