David Caruso a cop on CSI and NYPD Blue
Robert Urich played a feckless private eye on Vegas! and a genuine badass (though not as badass as his not!partner) on Spenser: For Hire.
Jenny Wade played a flesh eating demon from Hell on Reaper. She’s now playing a lawyer on The Good Guys.
Richard Biggs played a doctor on Days of Our Lives before branching out into science fiction, specifically Babylon 5, where he played a doctor.
Nope. His character on E/R was not a doctor. A medical technician if I’m reading things right.
And the role he was in at the time of his death: a doctor, on Strong Medicine.
Marion Ross was a homemaker on Happy Days and again on Brooklyn Bridge. If we tried hard enough we could probably list a number of actresses whose roles were mainly homemakers.
In fact, he played two different recurring characters on Hill Street Blues; Det. Sal Benedetto for 5 episodes, and Lt. Norman Buntz for 34 (according to IMDb), then the Buntz character was spun off into Beverly Hills Buntz. And of course he was also head of the airport police in Die Hard 2.
Come to think of it, does Dennis Franz ever not play a cop?
Lucille Ball played a secretary named Lucy Carmichael on The Lucy Show, her boss was played by Gale Gordon. On Here’s Lucy she played a secretary named Lucy Carter, her boss was again played by Gale Gordon. For the first season & a half of The Lucy Show she was a (widowed) housewife; she of course played a housewife on I Love Lucy. Vivian Vance’s characters (Ethel Mertz, Vivian Bagley, and Vivian Jones) on those shows were all housewives (the later 2 divorced).
Jon Schneider arguably counts, working the family farm as Bo Duke and Jon Kent.
Don S. Davis plays military officers in quite a few TV shows. Here are some highlights:
Stargate SG-1 General George Hammond
Wyvern Col. Travis Sherman
NCIS MTAC Control Officer
Atomic Train Gen. Harlan Ford
Prisoner of Zenda, Inc. Colonel Zapf
The X-Files Capt. William Scully (Dana Scully’s dad)
M.A.N.T.I.S. Admiral Farallon
Twin Peaks Maj. Garland Briggs
(He also plays a lot of doctors, police sergeants and congressmen, but put this guy in an army officer’s uniform and he cooks!}
Janos Prohaska appeared in lots of bear and gorilla outfits, usually on shows starring Andy Willliams or Lucille Ball. He played the Horta (and similar apelike aliens) on Star Trek.
Jack Cassidy played a lot of “Gentleman of Leisure” types, usually in a double-breasted navy blazer, white pants and an ascot. I always wanted that lifestyle…
In Bay City Blues, he played a minor league baseball coach.
Burt Mustin played weird old men in hundreds of TV shows in the 50s and 60.
NCIS doesn’t belong in the above list. He’s not playing a military officer; he’s playing a civilian working in an civilian agency associated with the military.
Fair enough. He was also on Stargate: Atlantis and whatever other spinoffs that show had; Even if he’d only appeared on Twin Peaks and X-Files, I’d have mentioned him.
The great Dame Judi Dench has appeared as a Queen a dozen or more times.
Patrick McGoohan always insisted that John Drake on DANGER MAN was a different secret agent than Number Six on THE PRISONER.
And the great queen Quentin Crisp has appeared as a dame quite often, as well…
Phylicia Rashad played Bill Cosby’s wife on The Cosby Show and Cosby.
I find that unfortunate, though. Cosby was a pale, thin shadow of The Cosby Show. The best thing about it was Madeline Kahn. Of course, Madeline Kahn was often the best thing in quite a few of the projects that included her.
Originally, another actress played the wife on Cosby, but Bill Cosby brought in Phylicia Rashad because he and she worked well together.
Timely thread, as I just discovered one of these over the weekend: Anastasia Griffith played a paramedic with an M.D. on Trauma, and currently plays a doctor on Royal Pains.