Sean Connery as King Richard in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
Bill Shatner’s recurring role as The Big Giant Head on “Third Rock,” may or may not qualify, but I mention it because of the great in-joke they tossed in.
Shatner’s character arrives by airplane, and he complains of a terrible experience he had on the flight watching helpless as a creature on the wing damaged the engine. Dick Solomen (Lithgow) gives him an astonished look: “The SAME THING happened to me!”
(For anyone wondering: on the original Twilight Zone, Shatner starred in the episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” in which he was a passenger on a flight and sees a malicious gremlin on the wing; in the movie remake of that episode, Lithgow played the same role.)
… Nope. Try again.
Also good was Stiers turning up on a later episode of “Frasier” as the title character’s mentor who he suddenly suspects may be his real father. There is a close link between the characters of MASH’s Charles Winchester and Frasier Crane and it was obvious they were trying to play off it.
They’ve also featured Elton John, Janet Jackson and Jennifer Lopez as cameos and Gene Wilder & Madonna in character roles (in possibly Madonna’s funniest performance ever, not that that’s saying a lot). Harry Connick Jr. was a semi regular in an ill thought bid as Grace’s husband.
Tom Selleck’s appearances on Friends were really good. I thought she had more chemistry with him than with Chandler, who had almost none with Julia Roberts.
One of the weirdest cases of stunt casting that I can recall is when Joan Jett appeared in “Walker, Texas Ranger.”
In the British TV show Spooks they’ve had Alexander Siddig on as one baddass Algerian secret agent. I’ve gotta wonder how he pulled off the nerdy doctor in Deep Space Nine, he was that good!
What’s odd is that Roseanne had at least three Oscar winners in recurring roles (Shelley Winters, Red Buttons and Estelle Parsons [who eventually joined the cast but started as a guest star]) and none were really stunt casting- they were just recognizable guest stars (& with the exceptions of Winters less famous than the stars of the show to most people).
Tammy Faye Bakker has had two great stunt roles: one on Roseanne as a beautician (“I recommend the natural look- let your face tell its own story!”) and one on Drew Carey as Mimi’s mother (“Oh I wish I’d known you were coming! I didn’t have time to throw my face on!”). The latter also had stunt casting of Richard Chamberlain as Craig Ferguson’s randy old… mother.
Not to mention Michael J. Fox in a couple of episodes, the first one of which involved an open-air commode on the roof of the hospital.
Gene Wilder was great in his W&G performances.
My favorite famous guest star ever was Peter Boyle in the “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” episode of X-Files. At least he got a much deserved Emmy for that performance.
Mad About You did this a bit, too. Mel Brooks played Paul’s uncle in one episode. And wasn’t Jamie’s mom played by Carol Burnett?
In 1986, Whoopi Goldberg was a guest star in the final episode of the second season of Moonlighting. Her character, Camille, at one point asks if The Color Purple is on cable yet.
How about Danzig on the Aqua Teens.
No, you’re thinking of Agnes Moorehead*
*joke
In addition to the aforementioned Mandy Moore, Brendan Fraser, Heather Graham, and Michael J. Fox on Scrubs, the show has also guest-starred Tara Reid and Colin Farrell.
Arrested Development had Carl Weathers in a recurring role as himself as a fading celebrity teaching a dubious acting class and not-so-subtly shilling for Burger King. Of course, it also starred Henry Winkler as incompetent attorney Barry Zuckerkorn (who once actually jumped over a shark in an episode – the shark was dead and laying on a pier). This was extra-funny because Winkler co-starred with AD’s narrator/producer Ron Howard, on Happy Days. When the Bluth family fired Zuckerkorn, they replaced him with slick shyster Bob Loblaw, played by Scott Baio (aka Chachi, the cousin of Winkler’s Fonz character from Happy Days).
And her father was Carroll O’Connor, and Carl Reiner reprised the role of Alan Brady.
The worst stunt casting was when Jerry Lewis guest starred as an eccentric billionaire who gave them a painting by Leonardo da Vinci. A few episodes later they were worried about money for some reason or other and I couldn’t help but thing “Sell that *@# da Vinci and you can retire and live the rest of your life in comfort!”
He was also obsessively cheap, full of stories about making stew with scraps from the craft sevice table and running a scam where he got paid for being bumped from planes.
I think Stephen Hawking (who, allegedly, was taking a tour of the set and was just invited to be in the Star Trek episode) is the best casting story.
Thomas Pynchon’s pretty impressive as well.
I liked Mark Hamill’s cameo in Just Shoot Me.
Come on guys, how could you forget Heather Locklear, the queen of the stunt cast.
Will & Grace also had Bebe Neuwirth running into Jack & Karen, and Sandra Bernhardt in a cameo that was so good she made a second appearance.
Morgan Fairfield’s role as the aforementioned Sandra’s lover on Roseanne was dreadful. But Tim Curry’s role was outstanding.
On “Friends” the best, and most surprising, stunt casting was Chandler’s often mentioned but never seen transvestite father, played by Kathleen Turner:
Monica: That can’t be your father.
Chandler: I’ve been telling myself that for years.