NYPD Blue casting oddities

Cafe Society
1

I’ve been catching up on a lot of old NYPD Blue episodes, and I’ve noticed a couple things.

First, there are a few of actors who have played more than one character over the years:

[ul]
[li]Currie Graham, who played the closet-gay/hardass Lt. Thomas Bale, Sipowicz’s final boss in the final season, eight years earlier had played Frankie Lankersheim, a “skell,” in Season 4’s “Emission Impossible.”[/li][li]The incomparably hot Eric Balfour played two different characters in a single season: Eli Beardsley in “Peeping Tommy,” which aired in March 2001, and Charles ‘Spyder’ Price in “Two Clarks in a Bar” in November of the same year.[/li][li]Scott Cohen, who played the extremely effectively squicky Harry Denby, Diane’s near undoing, in seasons 7 and 8, had already played the equally squicky HIV-infector Eddie Reyna in season 2’s “Double Abondando.”[/li][li]Giancarlo Esposito played Ferdinand Hollie in “Hollie and the Blowfish,” 1996; and Jamaal in “Speak for Yourself, Bruce Clayton,” 1998.[/li][li]Lombardo Boyar, who was so great as the cheating husband in Over There, played three different characters: Gangbanger #3 in “What a Dump!,” 1997; George Ruiz in “It Takes a Village,” 1997; and Tino in “Lies Like a Rug,” 2001.[/li][/ul]

Any more multi-character actors over NYPD Blue’s twelve seasons?

Second, there are some pretty amazing “cameos before the fact” by actors who later went on to bigger and better things. Enrico Colantoni as the schizophrenic who kills his dad, Sipowicz’s AA sponsor played by Peter Boyle, as one example. Hustle & Flow’s Terrence Howard fits in both categories, having played Lonnie in "Hammer Time in season 5, and AJ in “What’s Up, Chuck?” in season 6. Season 2’s “You Bet Your Life” is an interesting example, with Peter Boyle, Enrico Colantoni, and Paul Giamatti.

Any other interesting pre-cameos?

2

Ever hear of Young Frankenstein?.

3

We could look at every episode and recognize actors’ names from other shows, but who would remember details of the part(s) they played in Blue, or if multiple roles in Blue were oddities? That’d take an incredible memory, or multiple viewings.

One thing that was impressive about Blue was the quality of the actors who played the skells. 99% of the time they were unknowns, and it was like they were hired off the street or out of lockup.

4

Um, the only way you could make my sentence mean what you wanted it to mean was to cut out the part that made sense.

5

Oh, sorry, I just saw how easily that was misread. Think of it like this:
*
Enrico Colantoni as the schizophrenic who kills his dad (Sipowicz’s AA sponsor played by Peter Boyle) as one example.*

6

The “one example” referring to two characters was not as clear a clue as I’d presumed it was.

7

Peter Boyle was a widely respected actor with well over 60 credits, ranging from bits to leads, before his appearances on NYPD Blue. In no way can his appearances properly be characterized as being a “cameo before the fact.”

Charlotte Ross, who joined the regular cast as Connie McDowell, appeared in two earlier episodes as the wife of a cop who’d murdered his girlfriend. She wore a wire and endangered her life to get a confession from him.

8

Sigh. Please see above.

Right! I’d forgotten that one! Saw the earlier one recently.

9

Sigh. I’m a slow typist on a slow browser and your post was not in the thread while I was working on mine.

10

Another one I remembered; actually the one that inspired this thread: John F. O’Donohue, who played Sgt. Eddie Gibson from 2000 on–his meddling made Sipowicz not wanna date his niece Cynthia anymore–played a court clerk in two 1994 episodes. I saw one of those recently and starting thinking about this thread.

11

Not quite NYPD Blue, but somewhat related. Dennis Franz played two different recurring characters on Hill Street Blues; Sal Benedetto for six episodes in 1983, and then as Norman Buntz for the 1985-1987 seasons. And I think it’s safe to say that he went on to bigger and better things since then.

12

The Law and Order franchises seem to be more careful about this: I’ve noticed the same actor play different characters on different shows–a skell on L&O; a lawyer on SVU. But I’ve never noticed an actor play two different characters on the same L&O franchise.

13

Actually that happened quite a bit. In season 1, both Jerry Orbach played a defense attorney and S. Epatha Merkerson played a maid whose son was killed before coming on as cast members.

14

Yes, I remember seeing that Orbach appearance a while ago; another one of the things that got me thinking about this. What stuck out about that for me, though, was that such a double-casting seemed extremely unusual to me, for L&O; the classic exception that proves the rule. So I’m not sure I’d agree that it happened “quite a lot.” Can you think of any beyond those two examples?

15

Tamara Tunie (SVU 's M.E. Warner) played Lt. Fancy’s wife in several episodes; West Wing 's Bradley Whitford played tabloid reporter Norman Gardner in seasons 1&2.

16

I believe that the girl who plays the assistant DA played a prostitute a few seasons back.

17

How about this:

On Hill Street , the leader of the “Shamrocks” Irish gang was played by a young David Caruso .

18

Scanning IMDB…Michael Imperioli who played Detective Nick Falco played someone else back in 1996.

19

You’re right! I’d forgotten about that!

20

Peter Frechette played (on L&O Classic) the scion of a wealthy family, the matriarch of which was accused of murder, and also a gay man who killed someone with AIDS and tried for a “mercy killing” defense. Oddly, Frechette had played a gay man who killed someone with AIDS and tried for a “mercy killing” defense several years earlier on an episode of “L.A. Law.”

Looking at his IMDB listing I see Frechette appeared in a third episode of L&O and has also appeared in one ep of L&O: CI.

As long as we’re hijacking this thread into L&O territory, I thought Jamie Ross was killed in a car crash driving Briscoe home after he got drunk in a bar, then came back playing her own sister or something. But per her IMDB listing she’s been on L&O: Trial by Jury playing the same character?