You may be thinking of two other incidents involving Law & Order. ADA Claire Kincaid (played by the drop-dead-gorgeous Jill Hennessy) was written out of the show by having the character killed in a car accident, and the acress’ identical-twin sister Jacqueline had played the same character once (uncredited) when Jill was unavailable.
On the L&O front, I give to you…this actor.
Notice, between 3 different L&O show, he’s played 10 different characters. And some of them were major ones.
Actually, there are so many instances of recurring guest appearances in different roles on “Law & Order”, that there is a website devoted to the subject:
You know, I knew there must be a site like that out there. Looks like there are WAY more casting overlaps than I’ve ever noticed. The record seems to be five.
. . . or, scrolling . . . seven!
For me, it’s the latter. I just love the show. By the way, for fans out there, Season Three was finally released on DVD about a month ago. I got it as soon as it came out, and i’ve just about finished watching it again. I hope they don’t wait so long to release Season Four.
For “before they were famous” (or at least, before they REALLY made it) appearances:[ul][li]Anyone remember Adam Goldberg (Saving Private Ryan, among others), who played the idealistic reporter in the Season 3 episode about the shootout at the basketball game? This was the episode where Sipowicz and Brother Kwazi cross paths.[/li][li]How could we forget Debra Messing (Will and Grace) as Donna Abbandando’s sister in Season 2?[/li][li]Giovanni Ribisi as a tough kid who hassles the daughter of Bobby’s friend at the school across the street from the precinct house (Season 2).[/ul][/li]
And for multiple appearances:
I had to look up the actor’s name, but John Finn has played three different roles. [ul][li]He was Jimmy “Socks” Matloe in the episode about the shooting at the Brooklyn candy store where Andy worked as a kid (Season 2).[/li][li]He was the corrupt internal affairs guy in the Season 4/Season 5 carryover storyline where Bobby was suspended while helping the FBI uncover corruption.[/li][li]And just a couple of weeks ago i watched a Season 8 episode where he plays an alcoholic whose daughter is murdered, and who is a suspect in her death. After he is cleared, Andy offers to take him to an AA meeting. When i saw this one, i remembered the two earlier appearances. That’s what multiple viewings will do for you![/ul][/li]
And for NYPD Blue/Law and Order crossovers:[ul][li]Christopher Meloni (L&O:SVU) has an ongoing role on as Diane Russell’s undercover target, Jimmy Leary.[/ul][/li]
When we watch other TV shows, i constantly recognize people who have made guest appearances on NYPD Blue, and my wife gets sick of me saying things like “That guy played a murderer in season 4 or 5 of NYPD Blue.”
Oh, and another NYPD Blue/L&O casting i forgot:
Richard Brooke’s, who plays ADA Paul Robinette in early season of Law and Order, makes an appearance on NYPD Blue as a police captain whose wife (also a police officer) is killed on the job. Can’t remeber the season now, but i’m pretty sure it was during the Rick Shroeder years.
[QUOTE=mhendo]
[li]Giovanni Ribisi as a tough kid who hassles the [del]daughter[/del] **[son]**of Bobby’s friend at the school across the street from the precinct house (Season 2).[/list][/li][/QUOTE]
. . . the son played by the kid from Little Man Tate, and Danny Masterson playing Giovanni’s running buddy.
Oops. Son, of course. I was thinking “female” when i was thinking about Bobby’s friend, and it came out as daughter.
And i forgot about Danny Masterson. I don’t know the Little Man Tate kid from anything except NYPD Blue.
For some reason I misremembered that Steve Burns (Steve from Blue’s Clues) was once on NYPD Blue. Looking at his IMDB entry I see that was wrong. He was on Law and Order and Homicide. Which is still pretty odd. In one of them I think he played the killer. The pawprints gave him away.
What’s a “skell”?
“Skel” is slang, pretty much synonymous with “scumbag” but can more specifically refer to junkies or vagrants. Often a suspect, but not necessarily. Online sources offer up a couple of different possible sources. One is that it’s short for “skeleton” (based on what longterm junkies look like). Another is that it comes from the German word “schelm” meaning “rascal.”