Original thread here:
Watching “Silence Of The Lambs” recently (my son is into horror flicks these days) and noticed one of the orderlies working in the sub-sub-basement where Hannibal is kept was played by Frankie Faison, the Commish from “The Wire”.
Also, I had forgotten that Samuel L. Jackson was in “Jurassic Park” (along with NEWMAN).
My go-to answer for this sort of thing will always be Jack Nicholson on The Andy Griffith Show.
He was actually in two episodes. There’s another one where Aunt Bee has jury duty, and Nicholson is the defendant.
Did he order the Code Red?
I was surprised to spot Peter Lorre in an episode of Rawhide. I was not aware that he had done television. He also appeared in an episode of Route 66, along with Boris Karloff, and Lon Chaney, Jr., who did appear frequently on TV.
Edit - and I noticed I posted this in the original thread.
Aunt Bee can’t handle the truth!
We semi-bingewatch a drama and a sitcom at bedtime. Currently the new season of Orange is the New Black* and Cheers. Last night there was a big surprise: Kate Mulgrew guest starred on Cheers (part of a 3 episode arc). We just saw her as Red on OitNB.
Didn’t expect much crossover between those shows, especially given the 31 years difference.
Kate Mulgrew was also the heroine of a 1970s era soap opera Ryan’s Hope. I discovered this one day while I was home sick and idly watching the soap opera channel (with a 101 F fever, I wasn’t too picky about what I was watching.) Seeing Captain Janeway/Red back in the day was quite a surprise to me.
Hawaii Five-O does this from time to time, casting people for one or two shows, like James Caan as a retired cop (granted, his son is one of the stars of the show), Ed Asner as the bag man for the local mob, Carol Burnett as McGarrett’s aunt, George Takei as one officer’s crazy old uncle…
Not to mention Mrs. Columbo.
For a current example of OMG I Cannot Believe That Actor Is In This!!!, try Showtime’s Twin Peaks: The Return.
Morgan Freeman on The Electric Company.
Werner Herzog in Jack Reacher, Parks And Recreation, and Rick and Morty.
I just saw his Rick and Morty episode yesterday. My jaw dropped.
I knew immediately it was him. No one, and I mean no one, can capture his voice perfectly. It was hilarious.
Asner played the same character that he played on the original 5-0, who was sent away to prison for a long time. In the new episode, he had just gotten out as an old man.
I was recently watching ALF (part of the Summer programming on MeTV), and there was an episode where Willy went to see a shrink. The shrink was played by Bill Daily, who was the neighbor across the hall from shrink Bob Hartley (Bob Newhart). And sitting in his waiting room was Jack Riley, one of Bob Hartley’s recurring patients! Cracked me up.
Also Keith David as Reverse Giraffe and Fart.
Frances Bavier on an old episode of “The Lone Ranger” as a villain.
It’s definitely weird seeing Bruce McCulloch (from The Kids in the Hall) in “Anne of Avonlea” (the sequel to “Anne of Green Gables”).
Keith David is unmistakeable as Reverse Giraffe – and, for that matter, as President of These United States – but, as far as I can tell, he ain’t Fart.
The definitive answer to this is Sylvester Stallone in an uncredited role as a random thug in the Woody Allen flick Bananas: Bananas 1971 full Stallone episode - YouTube
I still remember when I recognised (barely) Burt Reynolds in an episode of Flipper.
Carroll O’Connor as Casca, one of Julius Caesar’s assassins, in the Elizabeth Taylor Cleopatra
Kevin Sussman (Stuart Bloom on The Big Bang Theory) as Ivan Avi “The Palindrome” on “The Palindrome Reversal Palindrome” episode of The Middleman from 2008. Although Big Bang was on longer, Sussman didn’t start playing Stuart until 2009.
Clint Eastwood was pretty famously in Revenge of the Creature and Tarantula, but I would never have recognized him, especially in the latter role. it’s not like the above two, where I recognized the actors from other roles.
Regarding Peter Lorre, by the way, he certainly did television – he famously played the first Bond villain in visual media as Le Chiffre in the Climax! presentation of Casino Royale. Contrary to legend, he didn’t get up and walk away on camera after being killed.
I was surprised to see William Shatner in The Glass Eye episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents from 1957. I knew about his roles on Twilight Zone and Outer Limits and The Man from U.N.C.L.E., but that one took me by surprise (and he had another part on AHP, according to imdb)
Speaking of Star Trek actors, I didn’t realize that this actor was DeForest Kelley until he sais “well, whatta ya know!” at the end, the same way he did in Star Trek when he finishjed with “I Finally Got the Last Word”
https://glitternight.com/2014/07/23/suicide-theater-1950-forgotten-television/