Law & Order Guest Appearances

Ann-Margret was really good on one.

Kathy Griffin

Young Claire Danes was on one

R1, that episode was EPIC!! Ann-Margaret, Jaclyn Smith, Morgan Fairchild, Susan Anton, Renee Taylor, classic asshole William Atherton, and hunky Robert Newman (of Guiding Light fame). I also loved the episode with Henry Winkler (and Mary Beth Hurt), because it's fun to see someone like Henry play such a creep/against type.

As for "before they were famous"...Sarah Hyland, the dippy older daughter from Modern Family, immediately pops to mind. She was fantastic as a highly-driven, OCD (and ultimately homicidal) mathematics prodigy.

With so many L&O series to choose from, can posters please specify which program you're referencing in this thread? I love the mothership prorgram, don't remember an "Ann-Margret" episode, so it must be... L&O: SVU (of course!).

For me, the first actress I thought of was Ellen Pompeo on Law & Order. The episode was incredible. I think she set-up her younger sister to be sexually abused and then murdered by her boyfriend... awful human being.

Very early in the Law & Order run, Cynthia Nixon was cast as a female Bernie Goetz... she fired her gun in a subway car, shooting several young black men.

Any male guest stars leave such an impression?

The late, great John Ritter was so good playing against type in SVU.

Laura Linney in an early role as the killer of a Japanese businessman who said she smelled. Law & Order: Blue Bamboo (October 5, 1994).

Carol Burnett as murderess Birdie in "Ballerina."

The law and order franchise has kept Broadway actors employed for decades.

Robin Williams was in a SVU episode.

[quote]For me, the first actress I thought of was Ellen Pompeo on Law & Order. The episode was incredible. I think she set-up her younger sister to be sexually abused and then murdered by her boyfriend... awful human being.

This episode was bone chilling. I could never watch "Grey's Anatomy" without seeing Pompeo as that sociopathic monster.

Cynthia Nixon played a woman with multiple personalities. All of them were screechy and annoying. Just like Cynthia.

"Law & Order" Family Business (TV Episode 1996) Joseph Wiseman ... AKA Dr. No

Jennette McCurdy in a Season 6 episode of SVU ('Contagious') where she played a molested 4th grade girl (she was 12 IRL). She later made a short film about her experience before her best-selling book (I didn't read it).

R5 I love that episode with Cynthia. The first 4 seasons of the original L&O are the best. However Nixon’s guest turn on SVU is one of my favorite episode actors the entire L&O universe. She is brilliantly campy as a woman with multiple personality disorder. I love that episode.

R8 I like that one too. Matthew Lillard plays her son.

Cynthia Nixon is also in a Law & Order Criminal Intent as a Julie Taymor-type stage director in a Spider Man-type musical which is plagued with problems. Also starring DL fave Billy Magnussen as a gay bleached blonde murdered actor. The episode is Icarus (June 19, 2011).

Liza in a Law & Order Criminal Intent as the mother of Amberleigh, a child beauty queen who is found murdered, obviously based on the JonBenet case. Masquerade (October 31, 2006).

S Epatha Markeson is also in the Season 1 episode as a poor black mother whose baby is accidentally gunned down. Great actress.

Amy Ryan is brilliant in two Law & Order Criminal Intents. Rocket Man (May 1, 2007) as the wife of an astronaut and based on the diaper-wearing female NASA astronaut case. And Suite Sorrow (February 2, 2003) as the dowdy daughter of a murdered Leona Helmsley-type hotel magnate.

Billy Porter was also good as a gay teacher falsely accused of being inappropriate. He can be good sometimes.

Allison Janney was in not just one, but two L & O (mothership) episodes: S02 Ep. 12 ("Star Struck") and S04 Ep. 22 *"Old Friends).

However, I must confess I don't remember her in either of them.

In Star Struck she was the assistant to the soap opera actress who is attacked by an obsessed fan.

In Old Friends she is the owner of a baby food company that is funded by the Russian mob. When she agrees to testify she gets killed.

Tharah Paulthon!

Whoopi Goldberg was chilling in a Chris Noth-era Criminal Intent episode playing a Fagin organising a gang of house breaking orphans.

Ludacris was also good as ice T son cousin as a rapist and generally putting the family through hell. He was campy too lol. I wish I could find a clip. Also the woman who plays Ice-T ex wife is a good actress. She played on The Practice and as the crackhead ho in Jackie Brown.

That was a good one, R26!

Anton Yelchin in L&O CI (Chris Noth) playing a kid in a Mary Kay Letourneau situation.

Edie Falco also was a recurring character as a public defender in the early seasons.

Hands down Alice Ghostley as the homicidal Mother Superior in the 2004 episode The Dead Can’t Testify, where she poses as a victims’ advocate and then poisons the already broken men particpating in a class action sexual abuse suit against the Catholic Church.

Richard Klein (Larry from Three’s Company) said that he wanted to die for real just to end the torment of staring into Ghostley’s visage, an utter void of morality, compassion, and humanity, looming over him as he lay on the floor mimicking the death throes induced by cyanide-infused herbal tea served by the actress.

Ice-T stated that he’d seen some brilliant performances from guest stars in his time on the show, singling out Ray Charles as a murderous musician picking off patrons of a gay piano lounge, but that no interrogation scene had left him so shaken, to the point of doubting the existence of God, before his face-off with an aged and frail but sadistically sinister Alice Ghostley.

There is no L&O episode with that title and Ghostley isn't credited with appearing on any version of the franchise.

R24, that is an especially good episode of L&O, in which Allison Janney played a good-hearted person trying to do right. Stone manipulates her and bullies her into testifying against a man who is involved in the Russian mob and she pays the price. It upsets DA Stone so much that he resigns. By the way, Victor Slezak was in a few other episodes of L&O, including playing a spiritual advisor in Family Business (S7 E8). That episode starred the woefully underused and underappreciated Anne Twomey.

Sorry r32, I got her mixed up with Helen Lawson.

Anne Twomey is always good. I remember the Law & Order episode Family Business (November 20, 1996) referenced in R13 where she is one of two daughters of a department store owner and suspects in his murder.

Roxanne Hart in Law & Order Happily Ever After (October 23, 1990). A woman has her husband shot to death in a garage. She is also shot to avoid implication.

Lucie Arnaz as a woman who uses hormones as an alibi for murder. Episode is titled BITCH.

Jim Gaffigan as the dad of an adopted family comprised of cognitively and physically disabled kids. "Reality Bites"

Sexy ass Michael Beach who is the sexiest black daddy bear ever guest starred as the attorney for a woman on trial of hiring someone to kill her husband because he kept gambling her money. Lisa Gay Hamilton, that is phenomenal actress’ name that I had mentioned above from The Practice and also plays Ice-T’s ex wife on SVU.

Larry Miller as Michael Dobson. He appeared as the same character in S5 "Coma" and S6 "Encore." He also appeared as himself in S13 '"Smoke" discussing comedian/pedophile suspect Monty Bender (Adam Ferrera).

Lauren Ambrose played a retard...

Lauren Ambrose also played Pablo Schreiber's loveslave attorney in the SVU arc where he kidnaps Oleebia.

[quote]r20 Amy Ryan is brilliant in two Law & Order Criminal Intents. Rocket Man as the wife of an astronaut and based on the diaper-wearing female NASA astronaut case. And Suite Sorrow as the dowdy daughter of a murdered Leona Helmsley-type hotel magnate.

I’m pleased you brought up Ryan. She’s such a good actress. I did a search and she’s been on the Law & Order shows five times over the years… (I just remember those last two episodes you mentioned, tho.)

——————

Law & Order - "Jurisdiction" (1993) as Amy / "Family Friend" (2006) as Valerie Messick

Law & Order: SVU - "Bad Blood" (2000) as Lorraine Hansen

Law & Order: CI - "Suite Sorrow" (2003) as Julie Turner / "Rocket Man" (2007) as Edie Nelson

Elaine Stritch won her first guest Emmy on Law & Order.

Patricia Clarkson

Stritch should have played a jaded, ruthless whorehouse madam.

R46. That would have been PHENOMENAL!

Dan Lauria from The Wonder Years played a Sandusky-esque coach on SVU. He was really good

Cybill Shepherd playing a racist Paula Deen type of celebrity chef.

Patti Lupone playing a ballbusting shrew.

Helen Lawson guested as a homeless woman who witnesses a murder. It was a small part but she was terrible in it.

R50. I heard about that. She said that Lucy in Stone Pillow was her inspiration but she blew that bitch out of the water.

From Law & Order: how about Chevy Chase as an actor who once starred on a sitcom, but is now a washed up former star who is also a drunk and racist? His son murders an agent (a Jewish agent), having learned his anti-semitism from Chevy.

Chevy's charcter does NOTHING to help his son during the trial.

Chevy's very good playing a spineless heel... how much of a stretch it is, I don't know, but he was excellent.

R31 I have no idea if the episode you describe is real, but I want to see it.

R45 oh yea from Season 1. One of the girls contracts HIV. season 1 is the best season hands down.

R31. Didn't Alice Ghostley lose the Guest Actress Emmy that year to Linda Lavin in a Joan of Arcadia episode? She was a whizzened Holocaust survivor in complete Slavic drag who learns how to lose her painful memories through song.

R52 Chevy plays a Mel Gibson inspired person. He even calls the female detective sugar tits.

Denis O'Leary played a killer off his meds. It was a searing performance I think right before Take Me Out.

Austin Pendelton in Law & Order Criminal Intent "Inert Dwarf" (November 21, 2004) as a wheelchair bound genius mathematician inspired by Stephen Hawking.

[quote]r58 Austin Pendelton in Law & Order Criminal Intent

We need a category of “Law & Order Royalty”: distinguished stage stars who were slumming a bit by doing the shows.

Did Uta Hagen ever appear? Frances Sternhagen? Nicol Williamson?

I would never descend to the level of guest starring on a Law and Order episode!

Tharah theemed thpecial even then.

[quote]r60 I would never descend to the level of guest starring on a Law and Order episode! —Academy Award Winner Jamie Lee Curtis

She would have made a great tranny hooker turned society wife, blackmailed over her hidden penis.

I guess there’s still time.

L&O SVU Shattered has Sharon Stone AND Isabelle Huppert.

Frances Sternhagen was on Law & Order twice.

and

Following up R48's post. Ed Asner in a season 14 episode "Monster's Legacy" also played a Sanduskyesque character. One of his victims was played by Mike Tyson. DL Fave Eve Plumb guests. It also marked the first appearance of Peter Scanavino, but he was not Carisi. He played "Johnny Dubcek", one of the victims.

Kyle MacLachlan was in two SVU episodes. Both episodes involved kids killing kids.

Mary Mara, who drowned in 2022, was on Law and Order three times: Right to Counsel (1993) - Killerz (1999) - Pure (2005)

I saw her onstage in “And Baby Makes Seven” and she was remarkable. She went to Yale School of Drama.

I remember she was also very funny in the Sandra Bullock movie “Love Potion No. 9”

I remember the episode Killerz. I recall Mary as the mother saying her 10 year old psycho daughter was her best friend.

Was she related to Rooney Mara?

I‘ve never heard that - tho it’s a good question.

Right before she died Lynn Redgrave was epic on an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent Folie a Deux (Season 8, Episode 7)

A child's kidnap is being investigated and Lynn is the highly miserable wealthy matriarch of the family involved. She was sensational as always.

I wonder how much big stars are paid for an appearance. Or do they do it for exposure?

The episode where Madonna plays the victim of a drug addicted plastic surgeon who also sells ketamine to celebrities. Matthew Perry played a celebrity hooked on that shit and won an Emmy for his life like performance. Madonna was slaughtered by critics for being too “plastic”

Is there a "L&O Matriarch Smackdown" to play here R72 and others?

You've got Lynn Redgrave on CI, but who would win the cage match? Lynn vs Sada Thompson from the episode Jeopardy (1995) or Redgrave vs Jane Alexander as Regina Mulroney, in Entitled, year 2000?

I think Regina Mulroney for the win... don't mess with those lace crutain Irish as Adam Schiff warned.

The great Kathleen Chalfant is in two Criminal Intents.

and

Julia Roberts had the worst guest appearance. It's like she forgot how to act.

R78. She was mesmerized by B. Bratt's peen.

I think Jennifer Garner was in that same episode ^^(the one with Julia and Benjamin)

R80, no, no,no. Garner was the co-ed Rey Curtis banged the day he, Lenny, Jack, and Claire went off to witness an execution. That's what almost ruined his marriage to Deborah.

Rey did not screw Julia's character in that two-parter... she wanted Rey to do her.

Jill Clayburgh was in one called Divorce as a divorce attorney who was meant to be a shark but dumb enough to get caught in a wire sting.

Mary Beth Hurt in Deceit.

R83, was that the one where her husband turned out to be a closet case?

Let's not forget Ian Somerhalder fucking his brother, Jason Ritter, on SVU.

R84 yes. closet cases do not end up well in this show. In Criminal Intents Suite Sorrow referenced in R20 Amy Ryan stabs her father Hal Linden when she learns he is having an affair with her fiancé.

Roy Scheider in Criminal Intents Endgame Roy is a serial killer on death row and revealed to be the father of Vincent D'Onofrio.

The episode where Meryl played a high end call girl but the episode never aired. The producers knew it was bad when audience kept laughing out loud at the thought people would pay big $$$ to sleep with HAGryl Streep.

R81 Thank you for the clarification.

Rudy Giuliani appeared in 2000.

R26 I remember that one but Whoopi was not believable when she supposedly fell for Chris Noth's interrogation to implicate herself. Plus her Korean wigs did not help.

Margaret Cho played a madam on an SVU episode. She did a really good job.

R90, bet they're wishing they could erase that episode!

R89, appreciate the post. BTW - while she wasn't famous or well-known when she was on L&O, Lauren Graham also wanted have sex with Rey. She really wanted him to do her - on her boat out in LA. Lauren was in the 2-part episode where Heidi Ellison, head of Mattawan Studios, was decapitated in the bedroom of here NY apt.

L&O:SVU used to have a number of bigger names as guest stars in mid-to-late 00's. At the same time, that was the period with the worst, trashiest scripts. Granted, some of those episodes are really camp, in spite of being bad.

I just watched the Megan Follows episode. She was excellent!

Pedro Pascal as a corrupt Agent being interrogated by Benson and Stabler: