I’m not sure how many of you saw the season premiere of Law & Order: SVU last night, but wow, guest star Cynthia Nixon (pictured, right, with B.D. Wong and Bronson Pinchot) sure cooked up a big batch of crazy as a woman (Spoiler alert!) pretending to suffer from multiple-personality disorder to get away with her parents’ murder. Seeing her rock a convincing Russian accent and a pair of pigtails all in one episode made me realize just how much I miss seeing the red-headed firecracker on my TV screen every week.
But watching Nixon’s insanely — pun intended — good performance in the premiere made me wonder: What was the best guest star appearance over the course of Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Law & Order: SVU’s combined 34 seasons? The first that comes to my mind is Martin Short’s in a 2005 SVU episode featuring the comedian as a creepy, all-too-eager "psychic" offering the detectives a hand in a kidnapping case. And though I usually have a hard time watching Criminal Intent (I can’t seem to shake the image of Vincent D’Onofrio as Men in Black’s sugar-water-seeking alien and Adventures in Babysitting’s Thor), Michael Emerson’s stand-off with D’Onofrio’s Detective Goren in a 2001 episode had me on the edge of my seat.
Your turn, PopWatchers: Who’s the champ of cha-chung? Who takes the prize as L&O’s all-time best guest star?
Comments (1-30) of 78 Add your comment
Chad Lowe on SVU was one of the best and creepiest performances. The image of him in bed with Margot Kidder stays with you for quite some time.
I too got the creeps from Martin Short on SVU but CI has had some great guest stars Olivia D’abo Roy Scheider & Rita Moreno
Kal Pen as the janitor son in a family full of doctors and lawyers. He was totally creepy. And totally awesome.
Ellen Pompeo had two guest starring roles througout “Law and Order” and she was phenomenal in both of them especially in the episode “Fool for Love” where she played Laura Kendrick , inspired on Karla Homolka . ” SPOILER” The scene where she reveals to the court how she helped to kill her sister is a tour de force of acting expertise .
Frances Fisher, as an obsessed (and nutso) woman will forever be my fave guest spot. Look it up! Delusional love never looked so fine!
The elegant and stunning Leslie Caron on SVU (just won the Emmy!). Now that is what it means to age gracefully. And such an amazing performance. And Lynda Carter on SVU. She is also still stunning without tons of plastic surgery. What a thrill to see her act again and she was great. Tracy Pollan was so powerful in two episodes as a rape survivor. Loved Alfred Molina and Angela Lansbury as mother and son. Two of my favorite actors!
Isn’t that the exact plot of Primal Fear?
I’d have to go with Lindsay Crouse and John Heard from the origina L&O. Fantastic, underused actors in a great storyline. Lauren Ambrose is a close second.
Allison Janney on Michael Moriarty’s last ep of the original. Heartbreaking as a reluctant witness.
Martin Short sticks out the most to me, but I don’t know that he was the “best.”
Michael Gross….wow was Mr. Keaton creepy in his appearances on the show.
I agree that Ellen Pompeo was completely insane and such a good (crazy) episode. But Martin Short scared the living daylights out of me on SVU. I had to sleep with the lights on the night after I watched it. (Shudder)
I know it’s recent, but I thought Ludacris was surprisingly very, very good on SVU last season (I believe).
Cynthia Nixon was too unintentionally funny for me to call a truly great performance. As far as unintentional comedy, I liked Chevy Chase doing his Mel Gibson impersonation on Law & Order: Original Flava the best.
Stephen Colbert pre Colbert Report was actually pretty creepy as a handwriting specialist killer on Criminal Intent
Liza Minnelli as the mother of the murdered child actress on criminal intent was really good. I believe Matthew Modine was on SVU as a child murderer which was really good as well.
I only watch SVU but I thought Holly Hunter was amazing. Dean Cain as well.
My favorites are when they use an actor in a guest roll and then they show up as a main, and completely seperate character. For example, the actess who plays the female african-american boss was also the mom of victim in a previous season. I also think Jerry Orback was a lawyer on the show before he was ever a cop.
o.k. I love, LOVE stephen colbert, but I kept thinking he was going to do a “threat down” or a “wag of the finger” during his guest spot.
I’ve got to say Burt Young’s portrayal as a rapist on a stand-out mid-`90’s L&O (Original Flavor) was intense and gripping. McCoy went all out to nail him at the point of having to, as DA Adam Schiff put it, “going through a sewer to catch a rat.” The resulting squeeze, as done by Briscoe and Curtis, pushed the Burt Young character into becoming a desperate animal.
James Urbaniak in the Criminal Intent episode where he was a last-minute fill-in for Andrew McCarthy. Jay O. Sanders as the psycho dad on the original L&O.
Also, there was an episode of CI last season where Bill O’Brien played a police officer who was also an ASL interpreter which was very effective, to the point where it felt like they were testing him out as a recurring character.
Abriel, you were right, Orback did play a lawyer b4 his permanent role. S. Epatha played the mother of a young boy who was shot b/c the young shooter couldn’t read the address.
I’ve watched too much L&O all shows but the best ones were when guys & gals played against their usual roles: John Ritter (RIP) as the nutso doc who killed the wife & unborn son. Henry Winkler as the con artist. Martin Short, man he was such a surprise as the killer. Acting was awesome! Olivia D’Abo as Bobby’s nemesis on CI. I’m sure I’ll be back to read more and add a couple more.
SVU’s season premiere last night was awesome. Gotta love Chris and Mariska!! Cynthia Nixon gave a truly memorable performance (Emmy, anyone!?) but I’ve also loved Martin Short and Dean Cain on SVU. I didn’t even think of Superman once while I was watching Dean, and I was a huge Lois & Clark fan when it was on! I wish they would have him back!
ludacris on svu was awesome. he nearly took down the entire dept and brought up stuff that occurred during the original L&O. stephen colbert on ci was good as well.my personal favorite was david keith on svu as retired det.hawk investigating a serial killer/rapist who was captured but released later. keith performance was so good i was disappointed when i found out it wasnt a possible spinoff.
This isn’t a “tour de force” or anything, I just love the episode. The second Larry Miller episode. He’d already been on once for killing his wife, and then they got him back to play the same character having killed wife #2, and moving towards wife #3. Larry Miller’s awesome (he’s just so smarmy seeing as he gets arrested by the same cops who failed to put him away the first time), the episode is awesome, and the Mexican flunky who “shoulda stayed in Oaxaca” is awesome.
Bobby Cannavale
i don’t know if i would say he was the best, but I really enjoyed Mathew Modine when he was on SVU
OK, now how about some of the worst “star” performances? Two words: Julia. Roberts.
Sorry, not the place for this, I know – but why is the PW univerise pretending Boston Legal didn’t make a triumphant return to our televisions last night?
Marcia Gay Harden on SVU as a white supremacist/undercover FBI agent was pretty awesome…
I always enjoyed Olivia d’Abo as Nicole Wallace/Elizabeth Hitchens, who frequently played Professor Moriarty to Detective Goren’s Sherlock Holmes on “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.”
Not bad for a former “Wonder Years” cutie!