Spotted: KL Actors in Other Roles

[Daniel Avery]

A long-running show like Knots Landing will usually have a long list of guest players. If they're lucky, they might end up taking a one-shot guest performance and turn it into something more, like a recurring player. Others might appear once or twice in a pivotal role, but their performance is so memorable that they may make a mark much larger than actors who appeared more often.

This afternoon I was watching two, back-to-back episodes of the sitcom Benson on FamilyNet, a cable channel that airs a lot of classic sitcoms. In the first, Laurence Haddon (infamous as Val's evil Dr. Ackerman) played an undercover officer trying to weed out corruption in their fictional state. Seeing him in this reminded me that he was a frequent guest star on many shows (even Dallas). Seeing him play comedy was an interesting switch, since Dr. Ackerman was one of the most humorless characters ever on KL. But in the very next episode, Benson has a lobbyist girlfriend played by Saundra Sharp, who played Dr. Ackerman's accomplice, Nurse Wilson on KL.
Oddly, the two actors did these guest spots back-to-back in 1981, several years before they worked together on Knots.

Rather than generate a thread just to share this entertaining coincidence (and give this thread the title "Before they Were Baby-Snatching Felons"), I thought others might share some of their experiences spotting KL actors in other roles, especially the supporting/featured actors who likely only thought of their Knots roles as one in a long line of performances.

Who else have you spotted, and where?

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I'm currently watching Cagney & Lacey, which has featured a good number of Knots players so far.

Tonight, I've just finished watching Disenfranchised, Joseph "Mark St. Claire" Chapman's third C&L episode (and third role). It did unnerve me to see him smile during the course of the episode. I didn't even know he could do that.

He wears the same glasses in everything I've ever seen him in. Unless I've watched him in other roles without them and not recognised him.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I always get a laugh off the first season's "Bottom of the Bottle," because Carolyn Conwell, the woman who played the over-the-hill hooker Gary was "caught" with at that cheap hotel, went on to play holier-than-thou Mary Williams on The Young and the Restless. Mary was the quintessential buttinsky who never, ever approved of the "loose women" her son often got involved with.

 

[Ome]

I'm currently going through the STAR TREK Universe and many actors from DALLAS, FALCON CREST, DYNASTY/COBYS have popped up in some unexpected places.

From KNOTS, I've spotted.


Jeff Cunningham

Joe Cooper

Paula Vertosick

Anne Matheson

 

[Ome]

Anne Matheson

Not forgetting Anne's tribute to STAR TREK

 

[Zach]

I'm currently watching L.A. Law and there are a lot of familiar faces including some who were on Knots.

Sam Behrens aka Danny Waleska

Bruce Fairbairn aka Ray Geary

Lew Ayres aka Andrew Douglas (and he's called Lorimar on L.A. Law )

 

[AbbyCunningham]

Grace Zabriskie- the woman who shot Karen in season 5, was Laura Palmer's mother on Twin Peaks. Countless times ive been watching shows and exclaim 'hey! its that person who played that character whos name I cant think of in Knots!!!!'.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Zabriskie also guest-starred in the final, two-part episode of Empty Nest that featured Laverne's wedding in her rural hometown. Luckily GZ did not whip out a gun and turn it into Moldavia.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Grace Zabriskie- the woman who shot Karen in season 5, was Laura Palmer's mother on Twin Peaks. Countless times ive been watching shows and exclaim 'hey! its that person who played that character whos name I cant think of in Knots!!!!'.

Zabriskie also guest-starred in the final, two-part episode of Empty Nest that featured Laverne's wedding in her rural hometown. Luckily GZ did not whip out a gun and turn it into Moldavia.

Grace was in a Cagney & Lacey I watched last week. It was her second role in the show. In the same episode was Stephen Macht who has a recurring role as David Keeler, Cagney's lover. In the same season, Cagney's brother is played by David Ackroyd, AKA Bill Medford.

Yet another of the men in Karen Fairgate's life also had a recurring role earlier in the show. Ronald Jason - the doctor who broke the news about Karen's bullet fragment drama played the irascible D.I. Maquette.

Other Knots actors spotted include Brian Dennehy, Bert Remsen and one of the Scooters.

 

[Ome]

Grace Zabriskie

She turned up in an episode of FALCON CREST that I've watched recently.

 

[hatayas]

Okay, I wonder if anyone else has ever noticed it or knows something about it, for I don't recall anyone mentioning it.
I've watched Home Alone 2 a few weeks ago and there was the part where Kevin was watching an old movie where the man talks to a lady then later on shoots her. I'm almost positive that the woman is Lar Park Lincoln who played Linda. I searched the credits and couldn't find her name there, but again, prettey sure that was her. Has anyone else seen it?

 

[hatayas]

Here's the clip

 

[AbbyCunningham]

Grace was in a Cagney & Lacey I watched last week. It was her second role in the show. In the same episode was Stephen Macht who has a recurring role as David Keeler, Cagney's lover. In the same season, Cagney's brother is played by David Ackroyd, AKA Bill Medford.

Yet another of the men in Karen Fairgate's life also had a recurring role earlier in the show. Ronald Jason - the doctor who broke the news about Karen's bullet fragment drama played the irascible D.I. Maquette.

Other Knots actors spotted include Brian Dennehy, Bert Remsen and one of the Scooters.

All the things I've seen her in, and she will always be 'lady with the clunky blonde highlight that shot Karen'

 

[Seaviewer]

Grace was in a Cagney & Lacey I watched last week. It was her second role in the show. In the same episode was Stephen Macht who has a recurring role as David Keeler, Cagney's lover. In the same season, Cagney's brother is played by David Ackroyd, AKA Bill Medford.

Yet another of the men in Karen Fairgate's life also had a recurring role earlier in the show. Ronald Jason - the doctor who broke the news about Karen's bullet fragment drama played the irascible D.I. Maquette.

Other Knots actors spotted include Brian Dennehy, Bert Remsen and one of the Scooters.

The ultimate C&L appearance would have to be Joe Regalbuto who actually plays a character called Harry Fisher.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

The ultimate C&L appearance would have to be Joe Regalbuto who actually plays a character called Harry Fisher.

Oh my. That is something to look forward to. According to IMDb I'm about eight episodes away from it.

 

[Ome]

Grace Zabriskie- the woman who shot Karen in season 5, was Laura Palmer's mother on Twin Peaks.

Another TWIN PEAKS actor (Leland Palmer) Ray Wise just turned up in another Star Trek series.

I've since learned that he appeared in 5 episodes of Knots playing The Dealer in episodes

- Bouncing Babies (1988) ... The Dealer
- Lawfully Wedded (1988) ... The Dealer
- In Too Deep (1988) ... The Dealer
- If Not Now, When? (1988) ... The Dealer
- Another Modest Proposal (1988) ... The Dealer

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I've since learned that he appeared in 5 episodes of Knots playing The Dealer in episodes

I remember spotting him when Knots first aired here. The main reason I took notice was because his Knots episodes aired here circa 1991 - after I'd watched him on Twin Peaks.

 

[Seaviewer]

I remember spotting him when Knots first aired here. The main reason I took notice was because his Knots episodes aired here circa 1991 - after I'd watched him on Twin Peaks.

 

[Daniel Avery]

The Jeffersons is one of my favorite 1970s sitcoms. As many of you might know, it was a spin-off of All In the Family. I happened upon a key rerun of Family today, the episode where we met many of the characters who would end up on The Jeffersons. The interesting part is that very few of the Jeffersons characters were being played by the actors who ended up in the series. Most notable (for this thread anyway) is that Lynne Moody (KL's Patricia Williams) was playing Lionel's fiancée Jenny Willis, a role that I thought had never been played by anyone other than Berlinda Tolbert.

 

[Seaviewer]

After a false start a few weeks ago, Code Black is now being screened her as a summer fill-in for Grey's Anatomy.

William Allen Young (who had a small role in Knots's final season) is a series regular and one of this week's episodes featured Daniel (Treadwell) Gerroll as the overbearing father of one of the main characters.