If you’re in the mood for something a little lighter, then this is the thread for you.
Check out all these celebrities who once guest-starred on “Miami Vice.”
Ed O’Neill:
Al Bundy as a Miami Vice Coke Dealer (1984) pic.twitter.com/Ql6Vrk5UWa
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
Bruce Willis:
Bruce Willis playing arms dealer extraordinaire Tony Amato in Miami Vice’s first season.
Four months later, he was trading barbs with Cybill Shepherd as P.I. David Addison in Moonlighting pic.twitter.com/w9NClkIizv— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
Julia Roberts:
Season 4 is when Julia Roberts made an appearance as Polly Wheeler, an art gallery manager/drug dealer’s assistant with a penchant for bad boys. And Sonny is just her type. pic.twitter.com/sZ0XOAoMjl
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
Chris Rock:
Season 4, Chris Rock plays an eager young records clerk who the squad tasks with researching UFOs and aliens, as you do…. pic.twitter.com/1vtfvyPxfG
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
Ben Stiller:
Here we have Ben Stiller playing a small-time con named Fast Eddie Felcher in season 4 episode 2.
Miami Vice was his third acting gig. pic.twitter.com/KIoVxwwqgr— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
Steve Buscemi:
In season 3 Steve Buscemi was the middleman for a Bolivian drug lord who sort of got his ass kicked by Willie Nelson. (Yes that Willie Nelson) pic.twitter.com/Ti1oposV39
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
Willie Nelson:
In season 3 Steve Buscemi was the middleman for a Bolivian drug lord who sort of got his ass kicked by Willie Nelson. (Yes that Willie Nelson) pic.twitter.com/Ti1oposV39
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
Phil Collins:
Phil Collins even turned up in Miami Vice to play game show host/con man Phil “The Shill” Mayhew, who moved to Miami from London and quickly set about depleting the bank accounts of the city’s richest residents with a shady drug deal. pic.twitter.com/3C4ZsMs43l
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
Benicio del Toro:
Benicio del Toro at around 20 had a bit part on Miami Vice in 1987 as Pito, an ex-con-turned-thespian with a local theater group, Mi Vida Loca. pic.twitter.com/E24kJSxfNg
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
Viggo Mortensen and Lou Diamond Philips:
In season 3 Viggo Mortensen partnered up with Lou Diamond Phillips to play two junior detectives working a case with Crockett and Tubbs. But when a deal goes bad and Viggo is killed, his partner becomes convinced that Tubbs is dirty. pic.twitter.com/A6DKnaK22g
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
Liam Neeson:
In its 3rd season, “When Irish Eyes Are Crying,” Detective Gina Calabrese (Saundra Santiago) falls for an Irish philanthropist—played by Liam Neeson—who turns out to be a former IRA member and current terrorist. pic.twitter.com/tVnjUxRl65
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
Michael Richards:
For the Seinfeld fans Michael (Cosmo Kramer) Richards turns up in season 2 playing a sleazy bookie. #GiddyUp pic.twitter.com/VqWsQkOVpv
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
Stanley Tucci:
Stanley Tucci with hair (ish) appeared in season 3 of Miami Vice as crime lord Frank Mosca.
He’d appeared previously on the show as the adoptive father of a smuggled baby and that went so well they asked him back to be a bad guy. pic.twitter.com/hmMXv4n7kw— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
Helena Bonham Carter:
Back when he was still going by Larry, Laurence Fishburne played a prison guard sizing up Tubbs, who was sent to the clink undercover in order to bust up an in-house drug operation.
Turns out that Larry is one of the guys behind it!! 😱 pic.twitter.com/RTTBVN44a3
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
Laurence Fishburne:
Back when he was still going by Larry, Laurence Fishburne played a prison guard sizing up Tubbs, who was sent to the clink undercover in order to bust up an in-house drug operation.
Turns out that Larry is one of the guys behind it!! 😱 pic.twitter.com/RTTBVN44a3
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
John Turturro:
While the men are out busting up drug deals, the ladies of Miami Vice can usually be found in hooker attire, working undercover as prostitutes. So it’s only befitting that the show would feature a few pimps in its time, John Turturro among them.
1980’s tv was insane. pic.twitter.com/S4fur7Q3Ur— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
Bill Paxton:
If there’s one thing an undercover cop should never do, it’s fall in love with a prostitute. Which is exactly what Bill Paxton, as Vic Romano, does. Much to the dismay of a pimp named Silk, played by Wesley Snipes pic.twitter.com/DgiXT0fYyj
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
Michael Madsen:
Season one had Michael Madsen playing tougher-than-his-name-makes-him-sound drug dealer Sally Alvarado, with Terry O’Quinn (a.k.a. John Locke from Lost) as his lawyer pic.twitter.com/9wcP1EbpJI
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
Ving Rhames:
Miami Vice wasn't above using the same actor twice in different roles (see Stanley Tucci further up the thread)
This worked out to the benefit of Ving Rhames who plays a hapless man held hostage, and then went on to play a hardened criminal with a BRILLIANT flat-top. pic.twitter.com/xvRtzbe3Mm
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
Ron Pearlman:
Ron Pearlman pops up as the commissioner of prisons on the Miami Vice episode "Walk-Alone." In his position, he asks the Vice team to get a man inside the prison for an undercover sting. pic.twitter.com/sLaUWvJR0I
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
Ian McShane:
In 1987 Ian McShane appeared Season 3's "Knock, Knock… Who's There?" with an amazing Latino accent.
He later played a General/dictator who plans on leaving his country, betraying the drug dealers who funded his rise to power.
Crockett & Tubbs are tasked to keep him alive! pic.twitter.com/JMX0AO6lxj— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
Little Richard:
Season 2, Episode 4 (“Out Where the Buses Don’t Run”) gives us Little Richard as Reverend Marvelle Quinn preaching an anti-drug sentiment and sending his disciples out to spread the word on the streets of South Beach. pic.twitter.com/H44lGfI296
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
Leonard Cohen:
This is where it starts to get REALLY surreal.
Leonard Cohen appears Season 2, (“French Twist”)
Initially the plan was for Cohen to portray the main villain but his role was cut to two phone conversations totalling a minute and a half.Cohen as a villain? Yes please! pic.twitter.com/4abzhM1q9e
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
James Brown:
Combine the hardest working man in showbiz with a government conspiracy and a touch of the paranormal and you’ll get probably the show’s strangest guest appearance, you'll also get James Brown in Season 4, Episode 7 (“Missing Hours”) pic.twitter.com/hXcvb2ZwBj
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
Miles Davis:
In this 1986 episode, Miles Davis played brothel owner “Ivory Jones” who cooperated with Crockett and Tubbs to help corner their man. Gun fights ensued. pic.twitter.com/fRlCcBVXuH
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
Frank Zappa:
Frank Zappa was known for many things but acting wasn’t really one of them. That’s why it was such a surprise to see him on Miami Vice. Here he plays an intimidatingly persistent character hell-bent on recovering a large sum of money. pic.twitter.com/1t41j61VoM
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
Gene Simmons:
Unpause!
In 1986 Miami Vice fan Gene Simmons appears as Newton Windsor Blade, a drug dealer, known as the "Sears and Roebuck" of controlled substances. Crockett tried to bust Blade for three years but never was able to catch Blade and the drugs in the same place at the same time pic.twitter.com/Qp902UNbvY
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
Pam Grier:
Pam Grier had a reoccurring role (rightfully so) as Valerie Gordon, a NYPD Detective and on-again, off-again love interest for Tubbs in the episodes " Rites of Passage", " The Prodigal Son ", and " Too Much, Too Late ".
She also kicked ass a lot. pic.twitter.com/VPW5jRA8zL— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
And, we assume, he’ll keep going. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming. . .
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