Ever get that feeling that some actors show up every season on some show or other that you’re watching? Sort of like that movie season where Jude Law was in every third movie. Or that period of time when Gene Hackman really WAS in every third movie. Or how Tom Bergeron hosts every third reality show.
Ken Levine cited Sonya Walger and Kim Raver; I don’t happen to be in Ms. Walger’s sphere of influence, but yeah, I think of Ms. Raver as that person on 24, yet here she is doing a stint on Grey’s Anatomy. I could have sworn that there are other working actors in Hollywood, most of them not working at all in their chosen profession; I speak of “Hollywood” generically, not geographically.
It’s not quite as pervasive, but I think that way about Jessalyn Gilsig. She plays Terri Schuester, the glee club teacher’s wife, on Glee, but wasn’t she doing Heroes and Nip/Tuck at the same time? I know her best as a teacher in the early seasons of Boston Public, and a cop in the later seasons of NYPD Blue.
Then there’s Julie Bowen, who is now on Modern Family, and I first noticed on Ed, but seemed to show up on Boston Legal, Weeds and Lost interchangeably. And I just saw her on JEOPARDY! to boot.
I was watching Glee recently, and noticed that on that particular episode, there were two NYPD Blue alums, though they did not share a scene. Charlotte Ross, who was bad seed Eve on Days of Our Lives when I was actually watching DOOL, is now old enough to play the mom of the pregnant cheerleader on Glee. This somehow makes me feel old.
Any actors showing up a lot on the shows you watch?
ROG
