11 TV Stars Who Appeared on ‘Cagney & Lacey,’ Now 40 Years Old
You TV buffs already know some of the cast of Cagney & Lacey. Before Sharon Gless got a Burn Notice and Tyne Daly started Judging Amy, the actresses played NYPD detectives Cagney and Lacey in the ’80s CBS cop drama. (In fact, the duo dominated the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Emmy category for six years in a row, with Gless winning two trophies and Daly winning four.)
The supporting cast, meanwhile, included Alias’ Carl Lumbly and Cobra Kai’s Martin Kove, while Pretty Little Liars’ Meg Foster portrayed Cagney in Season 1 before Gless replaced her.
But the guest-starring cast of the show — which celebrates its 40th anniversary on March 25 — was filled with future TV stars, including familiar faces from the Breaking Bad and NCIS franchises.
Bill Pullman
Pullman, who just wrapped a four-season run on The Sinner as detective Harry Ambrose, marked his first onscreen role playing Dr. Giordano in Season 5’s “A Safe Place”—and the actor wore his doctor dad’s shoes for the part!
Estelle Getty
The year before this late actress started playing Sophia Petrillo on Golden Girls (“Picture it, Sicily, 1912…”), she guest-starred in the Season 3 episode “Baby Broker,” playing Mrs. Rosenmeyer.
Dan Lauria
Before he starred as patriarch Jack Arnold on The Wonder Years, Laurie recurred on Cagney & Lacey as Harry Dupnik, a Queens detective who had Lacey in custody in the Season 6 episode “Special Treatment.”
Jonathan Banks
Long before starring as fixer Mike Ehrmantraut on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, Banks played paroled murderer Keith Edsin in C&L’s fourth-season episode “Old Debts.”
Raymond Cruz
Cruz, who played Tuco on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul but also starred as Julio Sanchez on The Closer, was credited as Raymond Garcia when he portrayed Alonzo in the seventh-season episode “Land of the Free.”
James Avery
The late portrayer of Uncle Philip Banks on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air played Mr. Berwin, a school principal, in Cagney & Lacey’s Season 4 two-parter “Who Says It’s Fair.”
Doris Roberts
This late actress, best known for playing matriarch Marie Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond, portrayed two characters on Cagney & Lacey: Helen Freitas in Season 2’s “Jane Doe #37” and Ida Kankel in Season 7’s “School Daze.”
Conchata Ferrell
The late Emmy-nominated actress behind housekeeper Berta on Two and a Half Men played Charlene in Cagney & Lacey’s second-season installment “High Steel.”
Miguel Ferrer
Another dearly-departed actor—one famous for playing medical examiner Garret Macy in Crossing Jordan and assistant director Owen Granger in NCIS: Los Angeles—guest-starred as Nunzio, a “junkie with a record,” in Season 3’s “Choices.”
CCH Pounder
Soon to be seen as Mrs. Higgler in Anansi Boys, this alum of The Shield and NCIS: New Orleans guest-starred as Timmons in Season 6’s “Disenfranchised.”
Forest Whitaker
Whitaker, who starred as real-life crime boss Bumpy Johnson in Godfather of Harlem, appeared as a night manager in the second-season Cagney & Lacey episode “The Grandest Jewel Thief of Them All.”
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