The Major Stars You Never Knew Were On Miami Vice
Miami Vice was the “it” show of the 80s, and while it had its share of major stars make appearances, it was also filled with major stars before they were famous. The show made household names out of Don Johnson as Sonny Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo Tubbs, but it was only a small stepping stone for all of these major names. Most of the stars had only made a few appearances prior to their guest spot, which just proves you never know who’s going to make it in Hollywood.
Chris Rock
Before his stand-up career took off, and before even New Jack City, Chris Rock made his third-ever television appearance in the Miami Vice Season 4 episode, “Missing Hours,” as a police records clerk. He played Carson, a UFO enthusiast active on computer bulletin boards, who gets wrapped up in the investigation as Crockett and Tubbs deal with a government conspiracy.
Yes, Chris Rock, the trail-blazing stand-up, started his career playing a nerdy tech guy.
Julia Roberts
Julia Roberts became a massive star thanks to Pretty Woman, but that was in 1990. In 1988, in her fifth credited appearance ever, the future megastar was Polly Wheeler in Season 4 Episode 22 of Miami Vice, “Mirror Image.” The assistant to a drug lord, Polly, becomes enamored with Sonny Crockett and shows him a little too much of her boss’s operation.
You never know who’s going to become a major star in the future, as Roberts’ role is a standard type in most procedurals, but she might have had the most successful career of everyone on this list.
Liam Neeson
One of the most surprising guest stars came in the Miami Vice Season 3 premiere “When Irish Eyes Are Crying,” which was already notable for being the first with Dick Wolf as the showrunner instead of Michael Mann, but it also included Liam Neeson. The Taken star was eight years into his career but still mainly sticking to guest roles, as he was years away from breaking out in Schindler’s List.
In his lone Miami Vice appearance, Liam Neeson is, of course, an IRA terrorist plotting to strike at the British arriving at Miami’s airport. Liam Neeson got to flex his acting chops as a straight-up villain and modern fans of his can marvel at what he looked like when he was young(er).
Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter is known today for her work with her ex-husband, Tim Burton, and the Harry Potter franchise, but before she was Bellatrix Lestrange, she was Dr. Theresa Lyons, one of Sonny Crockett’s many love interests. Appearing in back-to-back Miami Vice Season 3 episodes, “Duty and Honor” and “Theresa,” Dr. Lyons was a secret drug addict who sold out the Miami Police to her dealer.
Crockett and Dr. Lyons don’t end up together, even though he was fully prepared to propose to her, just one of the many relationships that end tragically for the beleaguered undercover officer.
Bruce Willis
Legendary action star Bruce Willis first rose to fame in the 80s on Moonlighting, the prototypical “will they or won’t they” procedural, but one year before his breakout series premiered, he was in the seventh episode of Miami Vice’s first season. Playing international gun runner Tony Amato, Willis gets to be the type of villain he’d spend two decades taking down in movies.
As with most villains, Amato only makes one appearance due to a horrible case of lead poisoning, but thanks to Bruce Willis, he was one of the most memorable throughout the show’s run. Willis has the distinction of having one of his songs, “Respect Yourself,” featured on the show as well.
Wesley Snipes
Another 90s action star, Wesley Snipes, made his very first television appearance in Miami Vice Season 3 Episode 10, “Streetwise.” Snipes plays Silk, a low-level thug involved in cocaine dealing. A few years later, he’d play a similar character, but much smarter, and far higher up the food chain in New Jack City alongside Chris Rock.
As Silk though, he was another in a line of colorful villains that went up against Crockett and Tubbs and fatally underestimated the resourcefulness of Miami’s best.
Viggo Mortensen
Aragorn made it out of the Lord of the Rings trilogy in one piece, but decades earlier, in his fifth television role, Viggo Mortensen played the doomed Detective Eddie Trumbull, and he left Miami Vice in pieces. Season 3 Episode 19, “Red Tape,” was an explosive one when the junior detective tried to lead Crockett and Tubbs into a hotel room but triggered a booby trap in the process.
It was a very short, small role at the start of the episode, but Mortensen would go on to great things later. Who would have guessed that the random Miami-Dade officer would star in one of the most successful trilogies in history?
Ben Stiller
Another famous star who made his fifth television appearance in Miami Vice, Ben Stiller, is at least playing a role similar to those that made him famous: Fast Eddie, a mall hustler. “Amen….Send Money” aired as the second episode of Season 4, and Fast Eddie was a low-level cog in the organization of the corrupt Reverand Bill Bob Proverb that Crockett and Tubbs rough up a little to get information. It’s a small role, but since Fas tEddie is now hawking religious merchandise, it’s absurd enough to be memorable.
Ben Stiller would go on to find his calling in rom-coms and absurd comedies, including Zoolander and Dodgeball, leaving behind his start in 80s procedurals, but retaining his sense of wicked comedic timing.
Ed O’Neill
Future sitcom legend Ed O’Neill would shoot to fame as Al Bundy on Married with Children, and then did it again on Modern Family, but he also set a standard for Miami Vice guest stars with his role in the second episode of the series, “Heart of Darkness.” Airing one week after the groundbreaking pilot episode, this was the one that helped solidify the show’s tone and style, which O’Neill did as the double-crossing FBI agent Arthur Lawson.
Lawson gets in too deep within a criminal organization, and Lawson goes AWOL, which serves as a cautionary tale of what could happen to Crockett and Tubbs if they ever go too far into their undercover roles.
