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Twitter was stunned to discover how many famous friends Sonny and Rico had.
Everyone knows Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas played James "Sonny" Crockett and Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs... but did you know just how many famous celebs they were up against?
Twitter certainly didn't as "Miami Vice" trended high on Tuesday night, after one user posted an amazing thread of A-Listers on the show "before they were famous."
Who could forget when 20-year-old Julia Roberts played art gallery manager/drug dealer's assistant with a penchant for bad boys, Polly Wheeler? Or when a 22-year-old Ben Stiller starred as small-time con Fast Eddie Felcher, in what was his third ever acting gig?
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View StoryA lot of people it seems.
And it wasn't just actors either — many famous musicians got in on the act(ing) too! Check out the terrific list below for appearances by Phil Collins, Willie Nelson, Frank Zappa, Leonard Cohen and even James Brown!
Al Bundy as a Miami Vice Coke Dealer (1984) pic.twitter.com/Ql6Vrk5UWa
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021 @DannyDutch
Bruce Willis playing arms dealer extraordinaire Tony Amato in Miami Vice’s first season.
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021 @DannyDutch
Four months later, he was trading barbs with Cybill Shepherd as P.I. David Addison in Moonlighting pic.twitter.com/w9NClkIizv
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 @DannyDutch
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 @DannyDutch
Here we have Ben Stiller playing a small-time con named Fast Eddie Felcher in season 4 episode 2.
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021 @DannyDutch
Miami Vice was his third acting gig. pic.twitter.com/KIoVxwwqgr
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 @DannyDutch
Nelson plays a semi-bad guy who takes the law into his own hands before biting the dust at the end of the show. pic.twitter.com/7cW8MZAji9
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021 @DannyDutch
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 @DannyDutch
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 @DannyDutch
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 @DannyDutch
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View StoryIn 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 @DannyDutch
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 @DannyDutch
Stanley Tucci with hair (ish) appeared in season 3 of Miami Vice as crime lord Frank Mosca.
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021 @DannyDutch
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
In season 3 Sonny Crockett is in love. And with a lovely young ER doctor named Theresa Lyons, played by Helena Bonham Carter.
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021 @DannyDutch
There’s just one problem: she also happens to be a heroin addict, which causes a bit of friction in the relationship pic.twitter.com/FrabMIFHhP
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.
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021 @DannyDutch
Turns out that Larry is one of the guys behind it!! 😱 pic.twitter.com/RTTBVN44a3
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.
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021 @DannyDutch
1980’s tv was insane. pic.twitter.com/S4fur7Q3Ur
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 @DannyDutch
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 @DannyDutch
Miami Vice wasn't above using the same actor twice in different roles (see Stanley Tucci further up the thread)
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021 @DannyDutch
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
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 @DannyDutch
In 1987 Ian McShane appeared Season 3's "Knock, Knock... Who's There?" with an amazing Latino accent.
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021 @DannyDutch
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
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View StorySeason 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 @DannyDutch
This is where it starts to get REALLY surreal.
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021 @DannyDutch
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
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 @DannyDutch
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 @DannyDutch
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 @DannyDutch
Unpause!
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021 @DannyDutch
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
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 ".
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021 @DannyDutch
She also kicked ass a lot. pic.twitter.com/VPW5jRA8zL
Episode 2 from season 3 featured a blurry eyed John Taylor from @duranduran.
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021 @DannyDutch
Weapons were being supplied to unnamed fighters in an unnamed Central American country, the squad have to go and sort it out.
(This episode is definitely NOT about the Contras) pic.twitter.com/P9jMuNZZD0
In season 4 @theharryshearer makes an appearance. The squad is on the trail of a stolen canister containing priceless semen of a prized bull called Gargantua. A dangerous Cuban spy is also after the canister, but why?.... pic.twitter.com/nb1CLsdusq
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021 @DannyDutch
Penn Jillette played Jimmy Borges, Newton Windsor Blade's NY buddy and coke dealer in Season 2 premiere "The Prodigal Son". Sacco's men caught up with poor Jimmy in his NYC loft after he helped Crockett and Tubbs try to unload their stolen product. pic.twitter.com/2zaewSQ4sO
— Ralphy Malenga Esq🐋 (@arcey_p) August 5, 2021 @arcey_p
Alamy
