Actors You Forgot Guest Starred In Murder, She Wrote

Angela Lansbury is a stage and screen legend. Her most enduring, long-lived role is still that of the intrepid crime solving mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher from "Murder, She Wrote." The hit mystery series ran from 1984 until 1996 and was usually centered around Jessica and her community in the town of Cabot Cove, Maine — although over the course of the show's run, many episodes took place in New York City and occasionally other metropolitan areas. 

Over its 12 season run, "Murder, She Wrote" brought in a new cast of supporting characters every episode, leading to dozens of incredible cameos. Guest stars were extremely popular in '80s and '90s procedurals and in the episodes of "Murder, She Wrote" you can see a variety of great actors making appearances during, and sometimes well before, their prime. You might not have forgotten the "Magnum P.I" crossover episode with Tom Selleck, but these guest stars might not be so clear in your mind. Let's jog the old brain a bit with a trip down memory lane with the best guest stars of "Murder, She Wrote."

Before "Breaking Bad," heck even before "Malcolm in the Middle," Bryan Cranston could be seen as a guest star all over late '80s and 1990's television. He made frequent guest appearances in "Seinfeld," but almost 10 years before that the actor took on a role as a guest in "Murder, She Wrote."

Cranston appeared in the second season episode "Menace, Anyone?" The episode aired in 1986 and Cranston wasn't the only guest that you might recognize from that hour of TV. Linda Hamilton also showed up as a guest early in her career. This was only two years after her breakthrough role as Sarah Connor in "The Terminator."

The two played a charming, socialite couple who, of course, were stricken by a bad case of... what else, murder. Hamilton plays Carol McDermott, a young friend of Jessica's and Cranston is her fiancé. When his character is killed in a car explosion, Carol becomes the key suspect that Jessica must defend until she discovers the real killer.

While George Clooney doesn't do as much acting work these days, he still is one of the most famous actors of the generation. To explain how he guest-starred on "Murder, She Wrote" in 1987, we have to go way back. Before Clooney was the star of the big screen, he was an '80s TV icon. "ER" and "The Facts of Life" introduced America's newest heartthrob and soon his TV career was thriving.

In the same year that saw Clooney guesting in "The Golden Girls," he appeared on "Murder, She Wrote" Season 3 episode "No Laughing Murder." In this adventure, Jessica is invited to the engagement party of Kip Howard, played by Clooney. Howard and his fiancee are the offspring of two once celebrated comedians, Mack Howard and Murray Gruen. Their feuding led to the two disbanding and future tragedy. When Murray accuses Mack of theft at the dinner, and then winds up not hours later with a knife in his back, Clooney's character becomes a potential suspect. 

Fun fact: Clooney also appeared in a super minor role as a waiter in a season one episode of the show.

Nananana nananana, nananana nananana Guest Star! That's right, the 1960s Batman himself made a guest appearance early in the run of "Murder, She Wrote." From one film legend to another, Adam West joined Angela Lansbury in the Season 3 episode "Death Takes a Dive" and he wasn't the only name you may recognize from the credits.

In this rare Boston-based episode, West plays the character that ultimately becomes the victim. Wade Talmadge (West) is the manager of prize fighting champion Sean Shaleen. The pair's upcoming fight is mired in controversy and eventually leads to crime. Instead of the fighter taking a dive, though, it is the manager who is found dead.

Adam West isn't the only famous actor who appeared in "Death Takes a Dive." Jessica is brought to Boston by her friend detective Harry Graw, who is played by Jerry Orbach of "Law and Order" fame. Circumstantial evidence leads to Harry being accused of Talmadge's murder and it is up to Jessica to discover the truth.

Jerry Stiller was a lot of things. He was the father of Ben Stiller and an accomplished comedian in his own right. But to many viewers in the age of '90s television he was George's father Frank Costanza on "Seinfeld." After leaving multiple comedic legacies in his wake, Stiller passed away in 2020. 

In 1989, Stiller made a guest appearance on a "Murder, She Wrote" episode entitled "When the Fat Lady Sings." For this Season 6 outing, Jessica takes a plane across the country to San Francisco in order to spend a night out at the opera. Of course, a scandalous murder ensues and the famed opera singer is killed. In this campy, but not outrightly comedic, role Stiller played the nosy police Lieutenant Birnbaum who believes this might not quite be the open and shut case the other officers seem to think it is. In a wonderful team-up, he and Jessica get to the bottom of who really killed Rosanno Bertolucci.

A contemporary to "Murder, She Wrote," "The Golden Girls" was on the air for a majority of the same years from the mid '80s until the early '90s. Rue McClanahan is best known for her role as the frisky Blanche Devereaux, the youngest and most flirtatious of the main cast. In 1985, the same year McClanahan debuted as Blanche in "The Golden Girls," the actress also made a guest appearance on the first season of "Murder She, Wrote" in the aptly titled "Murder Takes the Bus."

Linda Blair (still best known as possessed child Regan in "The Exorcist") takes a lead role in this episode as well, but it's the "The Golden Girls" star steals the show. When on a bus to Portland, Maine, Jessica and her fellow passengers are forced to pull over amid a thunderstorm, we get to know all the episode's colorful characters. This includes McClanahan as Miriam Radford, an excitable librarian with a bit of a fan crush on Jessica. After another passenger is found murdered, Radford's husband becomes a prime suspect.

Ironically, New Yorkers might know Cynthia Nixon better as a politician these days but for years she was known only for playing a New Yorker on TV. Only a couple years before she was Miranda on "Sex in the City," Cynthia Nixon showed up in an episode of the Angela Lansbury led mystery show. While it is mostly associated with '80s television, "Murder, She Wrote" ran well into the '90s. Nixon was the guest star of the 1993 episode "Threshold of Fear."

This Season 9 episode put Nixon front and center as Alice Morgan. Doing what she does best, the actress plays a New Yorker. Alice is trouble, though, and cannot stop having nightmares about her mother's murder that took place five years prior. The man who keeps appearing as the murderer in her dreams is found dead one day and Jessica finds the mystery to be a compelling case.

Herb Edelman is another guest in this episode, playing the NYPD officer who investigates the crime. If you don't know that name you might know his face. Edelman played Stan on "The Golden Girls," making for yet another connection between the two shows.

In addition to all the guest stars listed above that have become more famous since their appearance on "Murder, She Wrote," the program also featured plenty of old Hollywood stars from the 1950s and 60s. One of the most prominent actresses of that era to appear on the Angela Lansbury detective drama was Janet Leigh. You may remember her best from her leading role as Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock's iconic "Psycho." In the decade that followed, Leigh would go on to transition to more TV guest appearances than film roles. She made appearances in some great detective and crime shows including "The Man From U.N.C.L.E," "Columbo," and, of course, "Murder, She Wrote."

In the 1987 episode from the show's fourth season, "Doom with a View," Leigh used her chops to embody Cornelia Montaigne Harper, a hardworking hotel owner in New York City. She also happens to be the wife of a buddy of Jessica's nephew Grady Fletcher, who fans of the show will recognize as one of the handful of recurring supporting characters. Of course, usually where Grady goes, trouble and murder follow, and that is very much the case here.