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I am a big fan of FX's show Justified. I love all the main characters and the actors who portray them. I also love all the wonderful actors who turn up as guest stars. This show seems to have a knack for finding just the right actor for the part. Actors who seem as far from the character as you can imagine turn in amazing performances. So here I am going to list my favorite Guest Stars from Justified.
1. David Eigenberg - I love seeing actors that I enjoyed from other shows turning up as a quirky character on Justified. I loved HBO's series Sex and the City, so I was thrilled to see Miranda's guy Steve turn up as a bookie. Arnold Pinter (Eigenberg) is an informant for the Marshal service. Every new guy in the Lexington office gets to deal with Pinter. Enter Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant). Raylan reluctantly takes on Pinter, who runs his bookie operation from a local restaurant. Their banter is quite entertaining. Pinter even gives Raylan a nickname, Ray Ray. Eigenberg appears in two episodes in the first season, Hatless and Fixer.
2. Alan Ruck - I was delighted to see Ferris Bueller's best friend playing a mob accountant, Roland Pike, who has entered the Witness Protection Program. This episode, titled Long in the Tooth, is where we first learn about Raylan's affinity for vanilla ice cream. When Raylan went to apprehend Pike years earlier, he found him in a bar watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Raylan steps next door to get himself a dish of vanilla ice cream after convincing Pike to enter the Witness program. However, Pike slips away while Raylan is enjoying his ice cream. In this episode Raylan discovers Pike has turned up as a dentist in Los Angeles and he has to get to him before the mob does.
3. Clarence Williams III - Long in the Tooth also featured Clarence Williams III as Mr. Jones, a man who trades cars with Pike. I will always remember Williams as Link from The Mod Squad. He does a very funny turn in Justified.
4. W. Earl Brown - Fans from Deadwood will recognize Brown as Dan Dority. He gives an excellent performance in this episode from Season One titled Blowback. Brown has been transported from prison for a trial. He manages to pull a shiv on the prison guards and a hostage situation begins in the Marshal's office. The whole episode revolves around the negotiations between Brown and Givens, who he nicknames Shooter.
5. Damon Herriman - I absolutely love Herriman's character, Dewey Crowe. Dewey likes to think he is a big time criminal but he is actually a small time bumbler. We first meet Dewey in the episode Fire in the Hole. He appears in 10 episodes so far in the series. You can see how Dewey's criminal endeavors usually go when Raylan slams his head into the steering wheel of a car and says, "Outlaw life's hard ain't it?" Herriman performance can be both sad and hilarious. Considering he is from Australia, his turn as a Kentucky hillybilly criminal if even more amazing.
6. Rebecca Creskoff - Creskoff is probably most known for her role on the HBO show Hung. She plays coal mining executive, Carol Johnson. Carol and Raylan have great chemistry. They connect as two lonely people with anguished pasts in Kentucky. Creskoff appears on three episodes in Season Two.
7. Gerald McRaney - That's right Rick Simon on Justified. McRaney from Simon & Simon and Major Dad turns up as Josiah Cairn on two episodes from Season Four. Raylan thinks Cairn holds the key to the whereabouts of a fugitive and he attempts to run the information out of him. McRaney is also a Deadwood veteran.
8. Desmond Harrington - I loved Harrington's performance as Fletcher "the ice pick" Nix. Harrington plays Sgt. Quinn on the series Dexter, but here he is a cold blooded hitman nicknamed the ice pick. We learn he got his nickname because of a little game he makes his victims play. He places a gun on the table between them and tells them they have even chance to grab it before he does. However, when the victim goes for the fun he stabs their hand with an ice pick. I won't spoil the scene where he plays this game with Raylan, but let me just say it is classic. Harrington is one cool character and his voice was the perfect hitman voice. He appears in Season Three in the episode The Gunfighter.
This list is just a few of the great guest actors that have appeared on Justified. The great actors on this show from Timothy Olyphant to Walton Goggins to the great guest actors is only one of the reasons Justified is one of the best shows on television. Justified begins its Fifth Season on FX Network in January 2014.
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