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Narrowed It Down to the Guy I Recognize: Difference between revisions

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Narrowed It Down to the Guy I Recognize (view source)

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* Subverted in ''[[Se7en]]'', where {{spoiler|Kevin Spacey's name is absent from all promotional material as well as the opening credits, so that his appearance as John Doe towards the end would be a surprise. Unless you recognized his voice when he calls the detectives before his appearance.}}
** Doubly subverted, in that one of the investigating team, with about three lines in total, is played by well-known character actor John C McGinley, aka Dr. Cox from ''[[Scrubs]]''. Outside of ''Scrubs'', McGinley is well known for playing bad guys, leading viewers (or me, at least) to suspect he might be the killer. He wasn't.
* Cleverly done in ''[[Sleepy Hollow (Film)|Sleepy Hollow]]'', where the main character, already investigating a crime, is introduced to the town's most important men and the audience is already looking for the guilty among them. They are all played by "vaguely famous" actors: former Maigret (and later Dumbledore) Michael Gambon as the leader, Jeffrey Jones from ''[[Amadeus]]'' as the reverend, Ian "Palpatine" McDiarmid as the doctor; Michael Gough, formerly Batman's butler and a usual in Burtons's films, as the notary; and Richard Griffiths from ''Naked Gun 2'' as the magistrate. The guilty party is... {{spoiler|A conspiracy among all of them!}} But wait: {{spoiler|The real villain behind the ghost is the leader's wife, played by Miranda Richardson.}}
* Used in character in the movie ''[[Last Action Hero]]''. Daniel pegs a character as [[The Mole]] based solely on the fact that his actor played Salieri in ''[[Amadeus]].''
* Averted in the 1988 film ''Shoot To Kill'' (starring Sidney Poitier and Tom Berenger); the yet-unseen villain joins up with a group of sportsmen who're going on a trek through the wilderness. Looking at the group, the villain could have been obvious, if not for the fact that the makers of the film deliberately filled the group with actors who had played prominent villains in the past, including Clancy "[[Highlander|The Kurgan]]" Brown and Andrew "[[Dirty Harry|Scorpio]]" Robinson.
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** Yet another ''Criminal Intent'' episode; it featured [[Dylan Baker]], normally a [[Hey, It's That Guy!]] character actor as he's been in [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0048414/ everything], including three different characters in the mothership show. However, the previews for the episode pointed out that Dylan Baker would be guest starring, somewhat unusual for a character actor to be promoted this way. {{spoiler|And yes, he did it.}}
** [[Double Subverted]] in another 2010 SVU episode, where [[Lost|Henry Ian Cusick]] is not only cleared early in the episode, but doesn't even appear again.{{spoiler|..until the ''next'' episode, in which he ''is'' the culprit.}}
** Subverted in the SVU episode Wet which had David Krumholtz from Numb3rs and [[The Santa Clause (film series)|The Santa Clause]] as an [[Absent-Minded Professor]] who grow poisonous mushrooms and was obsessed with water right seemed like a slam dunk as a perp. Plus it also hade Rosemary Harris who played Aunt May in the [[Spider-Man]] movies as a [[Rich Bitch]] who ran the charity were victim was given the poisoned Mushrooms. Add to that the special guest ADA for the episode was played by Paula Patton from [[Precious]] and the defense attorney was played by Michael Boatman from [[Spin City]]. Yet none of them was the kill, however one of them came off as more of a [[Complete Monster]] then the actual murderess, and was responsible for her behavior.
** The SVU episode Mask, which has Jeremy Irons as a sex addict turned psychologist who specializes in treating them... {{spoiler|turns out to be a good guy who helps the main characters after some plot dithering, and also turns out to have NOT committed the terrible crime that he thought he had 20 years ago, namely raping his daughter in a combination of alcoholic blackout and irresistible impulse (it turned out to have been her best friend, and it was consensual, but his daughter, a lesbian, was also in love with the girl and never forgave her father for breaking her heart.}}
** Subverted in the SVU episode Angels: [[Arrested Development (TV series)|Will Arnett]] plays one of three pedophiles involved in a sex tourism ring, but he's not the main perp.
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* ''[[Cold Case]]'':
** An episode had Daveigh Chase ([[Creepy Child|Samara Morgan]] from ''[[The Ring]]'') guest star as one of the suspects. Guess who the killer was?
** There were [[Homicide: Life Onon the Street|Reed Diamond]] {{spoiler|he did it}} in the season 7 episode ''Forensics'', [[JAG|Steven]] [[Desperate Housewives|Culp]] {{spoiler|who also did it}} in the episode ''Jurisprudence'', and [[Eli Stone|Loretta Devine]] in ''Soul'', {{spoiler|and yes, she did it too}}, among others.
** Another episode had {{spoiler|Barry Bostwick}} as the killer. Also doubles as [[Stunt Casting]], as {{spoiler|the original murder took place after a midnight showing of ''[[The Rocky Horror Picture Show]]'' in the late 70s.}}
** As soon as Daniel Baldwin showed up, you just ''knew'' he was the perp. He was so effective in this role, he stayed on for 7 episodes.
* Dylan Baker was accused of his wife's murder in an episode of ''[[The Good Wife]]'' but he was acquitted. {{spoiler|At the end, he reveals he ''did'' do it.}}
* ''[[Medium]]'':
** Ironically, an episode of it ''seems'' like [[Homicide: Life Onon the Street|Reed Diamond]] did it, but in the end Allison finds out that the 'victim' is still alive and a few years younger than in her dreams, so she understands he ''might'' do it, despite being anything but a killer to this point, and warns him so hopefully he won't do it.
** [[DiRT (video game)|Will McCormack]] raped Devalos' daughter and others.
** [[That '70s Show|Donna]] was a serial killer of sex offenders who ended up killing an undercover cop.
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* [[The ABC]] series ''Sleuth 101'' is about comedians trying to solve murder mysteries. Dave O'Neil didn't understand any of the clues but managed to solve the first episode's case ''correctly'' [[Crowning Moment of Funny|by working out who the most famous cast member was]].
* ''[[Furuhata Ninzaburo]]'' takes this trope [[Up to Eleven]]: the criminal is played by a famous face each time, and at least twice Furuhata faces off against actual celebrities: a [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]] version of baseball star Ichiro Suzuki (who, btw, flat out refused to have his character's name changed) and the entire [[J Pop]] band SMAP.
* ''[[Homicide: Life Onon the Street]]'' was usually pretty good at averting this trope... whenever a famous guest star appeared, he/she was either a relative of the victim (like [[Robin Williams]], [[Mystic River|Marcia Gay Harden]] or [[Lost|Terry O'Quinn]]), or his identity as the killer was made intentionally clear from the beginning and the episode actually focused on the detectives' attempt to ''prove'' that he was guilty (like [[The Lord of the Rings (film)|Elijah Wood]], [[Reservoir Dogs|Steve Buscemi]] or [[Lethal Weapon 4|Chris Rock]]).
* The episode "Requiem" of the [[So OK Its Average|not so overwhelming]] British series [[Anna Lee]] featured [[Whose Line Is It Anyway?|Greg Proops, who was just gaining fame in GB]], as a slimy music journalist. Guess who was the bad guy. {{spoiler|He didn't kill the victim, but drove her to suicide}}
* ''[[Lost]]'' loves to play around with this. One good example is the actor [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006535/ Doug Hutchison], most famous for his role as the sadistic guard in ''[[The Green Mile]]''. He briefly appears in a season 3 episode. Then he briefly appears in a season 4 episode. Then he plays a central role in five episodes in season 5.
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