Chuck Flashback! We Spy 28 Fun Guest Stars
NBC’s Chuck may not have ever enjoyed a great wealth of viewers, but there’s one thing the soon-to-end spy comedy has always been rich in: fun guest stars, including those playing up their past geek cred or going 180-degrees against type.
It’d be near-impossible to recount every familiar face that has passed through the Buy More doors (sometimes in sexy slo-mo), tangled with Team Bartowski or earned the title of “Mom” or “Dad,” but we thought we’d get the Finale Week conversation started with 28 memorable drop-bys.
• Matt Bomer as Bryce Larkin: Chuck never would have become the Intersect were it not for his college buddy-turned-CIA agent, who pulled a con on Fulcrum that would've made Neal Caffrey proud.
• Rachel Bilson as Lou: Long before getting together with Sarah, Chuck had a brief romance with this deli owner, who he suspected was up to something bad, and she indeed was a smuggler... of imported meats.
• Bruce Boxleitner and Morgan Fairchild as Drs. Woody and Honey Woodcomb: Who else could have brought Devon into this world but these awesome physical specimens?
• Tony Hale as Emmett Milbarge: When original Buy More manager C.S. Lee got snatched up by Dexter, this Arrested Development alum ably stepped in as Chuck and Morgan's new, domineering boss. His sudden death in the Season 3 premiere, it could be argued, signaled the spy comedy's step in a higher stakes direction.
• Jordana Brewster as Dr. Jill Roberts: Jill had already broken Chuck's heart once, back at Stanford. And when she reentered his life, it was heartbreak anew when she turned out to be a double agent -- by no means the first or last pretty lady to charm our No. 1 nerd while hiding an agenda.
• Gary Cole as Jack Burton: Sarah's con man father raised her on the road under different aliases and taught her all his sneaky tricks, ultimately pushing her into the arms of the CIA after he was arrested.
• John Larroquette as Roan Montgomery: When Chuck needed a crash course on the art of espionage-based seduction, the team called in the CIA's legendary ladykiller.
• Melinda Clarke as Sasha Banachek: Chuck's newbie seduction skills (see "John Laroquette as Roan Montgomery") were put to the test when he had to romance the dangerous "Black Widow" in order to retrieve the Cipher around her neck. (Little did we suspect at the time that Clarke would one day be just as sinister when facing off against another spy, named Nikita.)
• Nicole Richie as Heather Chandler: Our expectations were set quite low when Richie -- at that point merely a costar of The Simple Life -- entered the mix. But damn if she didn't hold her own as Sarah's "mean girl" high school classmate-gone-bad.
• Scott Bakula as Stephen J. Bartowski: Chuck got more than he bargained for when he went looking for his absentee father to walk Ellie down the aisle -- he discovered that Dad was “Orion,” the creator of the Intersect!
• Chevy Chase as Ted Roark: Steven J.'s former partner-turned-nemesis, Roark threatened every member of the Bartowski clan - father, son and daughter - in his quest to create a new Intersect for Fulcrum.
• Christopher Lloyd as Dr. Leo Dreyfus: Great Scott! When Chuck began having bad dreams toward the end of Season 3, he sought out the help of CIA shrink Doc Dreyfus.
• Brandon Routh as Daniel Shaw: At first, this well-chiseled CIA agent was but a wrench in the works for Chuck, Sarah and their UST (Unresolved Sexual Tension). But once his true colors were revealed -- an enemy agent who held Sarah responsible for his wife's assassination, he'd go on to kill Chuck's dad -- he devolved into pure evil, and later made a killer comeback during the show's goodbye run. (Oh, who are we kidding? No one is looking at this photo's caption.)
• Kristin Kreuk as Hannah: With Sarah at this point getting cozy with Daniel Shaw (played by Brandon Routh aka Superman), it was only fitting that Chuck would be charmed by TV's erstwhile Lana Lang, here playing a computer whiz who went on to enjoy an all-too-brief stint at the Buy More.
• Armand Assante as Allejandro Goya: The Costa Gravas dictator famously introduced us to Casey's "Angel of Death" nickname as well as gave Awesome something to do, as his personal physician-slash-statue model.
• Summer Glau as "Greta": Of all the Gretas that passed through the Buy More after the CIA covertly co-opted the store, Glau's was our favorite -- one, due to her hair-trigger ferocity, and two, because of the veiled dialogue nod to her and Adam Baldwin's previous gig together, Firefly.
• Linda Hamilton as Mary Bartowski: We remember well the 2010 Comic-Con crowd geeking out to the news that the Terminator -terminating Sarah Connor herself would be playing Chuck and Ellie's badass momma.
• Timothy Dalton as Alexei Volkoff: Chuck rolled a 007 and came out a winner with the onetime James Bond's arc as a big baddie who was hot for "Frost" (aka Linda Hamilton's Mary B.).
• Robert Englund as Dr. Stanley Wheelright: Given his Freddy Krueger past, it was only fitting that Englund played a scientist who had developed a toxin that induced nightmares regardless of what street you lived on.
• Dolph Lundgren as Marco: Fresh off his appearance in the big-screen bruiser The Expendables, Lundgren played a Volkoff goon who apparently was a huge Rocky IV fan, given his tendency to evoke Ivan Drago with such bon mots as "I must break you."
• Mercedes Masohn, Mircea Monroe and Mini Anden as the C.A.T. Squad: We were head over stiletto heels from the moment the show cued up a retro-style promo (watch it here) that introduced us to "Zondra the Bitch," Amy and Carina, who with Sarah formed a crimefighting quad that frankly made Charlie's Angels look like nuns.
• Carrie-Ann Moss as Gertrude Verbanski: What, besides big guns and fine cigars, gets John Casey's engine running? That question was answered in the final season, when viewers met his fierce and formidable (yet frisky!) female equal. To think that wispy Neo was ever worthy of this badass broad!
• Danny Pudi as Vali Chandrasekaren: Community fans got not one but two treats in Season 5's "Chuck vs. The Hack-Off" when Pudi replaced Lester at the Buy More, and then Yvette Nicole Brown secretly cameo'd as another Nerd Herder.
• Cheryl Ladd as Emma: The very episode title, "Chuck vs. The Baby," had fans in a frenzy, speculating how Sarah herself might have secretly birthed a kid. But the only mother figure turned out to be Sarah's own mom, who it turns out had been quietly raising a little girl that Sarah rescued during a CIA mission.
• Bo Derek as... Bo Derek: Worth noting if only for 1) the onetime pin-up's willingness to position "herself" as an evil spy, and 2) Sarah's discomfort with the things a pubescent Chuck apparently "did" with this Perfect 10's poster.
• Natalie Martinez as Kayla: No, she wasn't a "guest star" per se, but we never pass on an opportunity to note that Martinez was part of the original cast -- and even appeared in promo pics -- yet never actually made it into even the pilot, as an edgy gal Chuck was lusting after. But as the show's creators have explained, once a fella meets Sarah Walker, all other lasses simply (and sometimes literally) fade into the woodwork.
SOURCE
It’d be near-impossible to recount every familiar face that has passed through the Buy More doors (sometimes in sexy slo-mo), tangled with Team Bartowski or earned the title of “Mom” or “Dad,” but we thought we’d get the Finale Week conversation started with 28 memorable drop-bys.
• Matt Bomer as Bryce Larkin: Chuck never would have become the Intersect were it not for his college buddy-turned-CIA agent, who pulled a con on Fulcrum that would've made Neal Caffrey proud.
• Rachel Bilson as Lou: Long before getting together with Sarah, Chuck had a brief romance with this deli owner, who he suspected was up to something bad, and she indeed was a smuggler... of imported meats.
• Bruce Boxleitner and Morgan Fairchild as Drs. Woody and Honey Woodcomb: Who else could have brought Devon into this world but these awesome physical specimens?
• Tony Hale as Emmett Milbarge: When original Buy More manager C.S. Lee got snatched up by Dexter, this Arrested Development alum ably stepped in as Chuck and Morgan's new, domineering boss. His sudden death in the Season 3 premiere, it could be argued, signaled the spy comedy's step in a higher stakes direction.
• Jordana Brewster as Dr. Jill Roberts: Jill had already broken Chuck's heart once, back at Stanford. And when she reentered his life, it was heartbreak anew when she turned out to be a double agent -- by no means the first or last pretty lady to charm our No. 1 nerd while hiding an agenda.
• Gary Cole as Jack Burton: Sarah's con man father raised her on the road under different aliases and taught her all his sneaky tricks, ultimately pushing her into the arms of the CIA after he was arrested.
• John Larroquette as Roan Montgomery: When Chuck needed a crash course on the art of espionage-based seduction, the team called in the CIA's legendary ladykiller.
• Melinda Clarke as Sasha Banachek: Chuck's newbie seduction skills (see "John Laroquette as Roan Montgomery") were put to the test when he had to romance the dangerous "Black Widow" in order to retrieve the Cipher around her neck. (Little did we suspect at the time that Clarke would one day be just as sinister when facing off against another spy, named Nikita.)
• Nicole Richie as Heather Chandler: Our expectations were set quite low when Richie -- at that point merely a costar of The Simple Life -- entered the mix. But damn if she didn't hold her own as Sarah's "mean girl" high school classmate-gone-bad.
• Scott Bakula as Stephen J. Bartowski: Chuck got more than he bargained for when he went looking for his absentee father to walk Ellie down the aisle -- he discovered that Dad was “Orion,” the creator of the Intersect!
• Chevy Chase as Ted Roark: Steven J.'s former partner-turned-nemesis, Roark threatened every member of the Bartowski clan - father, son and daughter - in his quest to create a new Intersect for Fulcrum.
• Christopher Lloyd as Dr. Leo Dreyfus: Great Scott! When Chuck began having bad dreams toward the end of Season 3, he sought out the help of CIA shrink Doc Dreyfus.
• Brandon Routh as Daniel Shaw: At first, this well-chiseled CIA agent was but a wrench in the works for Chuck, Sarah and their UST (Unresolved Sexual Tension). But once his true colors were revealed -- an enemy agent who held Sarah responsible for his wife's assassination, he'd go on to kill Chuck's dad -- he devolved into pure evil, and later made a killer comeback during the show's goodbye run. (Oh, who are we kidding? No one is looking at this photo's caption.)
• Kristin Kreuk as Hannah: With Sarah at this point getting cozy with Daniel Shaw (played by Brandon Routh aka Superman), it was only fitting that Chuck would be charmed by TV's erstwhile Lana Lang, here playing a computer whiz who went on to enjoy an all-too-brief stint at the Buy More.
• Armand Assante as Allejandro Goya: The Costa Gravas dictator famously introduced us to Casey's "Angel of Death" nickname as well as gave Awesome something to do, as his personal physician-slash-statue model.
• Summer Glau as "Greta": Of all the Gretas that passed through the Buy More after the CIA covertly co-opted the store, Glau's was our favorite -- one, due to her hair-trigger ferocity, and two, because of the veiled dialogue nod to her and Adam Baldwin's previous gig together, Firefly.
• Linda Hamilton as Mary Bartowski: We remember well the 2010 Comic-Con crowd geeking out to the news that the Terminator -terminating Sarah Connor herself would be playing Chuck and Ellie's badass momma.
• Timothy Dalton as Alexei Volkoff: Chuck rolled a 007 and came out a winner with the onetime James Bond's arc as a big baddie who was hot for "Frost" (aka Linda Hamilton's Mary B.).
• Robert Englund as Dr. Stanley Wheelright: Given his Freddy Krueger past, it was only fitting that Englund played a scientist who had developed a toxin that induced nightmares regardless of what street you lived on.
• Dolph Lundgren as Marco: Fresh off his appearance in the big-screen bruiser The Expendables, Lundgren played a Volkoff goon who apparently was a huge Rocky IV fan, given his tendency to evoke Ivan Drago with such bon mots as "I must break you."
• Mercedes Masohn, Mircea Monroe and Mini Anden as the C.A.T. Squad: We were head over stiletto heels from the moment the show cued up a retro-style promo (watch it here) that introduced us to "Zondra the Bitch," Amy and Carina, who with Sarah formed a crimefighting quad that frankly made Charlie's Angels look like nuns.
• Carrie-Ann Moss as Gertrude Verbanski: What, besides big guns and fine cigars, gets John Casey's engine running? That question was answered in the final season, when viewers met his fierce and formidable (yet frisky!) female equal. To think that wispy Neo was ever worthy of this badass broad!
• Danny Pudi as Vali Chandrasekaren: Community fans got not one but two treats in Season 5's "Chuck vs. The Hack-Off" when Pudi replaced Lester at the Buy More, and then Yvette Nicole Brown secretly cameo'd as another Nerd Herder.
• Cheryl Ladd as Emma: The very episode title, "Chuck vs. The Baby," had fans in a frenzy, speculating how Sarah herself might have secretly birthed a kid. But the only mother figure turned out to be Sarah's own mom, who it turns out had been quietly raising a little girl that Sarah rescued during a CIA mission.
• Bo Derek as... Bo Derek: Worth noting if only for 1) the onetime pin-up's willingness to position "herself" as an evil spy, and 2) Sarah's discomfort with the things a pubescent Chuck apparently "did" with this Perfect 10's poster.
• Natalie Martinez as Kayla: No, she wasn't a "guest star" per se, but we never pass on an opportunity to note that Martinez was part of the original cast -- and even appeared in promo pics -- yet never actually made it into even the pilot, as an edgy gal Chuck was lusting after. But as the show's creators have explained, once a fella meets Sarah Walker, all other lasses simply (and sometimes literally) fade into the woodwork.
SOURCE