“Friends” at 25 (Part V): The One With the Great Performances
By: Richard Lebeau
Tags: Comedy, Television, Culture, Acting, Streaming

Ranking the 25 Best Performances by Guest Stars

25.) Anna Faris as Erica. Appearance Total: 4 appearances in Season 10. As she would go on to prove in the long-running CBS sitcom Mom, Faris is a truly gifted comic actress. Although her role as the remarkably unsophisticated young woman who chooses Monica and Chandler to adopt her baby is far from the best-written Friends guest role, she imbues every line with a charm and naïveté that few actresses could have pulled off as effectively.

24.) Danny DeVito as Officer Goodbody. Appearance Total: 1 episode in Season 10. The diminutive comedy legend appeared as an over-the-hill stripper in one of the most memorable episodes of the show’s later years and sold a ludicrous premise with his trademark brand of comedy.

23.) Morgan Fairchild as Nora Bing. Appearance Total: 5 appearances across 4 seasons (she appeared in seasons 1, 5, 7, and 8). As Chandler’s sex-obsessed, romance novelist mother, Fairchild’s authoritative presence and savage line delivery was a jolt of energy to the show every time she appeared.

22.) Teri Garr as Phoebe, Sr. Appearance Total: 3 appearances across seasons 3 and 4. In one of the most brilliant bits of guest casting on the show, an iconic flighty blonde from the prior generation was cast as iconic flighty blonde Phoebe’s birth mother. And it worked perfectly.

Marlo Thomas as Sandra Green (Image copyright: Warner Bros. TV)

21.) Marlo Thomas as Sandra Green. Appearance Total: 3 appearances across 2 seasons (she appeared in seasons 2 and 8). In another clever bit of casting, a sitcom star who was a beauty icon with a legendary haircut from the prior generation was cast as the mother of Rachel, a beauty icon with a legendary haircut. Thomas was perfection as the vain and snobby Mrs. Green.

20.) Jessica Hecht as Susan. Appearance Total: 12 appearances across 5 seasons (she appeared in seasons 1–4 and season 6). Some have complained that the woman Ross’s wife Carol left him for was portrayed too coldly, but I found her comic line delivery (mostly insults to Ross) and unexpected moments of warmth (also toward Ross) to be perfectly attuned.

19.) Jon Lovitz as Steve the Stoned Guy. Appearance Total: 2 appearances across 2 seasons (he appeared in seasons 1 and 9). The former Saturday Night Live star’s bizarre energy made for some genuinely unexpected comedy in the show’s first season — and it was even more unexpected when he returned toward the end of the series.

18.) Brooke Shields as Erica Ford. Appearance Total: 1 appearance in Season 2. The former model and child star’s appearance as a crazed fan of Joey’s was so electric that the actress scored an NBC series of her own (Suddenly Susan), which ran for nearly 100 episodes.

17.) Giovanni Ribisi as Frank, Jr. Appearance Total: 9 appearances across seasons 2, 3, 4, 5, and 10. In attempt to deepen the character and give Kudrow more material, the writers created an awkward, dim-witted half-brother for Phoebe who finally gave her a sense of family. Ribisi sold even the weakest material with commitment, humor, and heart.

16.) Ron Leibman as Dr. Green. Appearance Total: 4 appearances across 4 seasons (he appeared in seasons 2, 3, 8, and 10). As Rachel’s rich and ruthless father, the late Ron Leibman dominated every scene he appeared in and deepened the character of Rachel.

15.) Jane Sibbett as Carol. Appearance Total: 15 appearances across 7 seasons (she appeared in each of the first 7 seasons). Initially played by another actress, Sibbett quickly took over the remarkably tricky role of Ross’s ex-wife, Carol. How do you deliver a compassionate, nuanced portrayal that eschews stereotypes when you are playing arguably the highest profile lesbian character on network television to date and when you have been set up by the writers as the antagonist in one of the central dynamics of the show’s early seasons? I have no idea, but Sibbett managed to do it somehow.

June Gable as Estelle Leonard. (Image copyright: Warner Bros. TV)

14.) June Gable as Estelle Leonard. Appearance Total: 9 episodes across 7 seasons (although the actress also appeared as a nurse in Season One). As Joey’s remarkably tacky, scatterbrained, and utterly incompetent agent, Gable gave one of the most audacious and committed comic performances on the series.

13.) Hank Azaria as David the Scientist Guy. Appearance Total: 5 appearances across seasons 1, 7, and 9. Some characters loom so large in the world of Friends that it seems like they appeared more frequently than they actually did. As Phoebe’s brilliant, eccentric love, Azaria initially appeared in only one episode but was so important to Phoebe’s character arc that he was brought back four more times toward the end of the series.

12.) Bruce Willis as Paul Stevens. Appearance Total: 3 appearances in season 6. One of the four acting Emmys won by the series was for Willis in the Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series category. As the father of Ross’s much younger girlfriend who starts a romantic relationship with Rachel, his charming brand of tough guy humor worked perfectly in the role and he did some truly great comic work when he finally got in touch with his sensitive side.

11.) James Michael Tyler as Gunther. Appearance Total: 151 appearances across all 10 seasons. Despite appearing in well over half of the series’ episodes, Gunther rarely spoke and never had a subplot of his own. Yet somehow, Tyler turned him into a truly iconic and memorable character with nuanced emotions like crippling anxiety, simmering rage, and intense romantic longing (for Rachel, of course).

10.) Elliot Gould as Jack Geller. Appearance Total: 22 appearances across all 10 seasons. Gould had decades of well-known film and television work under his belt before taking on the role of Monica and Ross’s goofy but loving father. Each of his nearly two dozen appearances garnered big laughs and delivered heartfelt moments.

David Schwimmer with Aisha Tyler as Charlie Wheeler (Image copyright: Warner Bros. TV)

9.) Aisha Tyler as Charlie Wheeler. Appearance Total: 9 appearances across seasons 9 and 10. Unfortunately, Tyler’s substantive guest arc is mostly known for the fact that she is one of only two non-white actors to make significant appearances on the show (Lauren Tom, who played Ross’s girlfriend Julie in Season Two, was the other). But she should actually be remembered for delivering a comic performance so effortless and dynamic that she is one of the few guest characters of the show’s run that could have effectively joined the ensemble in a regular capacity.

8.) Tom Selleck as Richard Burke. Appearance Total: 10 appearances across seasons 2, 3, and 6. Selleck isn’t particularly known for being a comedian, despite his lighthearted work in shows like Magnum P.I. and films like Three Men and a Baby. And his stint on Friends as Monica’s much older boyfriend wasn’t particularly full of belly laughs. But his maturity, charm, and grace had a huge impact on the show, not to mention the trajectory of the character of Monica Geller.

7.) Reese Witherspoon as Jill. Appearance Total: 2 appearances in season 6. In her pair of appearances as Rachel’s sister, Witherspoon delivered a fiercely committed and boldly unlikable comic performance that showed what Rachel probably would have become had she not opted to forge her own path in the pilot and married Barry the orthodontist.

6.) Alison LaPlaca as Joanne. Appearance Total: 3 appearances in season 3. Joanne easily gets my vote for the most underrated bit character in the 236 episode run of Friends. As Rachel’s unfathomably icy and cruel Bloomingdale’s boss who has a fling with Chandler, LaPlaca brought a welcome edginess to her appearances that the show never replicated. Oh, and her stunning death at the end of her arc was probably as deep as Friends ever dipped its toe into the pool of dark comedy.

5.) Larry Hankin as Mr. Heckles. Appearance Total: 5 appearances across the first 3 seasons. As the bizarre and reclusive old man that lived under Monica and Chandler, Mr. Heckles was a comic highlight of the show’s early episodes. Hankin’s delightfully weird performance was always fascinating, but only in the episode where the gang reconciles with his death is the impact of his character truly felt (particularly on Chandler).

4.) Christina Pickles as Judy Gellar. Appearance Total: 20 appearances across all 10 seasons. As Monica and Ross’s uptight, cold, and often disapproving mother, Pickles established herself early on as one of the most dynamic, nuanced, and impactful recurring characters on the series. She only scored a single Emmy nomination for her role (for Season One), but she should have had several and perhaps even a win.

3.) Christina Applegate as Amy. Appearance Total: 2 appearances across the final 2 seasons. With her role as Rachel’s other sister Amy, Applegate became the fourth and final actor to win an Emmy for her work on Friends. And it was a richly deserving win. She combines cruelty, vanity, aloofness, and ditziness into a masterclass performance of savage one-liners, inspired physical comedy, and even brief moments of heart. Friends would have undoubtedly benefited from Amy debuting earlier and appearing more frequently.

Christina Applegate kisses the Emmy she won for “Friends.” (Image copyright: Academy of Television Arts and Sciences)

2.) Paul Rudd as Mike Hannigan. Appearance Total: 18 appearances across the final 2 seasons. In recent years, Rudd has mentioned in interviews that he felt like a “prop” during his guest appearances and that he was always on the outside of the main sextet. But that’s not how it appeared to me. With his trademark charm and superb comic timing, Rudd created a fully formed character that believably changed Phoebe’s life and effortlessly blended into the gang without ever stealing too much of the focus. When rewatching his appearances it is absolutely no surprise that he went on to be a big movie star.

Paul Rudd as Mike Hannigan with Lisa Kudrow. (Image copyright: Warner Bros. TV)

1.) Maggie Wheeler as Janice Litman-Goralnik. Appearance Total: 20 appearances across all 10 seasons. Many readers will probably be enraged that I ranked the show’s most hated character in the top position of this list. But hear me out. Was any guest star on Friends as memorable or important as Janice? As the nasal-voiced, obnoxious woman whose on-again-off-again romance with Chandler was a major focal point of early seasons, Maggie Wheeler delivered a comic performance so bold and committed that it elicited a seismic reaction every time she appeared. Wheeler’s performances in the early episodes were so nuanced, skilled, and iconic that the writers opted to bring her back every single season of the show right up until the end. In these later episodes, she typically burst onto the screen during pivotal moments with her trademark exclamation (“Oh…My…Gawd”) and the cast would freeze in shock. Just like the viewers.