The TV IV:IVy Awards/2006/Best Guest Actor or Actress in a Drama Series

Candidates to be considered the Best Guest Actor or Actress in a Drama Series for work in a series which first aired one or more episodes in the United States between June 1, 2005 and May 31, 2006. Please read carefully the Definitions and Guidelines before putting a candidate up for nomination.

Definitions

drama

Any live-action (non-animated), scripted (non-documentary, talk or news) episodic (airing on a recurring basis), non-limited series categorized as a Drama on the TV IV. In the case of shows which are categorized as both Comedy and Drama (and only in those cases), the show will be categorized on the basis of runtime: Less than 40 minutes should be considered a Comedy, 40 minutes or more should be considered a Drama.

actor

A human male performer in a scripted series, including voice actors and male actors portraying female characters.

actress

A human female performer in a scripted series, including voice actresses and female actresses portraying male characters.

guest actor or actress

An actor or actress who has a guest starring role in one or more episodes of an episodic series at any point during the eligibility year except if he or she is also First Billed, Billed or Top Billed at any point during the eligibility year. (Example: Imagine Ned Beatty was Billed on Homicide: Life on the Street for the first half of the season. He then disappeared for a long break, only to return as a Guest Star-credited actor in the final episodes of the season. He is eligible for the Supporting Actor category, but he is not eligible in the Guest Actor or Actress category.)

Guidelines

Please feel free to propose as many or as few candidates as you like in each category. If you change your mind or wish to retract a candidate, don't worry about editing the page, as it could cause some confusion down the road. (If you propose one unworthy enough, it will most likely not make it past the nominating process, anyway.) Feel free to discuss yours or others' proposals as much or as little as you choose. Tell us why you feel a candidate should be considered, or why someone else's candidate is a horrible choice and should not be considered. (Just remember to follow standard TV IV discussion rules regarding civility.)

Please mark all proposed candidates in bold, and link the show titles, even if the linked articles are empty or stubs. Try to avoid using bold elsewhere in the discussion. (To mark a candidate in bold, surround the name with two sets of three apostrophes, and use double brackets for linking, '''[[like this]]'''.) We must have a series for which an actor or actress is being nominated, so be sure to include one. As most candidates will likely only have appeared in two or three episodes or fewer, it might also help to include links to episodes to refresh other voters' memories. (For instance, to propose John de Lancie for his work on Star Trek: The Next Generation, write: "John de Lancie, Star Trek: The Next Generation (Encounter at Farpoint (1) and Encounter at Farpoint (2))".)

Candidates Discussion

• Michael J. Fox, Boston Legal (2x11 - The Cancer Man Can through 2x14 - Breast in Show and 2x26 - Spring Fever and 2x27 - BL: Los Angeles): This is another nomination I'll gladly champion. Fox's recurring appearances as a millionaire dying of cancer made for some of the most memorable and emotional scenes to air on television all year, and not just because of the real knowledge Fox is, himself, suffering from a degenerative, uncurable and often fatal disease. His performance was pitch-perfect in these episodes, and he elevated the series to new heights while he was on it.

I disagree with this nomination. Yes, at worst, Mr. Fox is a decent actor, so I can't make an argument based on his acting skills. However, as politically incorrect as this is, every role he takes now seems like it's the "aww, here's the terminally ill guy who's played by a guy who's afflicted with another horrible disease" sweeps gimmick character. The recognition he should get depreciates every time he appears on television playing one of these "plucky" characters. --Nmfree 02:52, 6 June 2006 (EDT)

Agreed, very gimmicky. --MateoP 16:25, 10 June 2006 (EDT)

• Currie Graham, House, M.D. (2x06 - Spin, 2x07 - Hunting and 2x11 - Need to Know): A lot of people found the Stacy Warner subplot this season kind of distracting, and overall, I tend to agree, except for the appearance of Graham in it. As Stacy's recently crippled husband, Graham did a great job of balancing the House/Stacy/him love triangle.
• Sasha Embeth Pieterse, House, M.D. (2x02 - Autopsy): As a girl dying of cancer, Pieterse forced House to drop his own jaded, cynical façade and helped make her appearance a stand-out of the season.
• Katey Sagal, Lost (2x03 - Orientation and 2x17 - Lockdown): Many have noticed the theme of lost or absent parents in the series, but in this season, the theme of lost or absent love also came to the fore, whether it was Sawyer and his "mark" (2x13 - The Long Con, Jack and his wife (2x11 - The Hunting Party), Desmond and his forbidden love (2x23 - Live Together, Die Alone), or even the ones on the island: Hurley and Libby, Sayid and Shannon or the "found" loves of Jin and Sun and Rose and Bernard. But for my money, none of the "ones who got away" were quiet as heartbreaking as the love Locke had for Sagal's character, which he let slip away because of his obsession with his father. And Sagal's performance makes the story seem all the more tragic.
• Peter Weller, 24 (5x10 - Day 5: 4:00PM - 5:00PM through the rest of the season): As Christopher Henderson, Weller plays the most formidable opponent Jack Bauer has ever faced: An agent of equal patriotism to Jack, who is just as willing as Jack to do whatever it takes to accomplish whatever goals he feels are right, and moreover, who taught Jack everything he knows. Jack's battle with "RoboJack" leads to one of the most thrilling days in the series' history.JCaesar 02:16, 2 June 2006 (EDT)

Disagree, Weller played a pretty typical tough bad-guy character. Nothing that I can recall about his performance that differentiated it from any other. --MateoP 12:35, 10 June 2006 (EDT)

• Henry Ian Cusick, Lost (2x01 - Man of Science, Man of Faith, 2x02 - Adrift, 2x03 - Orientation, 2x23 - Live Together, Die Alone): As Desmond Hume, Cusick does excellent work playing a half-crazed man who has spent three years trapped underground, getting less than two hours of sleep at a time. Rarely has the performance of a guest actor moved so many people in the way Cusick's performance in "Live Together, Die Alone" did. This is all the more impressive considering that his earlier appearances were brief, but here he was the center of the episode, the glue that held it together, and he was more than up to the task.

--Stabbey 13:37, 2 June 2006 (EDT)

I agree that Cusick brings the season finale together with his superb portrayal of the tragic hero Desmond. "Live Together/Die Alone" is perhaps the best episode of the season due in large part to Cusick’s strong and emotional performance.--Field 17:30, 19 June 2006 (EDT)

• Summer Glau, The 4400 (2x01 - Wake-up Call (Part 1)): The 4400 started it's second season with a very powerful story about one of the 4400 who had been commited to an insane asylum. As anyone who has watched Firefly can attest, Summer is really good at doing crazy. In my opinion, no other actress could have fit that role with the same kind of child like innocence and sheer creep factor.

--ChiperSoft 13:03, 4 June 2006 (EDT)

• Michael Emerson, Lost (2x14 - One of Them through 2x20 - Two for the Road and 2x23 - Live Together, Die Alone): When Emerson emerged on Lost, his role was ambiguous. Was he really an 'Other', or simply an innocent traveller that crashed on the island just like our Losties? Emerson kept the audience guessing, causing us to change our minds from one episode to another with his unnerving mannerisms and sinister delivery. The standout actor on the show's tail end run of episodes.

--Swander 05:16, 5 June 2006 (EDT)

I think I speak for more than a few lost viewers when I say that Michael Emerson reinvigorated the series. The series took a sharp rise in quality in his very first episode, leading all the way to the finale. This effect can't be explained away just by the added mystery. Despite being beaten and tortured, Emerson had an extraordinary amount of charisma and presence. --Escher 10:34, 6 June (EDT)

• Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Grey's Anatomy (2x13 -Begin the Begin through 2x27 - Losing My Religion): He had major recurring roles on three shows this season (Weeds, Supernatural and Grey's Anatomy) appearing in basically a full season's worth of episodes across three different shows but of his three roles this is the one that really stood out. Playing a dying man who falls in love with one of his doctors despite the fact that he can't leave the hospital Morgan really captures the full range of emotions involved. He gets frustrated and pessimistic at his futile situation and then overly excited by the mobility awarded him by a large bulky experimental medical device. Then when his new love Izzy tries to basically steal him a new heart he asks her to marry him while in the throws of heart failure. After he receives the heart Morgan even gets to protray him as extremely opptimistic and happy but that could only last so long and he has a very touching death scene at the end.The-jam 18:06, 5 June 2006 (EDT)

• Christian Clemenson, Boston Legal: His portrayal of Hans "Hands" Espenson was one of the most emotionally compelling on all of television this year. While Michael J. Fox did evoke emotions, Mr. Clemenson took what originally amounted to a throwaway token "kooky" character and turned that character into someone with a great deal of depth in just 3 episodes.

--Nmfree 02:35, 6 June 2006 (EDT)