The Walking Dead boasts one of the biggest casts on TV. As a result, it's enjoyed a
whole lot of unique cameos -- so many, in fact, that you might not have noticed most of them.
These are the most surprising, interesting, and just plain strange cameos on The Walking Dead.
Hines Ward was among the NFL's most athletic, dazzling, and accomplished wide receivers in the
late 1990s and 2000s. In his 14-season career, spent entirely with the Pittsburgh Steelers,
he managed 1,000 successful receptions, placing him high on the all-time list,
which led to four Pro Bowl selections and two Super Bowl rings.
Ward was drafted out of the University of Georgia, where one of his teammates on the
gridiron was running back IronE Singleton, who pursued acting upon graduation.
Singleton found success in Hollywood, landing roles in movies like Remember the Titans,
The Blind Side, and The Longest Yard – and eventually, on the first three seasons of
The Walking Dead, in which he portrayed zombie apocalypse survivor Theodore Douglas, AKA T-Dog.
In 2012, Ward utilized his connection to Singleton to land a small role on The Walking Dead as well,
which was then shooting in his home state of Georgia.
When the show's location moved to a semi-abandoned prison,
Ward got to play one of the zombies who pounce on the main survivor characters. Ward spent two
hours in makeup to be transformed into a walker, where an artist painted his old jersey number, 86,
onto the back of his head. Even as a stumbling zombie, we wouldn't want to go up against him.
Before The Walking Dead hit AMC in 2010 and produced some of the best
viewership numbers in cable TV history, zombie entertainment was primarily seen as niche fare,
enjoyed by only a relatively small segment of the population. Sure, everyone knew what zombies were,
but only dedicated fans could offer opinions on Night of the Living Dead or discuss the
finer points of Re-Animator. Zombies were, in other words, for nerds — but then those
much-maligned individuals enjoyed a big moment in the early 2010s.
Comedian Chris Hardwick, an avowed nerd, had just launched his popular Nerdist podcast,
the first brick in a media empire that caters to, well, unabashed nerds like himself.
When The Walking Dead returned for its highly anticipated second season in 2011,
new episodes were followed by a new series: Talking Dead. On Talking Dead, cast and crew
from The Walking Dead and special celebrity guests gather to talk about the episode that just aired.
The whole endeavor is hosted by the always enthusiastic and proudly nerdy Hardwick.
"Holy shit!"
Those two shows collided, and Hardwick earned himself a major thrill,
when, in 2019, the Nerdist founder made a brief, hard-to-spot appearance on The Walking
Dead. Near the end of the episode "Scars," a walker tries to attack Judith. That zombie is
none other than Hardwick, who achieved, in that moment, the peak of zombie nerd-dom.
Anthrax's Scott Ian is one of a rare breed: the most famous member of a band, even though he isn't
the lead singer. Since the 1980s, Ian has played guitar in the legendary thrash metal group,
and has perpetually overshadowed the group's various singers. He sports a memorable look,
what with his shaved head and long, pointy wizard beard. Ian is also a big fan of horror media,
and once hosted a web series called Bloodworks, where he explored how gore effects are made.
"It's 5:15 or something in the morning here in Atlanta, and
we're on the set of The Walking Dead."
All these unique qualities, along with his friendship with Walking Dead special
effects makeup designer Greg Nicotero, helped land Ian a gig on cable's top zombie show.
In 2011, Ian was rendered unrecognizable by a thick slathering of gore and makeup
effects in his appearance as a walker on a webisode of The Walking Dead.
He returned to the franchise in the 2015 episode "Remember":
His anonymous zombie hides under a trash heap and reaches out to grab the leg of
an unsuspecting Rick Grimes, but is quickly stopped when the sheriff allows his son, Carl,
to shove a metal pole through the undead Ian's head, instantly dispatching him. What a gory way
to go — but then again, we're not sure this horror hound would be happy with anything less.
Sam Witwer has done voice work for the Star Wars universe, held the major role of Davis
Bloome for a season of the Superman-centric series Smallville, played vampire Aidan Waite
on four seasons of Being Human, and portrayed Mr. Hyde, of horror legend, on Once Upon a Time.
Nearly a decade into his bustling career as an actor in both film and TV, Witwer took a role
on the first episode of The Walking Dead – one with no lines and scant screen time. The part:
"Tank Soldier," a zombified ex-military man that Rick Grimes has to kill in Atlanta.
Witwer was supposed to return to the show later on, as showrunner Frank Darabont
wanted to produce some prequel episodes about the fall of Atlanta to zombies.
As originally planned, Witwer would have reportedly had a more robust role playing
that soldier before his zombification, but unfortunately, those episodes never came to pass.
Most television viewers and filmgoers might not know M.C. Gainey by name, but they
certainly recognize his face. The prolific character actor has appeared in nearly 200
projects, usually in small but pivotal roles, and typically as a villain. Gainey plays angry guys,
corrupt authority figures, violent criminals, and the like:
His impressive resume includes roles like Big John Brittle in Django Unchained, Tom Friendly on Lost,
and Poppa Poutine on Riverdale. If a character played by Gainey shows up,
it generally means very bad news for the film or TV series' protagonist. Gainey told The Junction,
"With a face like this, there aren't a lot of lawyers or priest roles coming my way."
It's true: Gainey's mug is a craggy marvel that was made to loom menacingly out of the shadows.
Audiences are likely to be most familiar with Gainey for his work as Swamp Thing in Con Air,
or perhaps Bo Crowder on Justified, but probably not at all from his time on The Walking Dead.
He appeared just once on The Walking Dead, In the 2014 episode "Slabtown," his recognizable face
heavily obscured by thick makeup so he could amble around as an anonymous zombie.
In 2002, Keisha Castle-Hughes enjoyed what is probably the
best response an actor can get for their debut performance. At just 12 years old,
the Australian-born actress starred in the highly acclaimed New Zealand-produced film
Whale Rider, for which she earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She was,
at the time, the youngest person to ever be recognized in that category.
She then re-emerged in 2015 as the fierce Dornish warrior Obara Sand on Game of Thrones.
Just before she joined the cast of that
megawatt HBO series, Castle-Hughes booked a spot on The Walking Dead.
In the 2014 episode "Slabtown," she portrayed Joan, a zombie outbreak survivor held prisoner
by Gorman. Bitten by a walker during an escape attempt, she endures a grueling arm amputation,
but ultimately takes her own life by opening her stitches and allowing herself to bleed out.
Joan then reanimates as a zombie, and is killed by Dawn Lerner.
Though The Walking Dead's ratings figures had fallen off from the
stratospheric levels the show once reached at its peak, it still remained one of the
most popular and high-profile shows on cable TV by the time 2019 rolled around.
All throughout the series' run, it's been a lucrative gig for actors.
Landing a role on the show can serve as marvelous exposure for any actor,
even one who has already established themselves on other well-known television series -- and
even if you're just there for a one-off role to show up, zombie out, and get shot.
That's very much the case for Rutina Wesley,
who first found fame as Tara Thornton on HBO's lauded vampire saga, True Blood. After her time
on that show ended in 2014, Wesley enjoyed a long arc on NBC's Hannibal as Reba McClane,
as well as a couple of guest spots on the CW's flagship DC superhero series, Arrow. In 2016, she
began starring as Nova Bordelon on the celebrated Oprah Winfrey Network family drama, Queen Sugar.
One truth emerges from Wesley's filmography: She's busy, flexible,
and just as comfortable portraying the nuances of bereavement as she is hanging out with vampires.
Despite her packed schedule, Wesley found time to appear on a single
episode of The Walking Dead in 2019. In "Scars," Wesley portrayed Jocelyn, or
Joss, a cruel and controlling leader of a cult-like collective of children. Michonne,
her old friend from before the end of the world arrived, is forced to end her wicked ways.
In addition to The Walking Dead comics series writer Robert Kirkman
and the TV series developer Frank Darabont, the one person who has had
the biggest behind-the-scenes impact on the long-running zombie show is Greg Nicotero.
He's directed more than 30 episodes, served as various types of producer,
and heads up the show's special effects make-up department — which means he's
responsible for turning groups of actors into monstrously flesh-dripping zombie hordes.
To say he's an integral part of the show is a massive understatement.
Every now and then, Nicotero even gets in on the fun, taking a spin in the zombification
chair himself. Between 2010 and 2016, Nicotero appeared in five episodes,
each time as an undead walker. His Walking Dead colleagues tend to grant him some of the most
plum zombie assignments available. In one appearance set in the town of Woodbury,
for example, he was tasked with lunging at Andrea, who stops him with a pistol blast to the head.
"This is my friend. This is Greg Nicotero."
A TV adaptation of The Walking Dead might look and feel completely different if not for the work
of Charlie Adlard. In 2004, Adlard joined the creative staff of the comic series upon which
the show is based as a penciler. From there on, he helped bring the stories of Robert Kirkman
and his other collaborators to life, until its final issue hit stands in 2019.
When you think of The Walking Dead comic, what you picture is Adlard's work.
His vision of the apocalypse, full of dark, inky shadows and weathered faces,
is a terrifying triumph of comics art, to say nothing of the fact that it
formed the foundation of what became one of the most popular shows on TV.
Appropriately enough, Adlard got to be part of the TV world he helped to realize.
During production of the show's first season in the summer of 2010, he reported to the set of The
Walking Dead to spend three days filming a cameo appearance as a walker. As he later recounted
in an interview with comicbookmovie.com, it was a thrilling experience. As he recalled,
"Three days of seeing my creations come to life ... I felt very privileged."
Adlard can be seen amongst the horde of walkers that attacks a very confused
Sheriff Rick Grimes in Atlanta in "Days Gone By," the very first episode of The Walking Dead.
After building up a reputation as a versatile actor and something of a muse for filmmaker Tim
Burton in quirky classics like Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands, and Sleepy Hollow,
Johnny Depp became one of the biggest movie stars in the world in the 21st century.
He's starred as Captain Jack Sparrow in five enormously successful Pirates of
the Caribbean movies, as the Mad Hatter in two Alice in Wonderland adventures, and as
Gellert Grindelwald in the Harry Potter prequel Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.
In 2016, Depp even made time for a brief guest star appearance on an episode of The Walking Dead
... or at least part of him did, and apparently without his knowledge or active participation.
In the episode "Not Tomorrow Yet," a decapitated human head makes an appearance that bears a
strong resemblance to Depp. According to makeup and effects wizard and
"Not Tomorrow Yet" director Greg Nicotero, that's because the head is, in fact, Johnny Depp's head.
Nicotero told Entertainment Weekly,
"I think we had sculpted an emaciated version of a dummy head for something
and we used Johnny Depp's head as a basis just for a clay sculpt."
That's certainly one way of making an appearance.
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus,
even more Looper videos about your favorite movies and TV shows are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.