A former child star.
A legendary athlete.
Some of the funniest people who ever lived.
A lot of entertainers visited the Bundy household over the course of Married… with Children's
time on the air, but sadly, some of them have since departed this mortal coil.
Michael Clarke Duncan only had a brief cameo as a bouncer in one Married... with Children
episode, but it helped get his foot in the door.
The former construction worker and bodyguard first got into acting via a brief appearance
in the 90s drama Renegade, which led to more TV shows and the occasional commercial.
His fortunes improved immensely when he played the burly and sensitive roughneck Bear in
the 1998 blockbuster Armageddon.
A year later, his stardom shot even higher when he portrayed a death row inmate in The
Green Mile, earning him an Oscar nomination.
Duncan would later go on to demonstrate his comedic chops in the likes of Talladega Nights
and Two And A Half Men.
Unfortunately, his career and life were cut tragically short in 2012 when he died of a
heart attack at the age of 54.
As his Green Mile co-star Tom Hanks eulogized him to Entertainment Tonight,
"I am terribly saddened at the loss of Big Mike.
He was the treasure we all discovered on the set of The Green Mile.
He was magic.
He was a big love of man and his passing leaves us stunned."
Sometimes, Married... with Children would bring on a major star just to provide them
an opportunity to play against type.
So when the show handed former Diff'rent Strokes child star Gary Coleman that proverbial football,
he gleefully ran with it.
Playing a building inspector, he shared one hilarious scene with Al, which referenced
his iconic role.
"Don't even ask, I'm not him.
I've never been him.
I can't even stand the little creep."
Coleman could never outgrow the role that first made him famous, quite literally.
An autoimmune disability at birth limited his height to four feet, eight inches, and
required constant medical treatment, including heart surgery and two kidney transplants.
His short stature also ultimately limited the opportunities for his acting career.
According to CelebrityNetWorth.com, Coleman was making $2.5 million annually at the height
of his fame.
But he lost a fair chunk of it to taxes, medical bills, lawyers, and a trust issue with his
parents and other handlers whom he accused of misappropriating his assets.
He won some of his earnings back in a lawsuit, but he still had to work as a security guard
to make ends meet.
In the end, the 42-year-old actor was worth only $75,000 when he died of a brain hemorrhage
in 2010.
Tim Conway was a brilliant and prolific supporting actor who never really had his sights set
on being a leading man.
Billed by the Las Vegas Sun as quote, "the best second banana in the business," he was
arguably the funniest cast member on The Carol Burnett Show.
It's little wonder then that Married... with Children enlisted his skills to play the recurring
role of farmer Ephraim Wanker, Peg Bundy's father.
Conway typically employed understated, low-key execution that would take viewers by surprise
with a killer improvised line, a quality that nabbed him six Emmys over the course of his
career.
Before all that adulation, Conway first made a name for himself in several Disney movies
and on the sitcom McHale's Navy.
In his later years, he guest starred on a variety of shows, including Mad About You
and SpongeBob SquarePants.
He also regularly appeared on Las Vegas stages with his old Carol Burnett cohort Harvey Korman.
Conway died at the age of 85 from complications of fluid on his brain.
Upon his passing, Carol Burnett declared,
"He was one in a million, not only as a brilliant comedian but as a loving human being.
I cherish the times we had together both on the screen and off.
He’ll be in my heart forever."
Dom DeLuise's voice performance as Floyd the Dog in one episode of Married... With Children
was a marked contrast to his reputation for going out of control on a movie set.
"Oh, that's Madonna's dog.
After the book came out, he turned himself in."
DeLuise would often have the cast and crew bent over in laughter with such regularity
that production on his films often went behind schedule.
As his frequent collaborator Mel Brooks said to the Los Angeles Times upon DeLuise's passing,
"[He] created so much joy and laughter on the set that you couldn't get your work done.
So every time I made a movie with Dom, I would plan another two days on the schedule just
for laughter."
You'd be hard-pressed to find a DeLuise appearance where he wasn't loud, vibrant, and over the
top.
In fact, you'd have to go back to the early 60s to find those rarities, such as a minor
role in the Cold War drama Fail Safe.
He eventually showed off more of his hilarious colors when a producer of The Dean Martin
Show told him not to hold back on his penchant for improv.
After decades of making countless audiences crack up, DeLuise died in 2009 at the age
of 75 from kidney failure.
A number of sitcoms added an element of intrigue to their cast lineups with actors who were
heard but never seen.
One notable name on that list is Kathleen Freeman, who played Peg's mom Flo Wanker on
five episodes of Married... with Children.
Her obesity was frequently a target from her son-in-law Al.
"Margaret, open the door!
It's your mother, and I'm hungry."
Freeman is probably best known for her role as a voice coach in the 1951 classic Singin'
In the Rain, although she was far more prolific as a foil to comedian Jerry Lewis over the
course of ten movies.
She made appearances in more than 100 TV shows and movies, although many of her roles were
uncredited when she started out.
That gradually changed as she garnered a reputation as a character actor and landed several TV
roles in the likes of The Beverly Hillbillies and Growing Pains.
One of her most notable movie credits was Sister Mary Stigmata in The Blues Brothers
and its sequel Blues Brothers 2000.
Freeman was 78 when she passed away from lung cancer in 2001.
Despite its success, Married... with Children was a bit of a pariah among its sitcom brethren,
so it made sense when it opened its doors to folks with similar outlaw reputations.
Few carried that designation more vividly than country singer Waylon Jennings, who dominated
radio airwaves in the 60s and 70s.
With a grizzled scowl, Jennings played local music hero Ironhead Haynes in one episode
of Married.
As evidence of his defiant demeanor, he played one tune: a five-second, one-chord ditty whose
only lyric was "Darlings."
Despite recording 15 number-one hits, Jennings was legendary for thumbing his nose at the
Nashville country music establishment.
As he put it to NPR in 2010,
"It was all formula.
It was like cookie cutters, you know, everything you did."
Jennings otherwise didn't work much on TV, although he did provide some voice work for
Family Guy.
"Now them Griffin boys better grow some wings, or start flapping their arms."
That was an homage to his narration of The Dukes of Hazzard, which used his tune "Good
Ol' Boys" as its theme song.
Unlike most legendary outlaws, Jennings passed away peacefully at the age of 64 in 2002 from
a diabetes-related illness.
When it came to delivering sexual innuendo for the sake of a few titters, Married...
with Children was among the bawdiest offenders of its time.
And few guest stars came equipped to dog paddle in those proverbial tanks more than Tawny
Kitaen.
Her sole appearance was as a lingerie model who finagles a free pair of shoes from Al's
store, only to fracture her leg on live television when the footwear's heel inexplicably breaks
off.
Kitaen didn't exactly deliver any zingers in the episode, but then again, she didn't
have to.
The San Diego native got into showbiz via modeling, leading to bit parts in tawdry made-for-TV
beach movies before landing roles in the daytime drama Santa Barbara and a 90s reboot of the
classic radio-set sitcom WKRP In Cincinnati.
She also landed some big screen work, the most notable of which has to be the 1984 comedy
Bachelor Party, in which she played Tom Hanks' fiancée.
But if you're a fan of 80s hair metal, you probably remember Kitaen a little bit differently,
as she posed on album covers and served as eye candy in music videos for bands like RATT
and Whitesnake.
The latter band appearance, Whitesnake, was no accident, since at the time she was married
to lead singer David Coverdale.
Kitaen died in 2021 at the age of 59 from a heart ailment known as dilated cardiomyopathy.
We don't know if there are any thoroughly kept records about some of the most arcane
achievements of Married... with Children guest characters.
But we can say with reasonable confidence that Alan Thicke is probably the only actor
to have played characters who dated both Peg and Kelly Bundy.
He first wound up with Kelly after an ill-fated double date.
Then, his involvement with Kelly's mother occurred one season later in a three-parter
when the Bundys were going through a separation.
"A top of the line model like myself doesn't stay long on the showroom floor."
Thicke is best known for being the patriarch on the ABC sitcom Growing Pains, and he appeared
on plenty of other shows, from How I Met Your Mother to The Eric Andre Show.
Behind the scenes, he was one of the industry's busiest movers and shakers.
He also was an accomplished musician, composing themes for such shows as The Facts of Life
and The Joker's Wild.
He even worked as a television writer, penning scripts for several outings from the groundbreaking
fake talk show Fernwood 2 Night to specials hosted by such stars as Barry Manilow, Olivia
Newton-John, and Richard Pryor.
A native Canadian who first cut his teeth on the state-run CBC network, Thicke also
enjoyed playing hockey.
He was enjoying playing on the ice with his son Carter when he suddenly died from a ruptured
aorta at the age of 69 in 2016.
As his other son, musician Robin Thicke, wrote on Instagram,
"He was the best man I ever knew."
Life in the Bundy household, with two undisciplined children, a father who believed he was a failure,
and a wife who reinforced that notion, was hardly sunshine and lollipops.
Fortunately, legendary blues musician B.B.
King offered a cure for the Bundy blues.
In one Season 5 episode, he portrayed a street performer who played one of his hits, "Blues
For A Dog," as some pups fittingly scurried past him.
To blues fans, seeing the legendary musician on the show was a real treat, since King wasn't
exactly known for being a regular fixture on sitcoms.
His credited filmography mainly consists of recorded concerts, though he did make rare
appearances in such flicks as Blues Brothers 2000.
A winner of 15 Grammy Awards and best known for hits like "The Thrill Is Gone" and "3
O'Clock Blues," King put out more than 50 albums in his lifetime and toured relentlessly.
He averaged 250 dates a year, as he played past most folks' retirement age.
For his efforts, he's been inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame, appropriate recognition for someone who's inspired scores of guitar
heroes that have followed in his wake.
King died in his sleep in 2015 after a Las Vegas gig at the age of 89 from several strokes
associated with type 2 diabetes.
A master at improv and an expert in timing and execution, Fred Willard consistently proved
that even bird-brain portrayals could alter an actor's flight path to greater heights.
It's a gift he deployed in hundreds of credits throughout his career, including one time
on Married... with Children when he played a shyster salesman in an episode that also
showcased heavy metal band Anthrax.
Willard seldom played the lead part.
Instead he served as a comedic foil who frequently stole the show.
For all that, he received five Primetime Emmy nominations: three for Everybody Loves Raymond
and two for Modern Family.
He also won a Daytime Emmy for the afternoon soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful in 2015
when he was 81.
Willard came to prominence in 1977 as an idiotic sidekick on the fictitious small-town talk
show Fernwood 2 Night, which led to several TV spots and the movie mockumentary This Is
Spinal Tap, which highlighted his gift for ad-libbing.
His improv skills really shined in another mockumentary, when he played a dimwitted commentator
at a dog competition in 2000's Best In Show.
"Just an idea off the top of my head, why didn't he put the bloodhound, put on one of
those Sherlock Holmes hats and put a little pipe in his mouth?"
Willard worked tirelessly until the end of his life.
His stint stint as Phil Dunphy's father in Modern Family serving as one of his last gigs
before he died at 86 from a heart attack in 2020.
Just a couple weeks after his passing, he still had more for his fans to see, as he
showed up on the Netflix sitcom, Space Force.
If you've ever seen an episode or even just a clip of Married... with Children, then you
know that life with the Bundys was less-than-ideal.
Still, they pale in comparison to the real life of one particular guest star.
That would be country singer Tammy Wynette, whose own tales of hardship were preserved
in iconic songs like "Stand By Your Man" and "D-I-V-O-R-C-E."
When she played herself as the manager of Peg and Kelly's hack duo The Juggs, the tearjerker
queen demonstrated that she at least had a sense of humor about herself.
Despite her musical success, Wynette's life was marked with one instance of despair after
another.
According to Jimmy McDonough, who penned the biography Tammy Wynette: Tragic Country Queen,
her true talent was in transferring all that anguish into music.
As he put it to NPR,
"In terms of a slow, sad song, nobody could rip it up like Tammy.
She is just unrelenting."
During her career, Wynette scored 20 major hits and is recognized as the first country
star to score a platinum record.
But she also endured five marriages, including one tempestuous relationship with fellow country
legend George Jones.
Several health issues also surfaced in later years.
Her Married... with Children cameo would be the last time she'd be seen on TV during her
lifetime, as she died in 1998 at the age of 55 from a blood clot in the lungs.
The experience of watching Married... with Children was hardly a peaceful Sunday drive.
Instead, it was more of a pedal-to-the-metal joy ride into a Daytona 500 pileup.
Thus, it was the perfect setting for a guest appearance from high-octane comedian Sam Kinison,
who punctuated his punchlines with rage that delighted diehards and terrified everyone
else.
A former preacher, he played an unlikely guardian angel in one Married episode that satirized
the Yuletide classic It's A Wonderful Life.
Trying to offer some advice to a down-on-his-luck Al, Kinison's character amped up his temper
after sharing anecdotes of his own hard-luck life.
"I hated driving home so much, I had vanity plates that said 'Hit me!'"
His risqué humor notwithstanding, Kinison thought that the transition from preacher
to comedian seemed logical.
As he put it during an interview with Larry King,
"If you can make people laugh in church, you can make them laugh anywhere, I think."
But off-stage, Kinison's life was nowhere near as holy as his religious background might
suggest.
He indulged heavily in cocaine and alcohol, although towards the end of his life, he claimed
that he was cutting down on those substances.
Alas, his life in the fast lane ended with a fatal car collision in 1992.
He was only 38.
Japanese-American actor Noriyuki "Pat" Morita set the bar for Asian representation in Hollywood.
Although his appearance on Married... with Children was quite a contrast to his reputation
for playing wise and dignified characters.
In an episode, he played a stern bank executive, whom his subordinate and Bundy neighbor Marcy
D'Arcy wanted to impress for the sake of a promotion.
The role was certainly a far cry from his most famous gigs on the sitcom Happy Days
and in The Karate Kid, the latter of which earned him an Oscar nomination.
All of that success came after Morita endured a difficult childhood.
He was diagnosed with spinal tuberculosis and then spent part of his early years in
an internment camp during the Second World War.
A computer employee for a time, he eventually switched to showbiz, first landing a part
in the Japanese movie Car Thieves and eventually scoring small roles on TV shows like Columbo.
Recurring parts on sitcoms like M*A*S*H and Sanford and Son led to his star-making stints
in Happy Days and Karate Kid, after which he played the lead in a short-lived cop show
called Ohara.
He would go on to appear in dozens of TV shows over the years before passing away in 2005
at the age 73 from kidney failure related to complications from alcoholism.
His birth certificate might have read "Charles Aaron Smith," but football fans knew him better
as "Bubba."
Outside of the gridiron, he played brawny law enforcer Moses Hightower in the Police
Academy film franchise.
He also showed up for two hilarious appearances on Married... with Children, first as a vengeful
security guard still angry over his high school team losing to Al Bundy's squad back in the
day.
"You never made it past that goal line.
I dropped you like third-period French."
Smith's second appearance on the show happened alongside fellow NFL great Kenny Stabler for
a less-than-spectacular game called The Dud Bowl.
Before generating guffaws in Hollywood, Smith instilled fear into his opponents as a lineman
on the Baltimore Colts, Oakland Raiders, and Houston Oilers.
His all-star status helped land parts on a variety of TV shows, which led to the big
screen with Police Academy and a number of Miller Lite beer commercials.
During his later years, Smith revived his Moses Hightower portrayal in a short-lived
TV version of Police Academy in 1997, which was followed by low-budget films with titles
like Full Clip and Blood River.
Although his death at age 66 in 2011 was due to drug intoxication, additional research
in 2016 revealed that he also suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which was
caused by concussions he received during his NFL days.
If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available.
Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact
SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).