Miami Vice aired on TV from 1984 to 1990. The show was a hit, and had a great influence on the fashion and the music of the 1980s. It was also known for a non-stop parade of guest villains, played by cool people who weren't necessarily actors. Rock stars like Frank Zappa and Phil Collins played drug lords, making a guest appearance on the show a coveted job in the industry. But Miami Vice also needed a never-ending supply of actors to play drug dealers, junkies, victims, witnesses, and other one-off roles. You might be surprised at how many of these single appearances were played by people who went on to become stars afterward. Almost forty years later, you might also be delighted to see how young they were when they were arrested or killed on Miami Vice.
Some of them became household names, like immediately. Jimmy Smits went to L.A. Law in 1986; Bruce Willis began Moonlighting in 1985. Others took a while, so that you may have forgotten they were on Miami Vice. -via Digg