‘Touched by an Angel’ Ended 20 Years Ago: 12 Big Names Who Guest-Starred
While Joan of Arcadia answered the question, “What if God was one of us,” its CBS predecessor Touched by an Angel showed God’s emissaries walking among mere mortals. Across the fantasy drama’s nine-season run — which ended on April 27, 2003 — angels played by the likes of Roma Downey and Della Reese brought hope and healing to troubled souls.
Along the way, the guest cast included award-winning actors, future film and TV superstars, and even civil-rights icons. Whether they played characters touched by angels or those on hand to help out, here are a dozen famous figures who appeared on the show.
Muhammad Ali
The heavyweight boxing champ appeared as himself in 1999’s “Fighting the Good Fight,” helping a young boy understand that boxing is not an answer to bullying.
Maya Angelou
This poet and civil rights activist took a rare TV role in 1995’s “Reunion,” playing a woman grappling with her son’s choice to marry a woman living with HIV.
Jack Black
In 1995’s “Angels on the Air,” this future movie star played a CD reseller who pressures a record-store employee (Melissa Joan Hart) to steal from her workplace.
Bryan Cranston
Long before Breaking Bad made him an Emmy favorite, and even before his Malcolm in the Middle era, Cranston played an emergency room doctor in 1995’s “The Hero.”
Céline Dion
At the height of her “My Heart Will Go On” fame, Dion (seen here with Touched star John Dye) played herself in the 1998 episode “Psalm 151,” as a boy gets his best friend a meet-and-greet with the singer.
Kirsten Dunst
Dunst appeared in the 1996 episode “Into the Light” after her breakout role in Interview With the Vampire but before her teen-film era — and portrayed a girl with cystic fibrosis.
Angela Lansbury
Just before her final Murder, She Wrote TV movie, Lansbury played a secretive British matriarch who comes clean to her family in 2002’s “All the Tea in China.”
Brie Larson
This Captain Marvel star and Oscar-winning Room actor was just 9 years old when she played a child trapped in a cult in 1999’s “Into the Fire.”
Pedro Pascal
Now a star of The Last of Us and The Mandalorian, Pascal was still going by Pedro Balmaceda when he guest-starred as a mechanic-turned-poet in 2000’s “Stealing Hope.”
*NSYNC
1999’s “Voice of an Angel” features this bygone boy band as New York City street performers singing their song “(God Must Have Spent) A Little More Time on You.”
Rosa Parks
This civil rights activist played herself in 1999’s “Black Like Monica,” giving spiritual comfort to Monica (Downey) after the angel becomes a mortal Black woman and experiences racism firsthand.
Mandy Patinkin
This Emmy and Tony winner — known to TV audiences for his roles on Chicago Hope, Criminal Minds, and Homeland — portrayed Satan himself in Season 7’s “Netherlands.”
