The Walking Dead didn't start attracting notable guest stars until around Season 6, likely because of the critically acclaimed fifth season. Once the main cast started getting into the double digits, often making it too hard to count, the deaths started racking up. But to be on The Walking Dead for a short time was a rite of passage for a lot of actors, and a fun time to experiment with gory death scenes.
10 Noah Emmerich Played Dr. Edwin Jenner
Season 1, Episode 5, "Wildfire" - Season 1, Episode 6, "TS-19"
Emmerich is best known for his role as FBI agent Stan Beeman on The Americans from 2013-2018. His roles before The Walking Dead included Beautiful Girls and The Truman Show. Despite him nearly killing all the survivors that entered the CDC for protection, Jenner was such a popular and impactful character that he returned for the post-credits scene in The Walking Dead: World Beyond finale.
9 Robin Lord Taylor Played Sam
Season 4, Episode 4, "Indifference" - Season 5, Episode 1, "No Sanctuary"
The Walking Dead was almost Taylor's breakthrough, even in just one episode in Season 4. Rick and Carol meet his character, Sam, and his girlfriend on a run. In the Season 5 premiere, Rick and Sam cross paths again at Terminus, but Sam is killed by the cannibals in their line-up.
8 Ethan Embry Played Carter
Season 6, Episode 1, "First time Again"
Ethan Embry, however, does have a significant part in this one episode as Carter, an Alexandrian who expresses doubt over Rick taking over as the leader of the community. To no one's surprise, Rick and Carter get off on the wrong foot, but Rick mercifully kills him when Carter is bitten by a walker on the cheek. Outside of The Walking Dead, fans can find Embry in the Showtime series Brotherhood and the upcoming untitled Christy Martin film starring Sydney Sweeney.
7 Merritt Weaver Played Denise
Season 6, Episode 2, "JSS" - Season 6, Episode 14, "Twice as Far"
After Pete's death in the Season 5 finale of The Walking Dead, Denise was promoted as the new medic of Alexandria. However, she was riddled with anxiety about her new position and often doubted her ability to help others in a life-or-death situation. Her death in "Twice as Far" was the catalyst for Alexandria's fatal confrontation with Negan in the Season 6 finale.
6 John Carroll Lynch Played Eastman
Season 6, Episode 4, "Here's Not Here"
Lynch's role as Eastman earned him a nomination for a Saturn Award for Best Guest Starring Role on Television. But aside from The Walking Dead, Lynch made a name for himself for his acting roles in American Horror Story, Fargo and Zodiac, and made his award-winning directorial debut with Lucky.
Season 6, Episode 12, "Not Tomorrow Yet" - Season 6, Episode 13, "The Same Boat"
In Season 6, Rick and his crew make a risky choice to take out the Saviors in their sleep to prevent a problem before it starts, and it ends up backfiring on them. A small group of Saviors led by a woman named Paula (Alicia Witt) takes Carol and Maggie hostage. Paula stubbornly refuses to let Maggie and Carol go, despite negotiations with Rick over a walkie-talkie, and atrociously goes out by a walker bite.
Sci-fi fans may recognize Witt from her debut role as Alia Atreides in David Lynch's 1984 film Dune. She continued her partnership with Lynch by starring in an episode of Twin Peaks. Most recently, Witt was in the 2024 horror film Longlegs as Ruth, the religious mother of Maika Monroe's Lee.
4 Rutina Wesley Played Jocelyn
Season 9, Episode 14, "Scars"
Before Rutina Wesley was surviving the Cordyceps apocalypse on HBO's The Last of Us, she was surviving the zombie apocalypse on The Walking Dead. Wesley was only in one episode of the HBO series' first season as Maria, Tommy Miller's wife and co-leader of a community in Jackson, Wyoming. Similarly, she had a very small part to play on The Walking Dead, but ended up making such a huge impact on Michonne's life.
3 Thora Birch Played Gamma / Mary
Season 10, Episode 2, "We Are the End of the World" - Season 10, Episode 12, "Walk With Us"
Thora Birch is a former child star known for Hocus Pocus who came into prominence as an adult actor in American Beauty. Several years later, Birch played Mary in the tenth season of The Walking Dead. Mary was the third-in-command of the Whisperers, being rewarded the title of "Gamma" after killing her own sister to save Alpha's life.
Mary would go on to strip herself of her Whisperer identity and use her own name again, redeeming herself in the Coalition's eyes. In her last moment, Mary sacrifices herself to distract a herd of walkers away from her baby nephew, Adam, and is killed by Beta when she's distracted.
2 Robert Patrick Played Mays
Season 10, Episode 19, "One More"
When Season 10 was airing on AMC, the COVID-19 pandemic forced television productions to shut down for safety purposes. As a result, The Walking Dead's Season 10 finale aired six months later than intended. To make up for the delay of Season 11, The Walking Dead released a set of bonus episodes that are considered "Season 10C."
1 Hilarie Burton Morgan Played Lucille Smith
Season 10, Epiosde 22, "Here's Negan"
In the standalone episode, "Here's Negan," The Walking Dead uncovers who Negan was before the leader of the Saviors. Negan had told the story of his wife, Lucille, in passing and why he named his infamous barbed wire baseball bat after her. But it's not until "Here's Negan" that audiences actually get a glimpse of who she was.
Lucille was actually played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan's real-life wife, Hilarie Burton Morgan, who is also an accomplished actor on her own. Burton Morgan portrayed Peyton Sawyer on One Tree Hill for six seasons, which is still her biggest role to date. She may have only been on The Walking Dead for one episode, but the emotional gravity she brought to Lucille made "Here's Negan" one of the most memorable episodes of the series.
