Miguel Ferrer

Miguel Ferrer really comes from quite the family. His parents, of course. I haven’t covered his uncle, but his cousin’s kind of well known. This, to me, brings up the conversation about the difference between a family history of talent and a nepo-baby. Because there is a difference. Now, it’s hard to argue that his upbringing was anything but privileged, and the more I learn about his family, childhood, and early career, the less I’m capable of doing that. But I think it’s quite clear that Miguel Ferrer had the successes he did not because his mother was extremely popular in the ‘50s and his father was an actual Oscar winner. Certainly not because his uncle is a journalist, and his cousin is six years younger than he would be. He was just really talented.

But okay, yes. He toured with his mother and Bing Crosby as a drummer, and that’s the kind of job he likely kind of got given. Though I can’t imagine Keith Moon cared all that much who his mother was when hiring him to play drums on “Don’t Worry Baby” on his Two Sides of the Moon album. (Though I don’t know; maybe he thought it was funny.) And I suspect it was his friend Bill Mumy’s fame more than his that got their character Comet Man accepted over at Marvel. They were probably—I have no information on this—friends because they went to Beverly Hills High School together, but a lot of people go to Beverly Hills High School together.

And okay, yes. His first TV role was playing his father’s younger self. On Magnum, P.I., yet. But it would be a shade over five years before he appeared in Robocop, which is the role that brought him to the attention of David Lynch. And it would be about five years between Robocop and Twin Peaks. And let’s be clear; yes, he’s great on Crossing Jordan and yes, we’re talking about him today because of Crossing Jordan, but he’s always going to be Albert to enormous numbers of people. Not because Albert was someone you’d want to be around; he wasn’t. But because he’s such a fun character.

After all, Albert’s a better person than Lloyd Henreid, whom Ferrer played in the miniseries of The Stand. Hell, even than Richard Dees from The Night Flier and definitely than Jack Torrance’s father in The Shining, both of whom Ferrer played as well. Oh, he excelled at sleazy characters. At least Albert was merely obnoxious. There was a good heart in him, even if you can’t quite believe the “I love you, Sheriff Truman” speech, for all it’s one of the best speeches on the shows. He was also exceedingly good at his job.

Then, yes, he played Garret Macy, who was exceedingly good at the same job and just not as good at the executive stuff he had to do. Heck, Garret even played drums. One of the things I really like about the character, too, is that he’s friends with Jordan and it’s never suggested they’re going to be anything else. For one thing, they know each other too well and know all the ways they’d be terrible together. They’re aware of one another’s crazy on a deep level. They love each other, but there are many ways to love, and within that medical examiner’s office we see a lot of them.