One of the most popular shows that FX created was the motorcycle drama Sons of Anarchy. Based on Shakespearian tragedy, and specifically set up like Hamlet, the series lasted for seven seasons and showed the rise and fall of the favored son, Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam), in a series created by Kurt Sutter.
Sutter, who had worked on The Shield with Shawn Ryan before taking on his own show, had a monster success. The series was FX's highest-rated series and was even more popular than The Shield and Nip/Tuck for a time. This meant that several high-profile actors wanted to appear on Sons of Anarchy. While some stood out, others had small roles that some fans might have already forgotten about.
Michael Chiklis
Kurt Sutter worked with Shawn Ryan on The Shield before he created Sons of Anarchy. That show was about corrupt police officers in the LAPD, specifically based on the real-life Rampart police scandal. The star of the show was Michael Chiklis, who played Vic Mackey, the head of the corrupt Strike Team. Chiklis also had a small role in Sons of Anarchy in the final season. He is a truck driver Gemma meets who drives the truck that killed Jax in the finale.
Robert Patrick
Robert Patrick plays an important role in Mayans, M.C., as Les Packer. He played the same role in Sons of Anarchy, but it is often easy to forget that Patrick was in that earlier role. He mostly kept his face covered and rarely looked like the actor fans have grown to know from roles like the villain in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. In Sons of Anarchy, Patrick was the President of the San Bernardino chapter of Sons of Anarchy in Season 6.
David Hasselhoff
David Hasselhoff gained worldwide fame for his role as a lifeguard in Baywatch, and before that, as an action hero in the TV show Knight Rider. He is also a musician with major hits in Germany. Marvel Cinematic Universe fans got to know him thanks to Peter Quill's obsession with him in Guardians of the Galaxy. In Sons of Anarchy, Hasselhoff showed up in the fourth season episode titled "Brick" as a porn producer.
Lea Michele
There are a few actresses not known for gritty movie appearances that showed up in Sons of Anarchy. The most notable one was High School Musical star Ashley Tisdale, who appeared in the fifth season as Emma Jean, a call girl working for Nero Padilla. However, another shocker was Glee actress Lea Michele.
Michele appeared in the seventh season in one episode, titled 'Smoke 'em if You Got 'em'. She starred as a waitress who listened to Gemma talk about how Jax just lost his wife, Tara.
Joel McHale
Joel McHale is a comedian best known for his role in Community. However, he took on a very different role in Sons of Anarchy. McHale made his debut in Sons of Anarchy's fifth season episode, 'Small World', and is a man who flirted with Gemma on the show. However, he made a drastic mistake when he stole Gemma's car and money. This led to the next episode, where Jax, Nero, and other SAMCRO members chased him down, attacked him, and got the money back.
Charisma Carpenter
Charisma Carpenter made her name thanks to her role as Cordelia on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff Angel. Since then, she has mostly taken on small movie roles and guest appearances on various TV shows. This includes a turn on Sons of Anarchy in the event season episode 'Red Rose'. She had a minor role, playing a character named Carol, a conservative administrative director that Gemma spoke to when visiting her father at his care home facility.
Stephen King
Stephen King never hid the fact that he was a huge Sons of Anarchy fan. When Kurt Sutter learned about how big of a fan the Master of Horror was, he reached out to see if King would like to appear in the series. King said yes, but he had one request.
King appeared as Bachman in the third season episode 'Caregiver'. He was a cleaner Tig hired to dispose of the body of Gemma's father's former caretaker. Bachman was a fun name since that was a pseudonym King used at one time, and the only thing King asked in return was to ride a motorcycle in the episode.
Taryn Manning
Taryn Manning is best known for her lead role in the hit Netflix drama series Orange Is the New Black. Manning played Tiffany "Pennsatucky" Doggett in the series. However, before this, she had a small role on Sons of Anarchy. Manning took on the role of Cherry in the first season of the series, and her final appearance was in Season 3. Her character met Half-Sack and started to date him. When the ATF tried to force her to rat out SAMCRO, Jax helped her escape the country.
Derek Mears
Derek Mears has mostly worked as a stuntman, but he is also well-known as the last person to take on the role of Jason Voorhees in the 2009 Friday the 13th reboot. He also appeared in several other horror and sci-fi movies, with his most high-profile performance in the DC Comics series Swamp Thing as the Swamp Thing. Mears played the character of Plow, a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, and died in his only appearance in "Wolfsangel."
Doug Jones
Doug Jones is someone that most people wouldn't recognize if they saw him. This is because he mostly works under prosthetics. He portrayed Abe Sapien in Hellboy, The Pale Man in Pan's Labyrinth, The Silver Surfer in Fantastic Four and the Rise of the Silver Surfer, and Amphibian Man in The Shape of Water. In Sons of Anarchy, he appeared in the Season 6 episode titled "The Mad King." Jones played the character of Officer Crane.