Long before he joined the rebellion in a galaxy far, far away and eight years before he earned a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in “Inside Llewyn Davis,” Oscar Isaac was entangled in a web of urban voodoo, love potions, and a deadly scam involving a phony witch doctor.
One of the “Moon Knight” star’s earliest notable roles was a credit in a 2006 episode of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” — often ranked as one of the best spin-offs of the flagship series.
In the Season 5 episode titled “The Healer,” Isaac guest stars as Robbie Paulson, a college dropout who gets mixed up with performing dubious deeds for a con artist posing as a nurse. The plot kicks into gear when two corpses are discovered encased in layers of poly-wrap, having died of slow suffocation.
The Law & Order universe was a rite of passage for Oscar Isaac
Enter Detectives Logan (Chris Noth) and Barek (Annabella Sciorra). They eventually connect the foul play to a trio of suspects including Oscar Isaac’s Robbie, who is manipulated into sabotaging a radiator to freeze an apartment and conceal the odor of decaying corpses within.
Of course, the “Criminal Intent” gig was just a precursor to Isaac’s impressive trajectory in Hollywood. Two years after his procedural stint, the versatile actor appeared in Ridley Scott’s “Body of Lies.”
Isaac isn’t the only A-lister whose journey included a pit stop in the “Law & Order” universe. Other notable actors who made early career guest appearances on the flagship series include Timothée Chalamet, Sarah Paulson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and many, many more.
