Last month, Hollywood character actor Miguel Ferrer passed away at the age of 61, leaving behind an extremely diverse career that covered both TV and film. On the small screen, he was definitely most notable in recent years as Assistant Director Owen Granger on CBS' hit drama NCIS: Los Angeles, and the show will pay a unique tribute to the co-star in a future episode that goes a little beyond just the traditional methods.
For the NCIS: L.A. installment that will air on Sunday, March 5, the creative team decided to honor Miguel Ferrer with Miguel Ferrer himself, as the episode will feature a rendition of the classic track "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," as performed by Ferrer's blues band The Jenerators, for which he plays the drums and sings vocals. That band also includes Lost in Space vet Bill Murny, who was responsible for giving Ferrer his first TV role for the short-lived series Sunshine in the mid-1970s. So that is a very cool and multi-leveled way of honoring the deceased actor, and I wonder if it'll sound more like Bob Dylan or more like Guns N' Roses.
Beyond the musical homage, NCIS: Los Angeles will also go the familiar route of placing an in memoriam title card at the end of the episode, according to TVLine. That's more in tune with what we'd expect, but it's great that Miguel Ferrer meant enough to everyone to find an extra way to say farewell.
It's somewhat strange that NCIS: L.A. is waiting until March to pay proper respects to Miguel Ferrer, but let's not forget that we haven't seen the last of him on the show yet, so perhaps all involved thought it best to wait until after that happened. The February 19 episode, which will be titled "Payback," was filmed before Ferrer's death, so Owen Granger will make his presumed final appearance on that date. Hopefully the subject matter won't be anything emotional, as fans might not be able to handle that.
That's not the only final project Miguel Ferrer had in the can before succumbing to throat cancer in January. Another of the actor's most iconic roles was FBI Agent Albert Rosenfeld for David Lynch and Mark Frost's bizarro murder mystery Twin Peaks, and Ferrer indeed reprised that role one last time for Showtime's upcoming Twin Peaks revival, which is set to air on Sunday, May 21.
NCIS: Los Angeles airs Sunday nights on CBS at 9:00 p.m. ET. To see when everything else is heading to the small screen in the coming months, check out our midseason premiere schedule.
