Ray Donovan: L.A. Characters We Loved

As we know, “Ray Donovan” is moving to New York City for its sixth season and it’s been confirmed that Susan Sarandon will reprise her role as Sam Winslow, which makes some sense, we suppose. She’s a bigwig movie exec who would travel coast to coast and have swanky digs in both New York and L.A. The show is coming back on October 28th, or you can watch the first episode anytime, starting today, on Showtime on Demand if you are a subscriber. Here is the Season 6 Trailer

There are a lot of characters we loved from the show’s 5 seasons in L.A. that can’t make it to NYC. They all dead and buried:

Elliott Gould as Ezra Goldman

Ezra Goldman was a powerful attorney that Ray worked for throughout several seasons. But Ezra and Ray had a falling out in Season 2 over the rodef. Ezra died in Season 3 and his widow, Deb, was in no mood to patch things up with Ray. She wouldn’t even let him pay his last respects.

Frank Whaley as Van Miller

Van Miller was the FBI agent who blackmailed Mickey into helping him take down Ray and Ezra in Season 1. Van Miller was so crazy and obsessed with getting total credit for this accomplishment that after getting the proof he needed, he stupidly let Mickey know that he was acting as a lone wolf and turned his back on Mickey to boot. Bang! Bye, Van.

Paula Jai Parker as Silvie Starr

In Season 4, Silvie Starr was a lounge singer at Bill Primm’s casino in Nevada. Mickey fell in love with her when he cased the place to hold it up. This ended up costing Silvie and a whole lot of other people their lives and Mickey’s plans to retire in style with Silvie in Boston went down the crapper.

And then there’s Linda (Rosanna Arquette), a woman that Mickey took up with in Season 1 when Ray hired Sully Sullivan (James Woods) to kill Mickey. She was with Mickey when Sully caught up with him. Sully killed Linda but Mickey killed Sully and that was the end of him. Being dead and buried didn’t stop Linda from coming back in various forms in Season 2, eventually leading Mickey to win a million dollars at the racetrack. Linda forgave Mickey so theoretically, she is at peace now.

But there are some who presumably are still alive. We would love to see some of them show up in the Big Apple, even if it was just in the audience of one of Hector’s fights:

Josh Pais as Stu Feldman with Ambyr Childers as Ashley

Crazy Stu Feldman was last seen in Season 4. He was married to Ashley, whom Ray knew very well in the biblical sense. Ray also saved her from woman abuser Steve Knight (Eion Bailey) and at the time, told her to do something worthwhile with her life. Marrying Stu doesn’t seem to fit in that category.

Wendell Pierce as Ronald Keith

Ronald Keith was a very crooked probation officer. Ray bribed him to make Mickey’s life miserable. He’s a degenerate gambler, for one thing. He also took part in a heist that went bad with Mickey. But at the end of Season 2, he bet on The Captain, the same horse that won Mickey and Daryll a million big ones. Whatever he won, he probably went through by now, but maybe he’s into betting on prize fights now.

Leland Orser as Father Romero

Father Romero was a priest who first showed up in Season 3 when Ezra Goldman was dying, Romero wanted information about the dead priest buried at Ezra’s but he was not looking to get Ray or anyone else locked up. He was trying to save Ray’s soul. He was always running around trying to get Ray to CONFESS! and eventually Ray did. Father Romero could conceivably show up in New York. Didn’t he also have some connection to Hector?

Peter Jacobson as Lee Drexler with Jon Voight as Mickey Donovan

Lee Drexler was Ezra’s partner and a hot shot attorney who required Ray’s help on occasion and vice versa. In this scene, he is getting Mickey out of hot water by having him declared incompetent. Peter Jacobson often plays an attorney in the Law & Order franchise as well so, we assume, he is in New York a lot. Ray might even bump into him on the street. Wherever, it is always a delight to see Lee Drexler.

Hank Azaria as Ed Cochran

Now we come to the craziest of the crazy FBI agents on Ray Donovan: Ed Cochran who first showed up in Season 2 as the head of the FBI and Ray’s archenemy. In Season 4, in spite of Ray ruining his life, Ed agreed to work with him to help get Mickey out of jail. Now we ask you, if that could happen, isn’t it entirely possible to bring Ed back again? Ed was certainly a Donofan favorite and we don’t think we are the only ones who would love to see him in action again.

There are a lot more actors who appeared from Season 2 to Season 5 in our cast posts, so if we didn’t name your favorite, you may find him or her by searching on the character name or the actor/actress, or go the next page for a list of Supporting Cast posts.