The best recurring characters from 'Friends'

During the hilarious fourth season of Friends, Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) fell for Joshua (Tate Donovan), a client she met while working in her new position as a personal shopper at Bloomingdale's. Still trying to get over Ross (David Schwimmer), Rachel often embarrassed herself while trying to show the mild-mannered, well-kept Joshua she liked him. They briefly dated, so we found out that Joshua liked fine clothing and the Knicks, but he hated live farm animals roaming around Manhattan apartment buildings.

Adam Goldberg had a memorable recurring role in Season 2 as a temporary roommate of Chandler (Matthew Perry). Joey (Matt Le Blanc) moved out, and Eddie stepped in after meeting Chandler at a grocery store. Eddie didn't harbor the same love for Baywatch, foosball or sanity that Chandler did. Eddie was paranoid. He thought Chandler slept with his ex-girlfriend and killed his gold fish. When it came to crazed Friends characters, Eddie takes the cake.

Towards the conclusion of Friends' run, Rachel returned from maternity leave because she feared she'd been replaced by her seemingly self-absorbed co-worker Gavin (Dermot Mulroney). At first, there was some harmless contempt between the two, but soon, sparks flew. It was short-lived romance between Rachel and Gavin, but Mulroney's performance is certainly notable.

As Joey's dim-witted, forgetful and totally inept agent, Estelle (June Gable) was quite hilarious. She often didn't remember who Joey was. She even had him audition for a role that he currently had, which is how he learned he was going to be fired. Estelle's other clients included an act that featured a pyramid of dogs and Al Zebooker — the man who eats paper. Sadly, Estelle dies late in the show's run.

Joanna was Rachel's direct boss during her early days at Bloomingdale's, and the character was superbly played by Alison La Placa, Joanna was rather ruthless, in a rather incompetent way. She consistently belittled fellow co-worker Sophie and attempted to sabotage Rachel's interview for a promotion. In Season 3, she had a fling with Chandler, highlighted by Joanna handcuffing him to her office desk chair. Sadly, Joanna met her demise when tragically hit by a cab.

Lisa Kudrow just might be the best actor of the six main Friends characters. Not only did she play the hilariously ditsy and free-spirited Phoebe, she also played her twin sister Ursula. She actually first appeared on Mad About You as a waitress, which was the initial tie-in to the Friends gang, when she started dating Joey — much to Phoebe's dismay. Ursula was a pain to Phoebe her entire life, whether it be lying about their true parents or moonlighting as an adult film star under Phoebe's name, she was truly a bad sister.

Friends was obviously known for casting some legendary actors during the history of the show. Marlo Thomas certainly falls into the category as Rachel's socially-novice mother. Sandra Green was trying to live the single life she never really enjoyed as an adult. We saw that through being kissed by Joey to prevent seeing her ex-husband at Rachel's dueling birthday parties early in the series or asking Rachel and Monica (Courteney Cox) "what's new in sex" following her split from Rachel's dad.

The first season episode "The One With The Blackout," remains among the best in the sitcom's history. That's when we first met Paolo (Cosimo Fusco), a suave Italian hunk who didn't speak much English, but he was fluent enough to attract Rachel in her building's hallway while looking for a lost cat. Soon, Rachel and Paolo began their fling — much to the disgust of Ross. Paolo reappeared in later episodes, notably when he inappropriately put the moves on Phoebe during a massage appointment.

Sadly, Mike Hagerty passed away in early May 2022. While he enjoyed a long and successful career as a celebrated character actor, this remains one of his most notable roles. Treeger was the superintendent in the building where Monica, Rachel, Chandler, and Joey lived. He was a surly man and rather lazy at his job. He came close to evicting the girls for illegally subletting Monica's apartment until Joey taught him how to ballroom dance.

Emily (Helen Baxendale) was an important character in terms of Ross' dysfunctional love life. However, she was not all that likable. Sure, it wasn't cool of Rachel to back out of showing her the town to spend time with Joshua, but after whining about that, Ross saved the day, and their romance was sparked. Now, we also understand her anger when Ross said Rachel's name at their wedding. But she went ahead and married the guy — only to demand he change everything about his life, including never seeing Rachel again. It all led to a divorce that was obviously for the best.

There isn't much Hank Azaria is bad at when it comes to his character work. That's the case here, too. As David, he portrayed a scatter-brained scientist who was also Phoebe's first serious boyfriend. However, the relationship essentially ended when he fulfilled his grant work in Minsk. David returned in Season 9 to try and rekindle his relationship with Phoebe, but he found that Phoebe had moved on with Mike. Still, that didn't keep David from awkwardly and humorously trying to win back the love of his life.

The addition of Paul Rudd as Phoebe's love interest for the final two seasons was genius. Rudd's Mike was a lawyer-turned-piano player, who Phoebe was set up with by Joey -- after he yelled out the name "Mike" at Central Perk because he forget to find a date for her on their scheduled double date. While the coupe hit an early snag because Mike didn't want to have kids, and Phoebe did, their love was just too strong. Their wedding in the snow outside the coffee house was exactly how we thought Phoebe would get married.

Jon Favreau is one guest star that was easy to like as young, successful computer mogul Pete Becker. He fancied Monica to the fullest, even giving her a $20,000 tip while she worked at the Moondance Diner and jetting her off to Italy for pizza. At one point, Monica thought Pete was going to propose to her, but instead, he wanted her to support him as he trained as an ultimate fighting competitor. That didn't go ever too well, and eventually, the relationship ran its course. Pete, we still miss you.

When Chandler was nine years old, his parents divorced after both had an affair with the family's pool boy. His father, Charles, actually ran away with the pool boy and later became a drag queen, which the great Kathleen Turner played to perfection. She was known to attend Chandler's swim meets dressed as a different starlet. The two had an estranged relationship for years, but things were patched up when Chandler sought out Charles during a performance in Las Vegas to invite him to his wedding. In July 2022, Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman admitted to BBC that it was "a mistake" to misgender the character: "We kept referring to her as Chandler's father, even though Chandler's father was trans. Pronouns were not yet something that I understood. So we didn't refer to that character as 'she.'"

The downstairs neighbor of Monica and Rachel, Mr. Heckles (Larry Hankin) was an odd, surly fellow who usually wore a raggedy robe. He often complained about the noise coming from the apartment above. He once noted that it disturbed his obo practice. He claimed to own a cat, and he was indirectly responsible for Joey becoming Chandler's roommate. Sadly, Mr, Heckles passed away during the show's run. In death, he proved to have a soft spot of the friends by including them in his will. Chandler, meanwhile, learned that he disturbingly had much in common with the eternally disgruntled Heckles. 

For the first two seasons of Friends, a monkey named Marcel was Ross' faithful companion. Marcel had a thing for humping just about everything, swallowing Scramble tiles, and "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," which got on the nerves of the six friends. However, living in New York City wasn't the right fit for such an animal. So, Ross sent Marcel to the famed San Diego Zoo for a better life, which led to a stint in Hollywood. 

Bruce Willis earned his second Primetime Emmy Award for his role as the father of Ross' much-younger girlfriend and former student, Elizabeth (Alexandra Holden). Paul had a hard time coming to grips with the older Ross dating his daughter, and he had no problem letting him know about it. Making matters potentially worse for Ross, Paul started dating Rachel. That made for one interesting encounter at Paul's cabin, where we learned what Paul really thought of himself.

Ugly Naked Guy is perhaps one of the most memorable unseen characters in sitcom history. We did see a glimpse of this notorious character when Ross tried to bribe away his apartment. He was a neighbor in an apartment building visible from Monica and Rachel's place, and he was originally referred to as "Cute Naked Guy." He apparently packed on the pounds over the years, but that didn't stop him from using a ThighMaster, installing kitchen tile, or dancing. Who can forget when the friends thought he was dead and created a giant poking device to see if he was breathing?

Marcel was not the only non-human to leave an impact within the Friends universe. After seeing a piece on television about these feather friends, Joey decided it was a good idea to buy a chick and a duck to liven up the apartment. At first, Chandler was hesitant, but soon, this duo became part of the family. Yes, the birds really had no business living in a city apartment — especially the chick, which grew into a rooster, much to the chagrin of the girls across the hall. Still, the pair made some memorable comedic moments and might be as beloved as the main cast.

Though it wasn't easy for him, Ross had a pretty solid relationship with Carol (Jane Sibbett), his ex-wife and mother of his son Ben. The same couldn't always be said for her eventual wife, Susan (Jessica Hecht), whom Carol left Ross for prior to the beginning of the show. However, it was Ross who essentially saved their wedding day by walking Carol down the aisle when her parents opted not to attend. At the time, it was a rather revolutionary episode on primetime network television. 

Some of the more underrated moments of comedy genius came from Ross and Monica's parents. Jack (Elliott Gould) and Judy (Christina Pickles) were brilliant as this parental duo. While Judy was highly opinionated and certainly overly critical of Monica — and even a little frisky — Jack was more laid back. He could be the voice of reason. He definitely provided the humor, and he was pretty much there whenever his kids needed support. If only he had a piece of that booming sun-dried tomato business.

Phoebe's younger, wayward brother, Frank Jr., was fantastically played by Giovanni Ribisi. Frank Jr. was even more dim-witted than Phoebe came off. He was a big fan of ninja stars and melting stuff. Oh yeah, he also married his high school home economics teacher, Alice (Debra Jo Rupp) and asked Phoebe to carry their child, which turned out to be triplets. 

Tom Selleck is still best known for his iconic starring role in Magnum P.I., and he has enjoyed a solid run as NYPD Commissioner Frank Reagan on Blue Bloods. However, his time as Monica's older love interest remains one of the most celebrated aspects of the show. Eye doctor and family friend to the Gellers, Richard Burke was almost a whole person of legal drinking age older than Monica, but he just might have been the love of her life. So much so, that Richard had Chandler spooked when he came back into her life, even though Chandler and Joey once idolized him.

Another special talent who passed in 2022, James Michael Tyler's coffee-serving, Rachel-obsessed Gunter is arguably the most recognizable Friends character outside the main six. In fact, the 56 episodes Gunther appeared in are the most of any character not named Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Ross, Chandler, or Joey. So what else do we know about Gunther? Well, he missed smoking and played Bryce on All My Children. He was also somewhat directly responsible for Ross and Rachel's famed breakup.

When it comes to all-time great supporting characters, Janice (Maggie Wheeler) is a Hall of Famer. As Chandler's former girlfriend, a few times removed, Janice was known for big hair, nasally voice and, of course, perhaps the most obnoxious laugh in the history of situation comedy. But even as Janice easily annoyed us, she was responsible for some of the show's funniest moments ("15 Yemen Road, Yemen"). Aside from the six main characters, Janice was a major contributor to the Friends' popularity. And we should be grateful.