The other week I watched the 1980 movie “Hopscotch” (great movie - Walter Matthau, Ned Beatty (and Sam Waterston with jet-black hair), and noticed in one small scene, this guy
who I remembered as the professor from “Real Genius” who likes to “‘get down’ verbally” with the students. A few days later, I caught a bit of “Back to School” and there he was again (as the professor with the monkeys).
Any other stories of running into a particular actor in multiple roles by accident?
Back in the day, Pete Postlewaite seemed to show up everywhere (best known as Mr. Kobiashi in The Usual Suspects).
Nowadays, Olivia Coleman shows up everywhere.
Lately, I’ve been seeing Eugene Cordero all over the place, after first noticing him as Pillboi in The Good Place. I’ve since noticed him on Loki (“What’s a fish?”) and Brookyln 99. Looking at his IMDB page, turns out he’s also the voice of Rutherford on Star Trek: Lower Decks!
I was watching a first-season episode of The Dick van Dyke Show this afternoon, and thought Mel Cooley’s jewelry-hawking cousin (also bald as a billiard ball) looked familiar.
It took me a minute or so before I realized he was a young Gavin MacLeod, of McHale’s Navy, Mary Tyler Moore, and Love Boat fame.
I maintain the Whit Bissel is the king of “that guys,” if only because his name is easier to remember than Olan Soule’s.
Charles Lane fans: YMMV.
I think Gale Gordon was in every Desilu-affiliated sitcom from the '50s on, each time as a different character. I saw him too in an episode of The Danny Thomas Show today, playing a snobby world-famous artist.
Of course, TV Tropes has an entry for this sort of thing:
You should track down some episodes of “Black Sheep Squadron” and see how many faces you recognize.
I’ve heard that’s basically the definition of “character actor” – one of those actors you see in something and it makes you go “Hey, it’s that guy. What’s his name? I know I’ve seen him in a bunch of other things.”
I had an episode of Soap on in the backlground, and when I looked up, it was Charles Lane as the judge in Jessica’s trial. Also in that episode were Gordon Jump, Howard Hesseman, Dinah Manoff, Eugene Roche, and Olympic gold medalist Bob Seagren.
Fair enough on Bissell’s name; but Soule’s voice lifts him right out of the That Guy tier, because Oh Wow That Sure Sounds Like A Big Grin On The Face Of Batman.
I saw every episode of That Girl during its initial run and never paid attention as to who played Leon, Ann Marie’s obstetrician next-door neighbor.
I went to the show’s IMDb page when they started running it on weekdays this month and was shocked to find he was none other than a bespectacled young Dabney Coleman. I know he’s been in many other things, but I automatically think of him as the mustachioed murderer in Columbo who got his secretary to wear a mask in order to establish his alibi.
Never in a million years would I have recognized him from his role on That Girl.
Wasn’t one of her other neighbors Bernie Kopell from Get Smart and Love Boat?
Bernie was “Jerry,” Don Hollinger’s pal at Newsweek magazine. He became more important as the series progressed.
Dabney was on only in the first season, when Bonnie Scott played his wife Judy and Ann’s best friend. Bonnie left the series to devote herself to her children, and Leon disappeared.
They haven’t gotten to the second season yet, but I think Jerry gets married and his wife more or less takes Judy’s place in the female supporting role.
I haven’t watched that show since I was a kid. For some reason most of my memories are of Marlo knocking on doors and the people opening them not inviting her in. I must have assumed they were all her neighbors.
Most of the action took place in Ann’s apartment; they came to her. I can’t help wondering how an aspiring actress and occasional waitress or salesgirl could afford such a nice place.
There have been a lot of familiar faces in the episodes I’ve watched so far: Sterling Holloway, Bruce Hyde, Billy de Wolf, George Carlin, Ronnie Schell, EJ Peaker, Sally Kellerman, to name a few.
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I just looked at the episode guide and saw that Bernie gets married in another four, to Arlene Golonka no less. Don’t remember if she’s in subsequent episodes, though—another actress may take her place.
I remember this episode very well. The wedding takes place in Connecticut, and they’re snowed in. Ann’s father calls the hotel in the middle of the night and freaks out when he finds Ann and Don are sharing a room.
Harry Dean Stanton played ‘generic bad guy’ in several TV Westerns.
M. Emmet Walsh has a long career in TV and film and is apparently still working at 86 years of age (87 next month). After noticing him as the Governor in The Milagro Beanfield War, I started spotting him in other roles: a bus passenger in Midnight Cowboy, the swim coach in Ordinary People, the out-of-control private detective in Blood Simple, etc. My most recent sighting of him was in Knives Out. Check out his credits at the Wiki link: The Jerk, Blade Runner, Missing in Action, All in the Family, The Rockford Files, The Bob Newhart Show…
This guy
played an obsessed conspiracy theorist with a JFK assassination museum in Angel in 2003, and a few years later played an obsessed conspiracy theorist with a museum devoted to a Bruce Lee type actor in 2005 on Monk .