# Actor playing non-cameo part in different versions of same film **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 4, 2015, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-playing-non-cameo-part-in-different-versions-of-same-film/714193 "2015-03-04T13:08:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-playing-non-cameo-part-in-different-versions-of-same-film/714193/41 "2015-03-04T20:19:20Z")
> [@Cartoonacy](#): > > Just to make it clear, you’re saying that the \*episodes \*weren’t versions of each other, not the _characters_. You’re asking about actors who played a different character in a remake of the _same story_, not in two different episodes or films in a series. Correct? As the OP says: > [@](#): > > As a complement to the Peter Dinklage-titled thread, how about cases where the same actor appears in two different film versions (or film and TV versions) of the same story, with the stipulation that the roles played in both are substantial – no cameos or walk-ons, like Kevin McCarthy’s small bit in the 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I thought that was pretty clear. The case of Henry Morgan playing two different characters in the TV series MASH pretty doesn’t qualify. The only way it would is if one episode was a virtual remake of the other. But just because somebody played two different characters in the same series doesn’t make it a fit for this thread. If it did, **Dragnet** and the A&E **Nero Wolfe** would be shoo-ins, since they re-used the same actors in different roles continuously. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-playing-non-cameo-part-in-different-versions-of-same-film/714193/42 "2015-03-04T20:24:54Z")
Miriam Hopkins played one of the two women about whom a nasty child spreads a rumor, in _These Three_, William Wyler’s first version (1936) of Lillian Hellman’s _The Children’s Hour_, which leaves out the lesbian angle, and is about a rumor of an ordinary affair. In 1961, he remade the film leaving the lesbian story intact, with Shirley MacLaine and Audrey Hepburn as the two young women. Miriam Hopkins plays the aunt of one of the women, which is probably the most substantial female role aside from the two leads. Vincent Price (again) played the Duke of Clarence in a 1939 movie called _Tower of London_, in which Basil Rathbone played Richard III. Years later, in 1962, he played Richard himself in a Roger Corman movie also called _Tower of London_, which had a different script, but was still essentially a horror movie about Richard’s bloody rise to power. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-playing-non-cameo-part-in-different-versions-of-same-film/714193/43 "2015-03-04T20:28:32Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > Funny. I don’t remember anyone else in the film. References to the film on the imdb and elsewhere follow the lead of the opening credits and list actors for various parts, even though they didn’t appear in the film. In just the same way, the playbill of the original play gave not only the names, but also extensive bios of the actors playing these parts. It’s all, of course, to fool the audience. Some people (like me) actually read the credits, and they’d know something was up if only two actor’s names were given. Harold Pinter, who rewrote Anthony Shaffer’s script for the remake (for the better, most critics say. For the worse, in my philistine opinion) managed to get himself in the film, despite it being a two-character play, and despite being dead at the time. They did it by having footage of him running on the television. It’s similar to the dodge Alfred Hitchcock used in _Lifeboat_, where he made his customary cameo appearance on a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean by appearing as a picture in a newspaper one of them held (in a “before” and “after” picture for a weight loss product, no less) ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-playing-non-cameo-part-in-different-versions-of-same-film/714193/44 "2015-03-04T20:29:06Z")
How about Annette O’Toole? She played Lana Lang in Superman III and then Martha Kent in Smallville. Different productions, but both characters are part of the Superman mythos and were both substantial roles. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-playing-non-cameo-part-in-different-versions-of-same-film/714193/45 "2015-03-04T20:37:53Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > How about Annette O’Toole? She played Lana Lang in Superman III and then Martha Kent in Smallville. Different productions, but both characters are part of the Superman mythos and were both substantial roles. I’ve been trying to keep this as close as I can to cases where they’re in the same story, not the same “reality”. By your lights, Henry Morgan qualifies by being in the same “MASH Mythos” ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-playing-non-cameo-part-in-different-versions-of-same-film/714193/46 "2015-03-04T21:02:10Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > ?? I think I see the misunderstanding. In your OP you stated that an actor could play two different characters in the same TV (story). You also stated no cameos or walk-ons. I took that to include the story that was being told in the arc of a TV series. I see now that you were speaking strictly of a single movie plot. Sorry > [@](#): > > I have no idea what you’re talking about. My examples aren’t tongue-in-cheek, and no one is playing a cousin, robot, or doppelganger in any of them. Your example is completely unlike anything I’ve suggested. I was referring to your comments about Barbara Eden who played her mother and a copy of herself in I dream of Jeannie. And Elizabeth Montgomery who plyed her cousin in Bewitched as well as (my example) Patty Duke’s Cousins roles in the Patty Duke show. I consider those to be tongue-in-cheek. I did not consider Harry Morgan who played a crazy general who was a central character in one episode and then a main Character in the end seasons of MASH to have any implied connection to each other. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-playing-non-cameo-part-in-different-versions-of-same-film/714193/47 "2015-03-04T21:24:46Z")
> [@BubbaDog](#): > > I think I see the misunderstanding. In your OP you stated that an actor could play two different characters in the same TV (story). You also stated no cameos or walk-ons. I took that to include the story that was being told in the arc of a TV series. I see now that you were speaking strictly of a single movie plot. Sorry > I was referring to your comments about Barbara Eden who played her mother and a copy of herself in I dream of Jeannie. And Elizabeth Montgomery who plyed her cousin in Bewitched as well as (my example) Patty Duke’s Cousins roles in the Patty Duke show. I consider those to be tongue-in-cheek. > > I did not consider Harry Morgan who played a crazy general who was a central character in one episode and then a main Character in the end seasons of MASH to have any implied connection to each other. You evidently have a different definition of “tongue in cheek” than I do. > [@](#): > > Tongue-in-cheek is a figure of speech used to imply that a statement or other production is humorously or otherwise not seriously intended, and it should not be taken at face value. > **[Tongue-in-cheek](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongue-in-cheek)** > > Tongue-in-cheek is an idiom that describes a humorous or sarcastic statement expressed in a serious manner. > The phrase originally expressed contempt, but by 1842 had acquired its modern meaning. Early users of the phrase include Sir Walter Scott in his 1828 The Fair Maid of Perth. > The physical act of putting one's tongue into one's cheek once signified contempt. For example, in Tobias Smollett's The Adventures of Roderick Random, which was published in 1748, the eponymous hero takes a coach to ... This isn’t a particularly deep or heavy topic, but I meant those examples seriously. ---
**Author:** ![HowSoonIsThen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@HowSoonIsThen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HowSoonIsThen)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-playing-non-cameo-part-in-different-versions-of-same-film/714193/48 "2015-03-04T21:24:56Z")
Seth Green was in both Buffy the movie and Buffy the TV show. I think most of his scenes were deleted in the movie (save for a brief moment), but it’s not what I would consider a cameo (which I take to mean a brief appearance from someone the audience would recognise). The movie My Favourite Martian had the guy who played the Martian in the original TV series playing another character. At the end I think they tried to allude to him actually being the same character, but that makes absolutely no sense so I’m including it here anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-playing-non-cameo-part-in-different-versions-of-same-film/714193/49 "2015-03-04T21:33:20Z")
> [@Flywheel](#): > > Theatrical example: Jonathan Pryce appeared in a 1980 production of **The Caretaker** as Mick and in a 2012 production as Davies. It happens more in theater than anywhere. Lea Solonga played Eponine in the original cast of Les Miz and later came back playing Fantine. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-playing-non-cameo-part-in-different-versions-of-same-film/714193/50 "2015-03-04T21:55:14Z")
Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab in the original \* Moby Dick\*, then as the Nantucket preacher in the Henry Thomas remake on TNT. Shirley Jones as Marian in _The Music Man_, and Mrs. Paroo on stage later in life. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-playing-non-cameo-part-in-different-versions-of-same-film/714193/51 "2015-03-04T22:24:30Z")
On stage, John Rubenstein played the title role in the original _Pippin_ and played King Charles in the revival (and is currently touring in the role). ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-playing-non-cameo-part-in-different-versions-of-same-film/714193/52 "2015-03-04T22:49:41Z")
Jeff Conaway played Danny in the Broadway version of _Grease_ while John Travolta was in the much smaller role of Doody. By the time it was made into a movie, Travolta played the lead and Conaway played Kenickie. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actor-playing-non-cameo-part-in-different-versions-of-same-film/714193.md?page=2)