# Actors/Actresses playing characters with the same profession on multiple TV shows? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 27, 2010, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-playing-characters-with-the-same-profession-on-multiple-tv-shows/565485 "2010-12-27T03:15:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-playing-characters-with-the-same-profession-on-multiple-tv-shows/565485/41 "2010-12-28T17:50:29Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > Fair enough. He was also on **Stargate: Atlantis** and whatever other spinoffs that show had; Even if he’d only appeared on **Twin Peaks** and **X-Files** , I’d have mentioned him. He was only in two episodes of **The X-Files** , so not a series regular. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-playing-characters-with-the-same-profession-on-multiple-tv-shows/565485/42 "2010-12-28T17:55:39Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > Fair enough. He was also on **Stargate: Atlantis** and whatever other spinoffs that show had; Even if he’d only appeared on **Twin Peaks** and **X-Files** , I’d have mentioned him. Oh, I wasn’t questioning the overall list: just the NCIS entry. ---
**Author:** ![justrob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9adbd/32.png) [@justrob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justrob)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-playing-characters-with-the-same-profession-on-multiple-tv-shows/565485/43 "2010-12-28T18:44:27Z")
[R. Lee Ermey](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000388/), after a career in the miltary made a career of playing people in the military. I only see one TV series where he played a miltary man more than once (Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles) but c’mon, it’s fricking R. Lee Ermey. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-playing-characters-with-the-same-profession-on-multiple-tv-shows/565485/44 "2010-12-29T00:43:42Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > The great Dame Judi Dench has appeared as a Queen a dozen or more times. Helen Mirren’s played Elizabeth I, Elizabeth II, and Milonia Caesonia. That’s 2 queens-regnant, and an empress-consort. ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-playing-characters-with-the-same-profession-on-multiple-tv-shows/565485/45 "2010-12-29T04:18:14Z")
Wayne Rogers was a doctor in “MASH” and “House Calls” ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2010, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-playing-characters-with-the-same-profession-on-multiple-tv-shows/565485/46 "2010-12-30T04:14:36Z")
> [@justrob](#): > > [R. Lee Ermey](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000388/), after a career in the miltary made a career of playing people in the military. > > I only see one TV series where he played a miltary man more than once (Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles) but c’mon, it’s fricking R. Lee Ermey. He’s really only come to cultivate drill sergeant role in later years. Consider that his breakout role was in 1987. As I mentioned in another thread, he plays a priest on an episode of the X-files in 1995 or so where at least he delivers some of his lines in his trademark way. Around the same time he played the father of a murder victim in Dead Man Walking, but here was rather soft spoken. Perusing the listing of his roles he certainly did have many in positions of authority and/or in the military, but it looks like he didn’t mind taking any sort of work in prominent productions. It’s not until he got a show on the History Channel he really had his cultural prominence rise. His persona has been carefully cultivated in the last decade, whereas before he was just happy to get work. I don’t see him being able to do the Geico commercial or get a reference in World of Warcraft early in his career. Ok, maybe the WoW reference could have been there, but the name would have been based on the Full Metal Jacket character and not the actor like it is. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-playing-characters-with-the-same-profession-on-multiple-tv-shows/565485.md?page=2)