# actors/actresses who are one-trick-ponies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 30, 2005, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-who-are-one-trick-ponies/333342 "2005-11-30T06:42:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-who-are-one-trick-ponies/333342/41 "2005-11-30T16:59:30Z")
My man James Garner is like that. While’s he played a number of different roles, he’s best at the likeable, sly, soft-hearted rogue. See his TV roles of _Maverick_ and Jim Rockford and those old Poloroid commercials, and his movies roles in _The Great Escape_ , _The Americanization of Emily_ , _Support Your Local Sheriff_ , _Support Your Local Gunfighter_ , _The Skin Game_ and _Murphy’s Romance_ . ---
**Author:** ![brickbacon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@brickbacon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brickbacon)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-who-are-one-trick-ponies/333342/42 "2005-11-30T17:03:22Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > Sammy Jackson. One of my all-time favorite actors but – let’s get real – he plays damn near the same exact do-not-piss-off-this-man-he’s-a-total-badass character in every single movie role since Pulp Fiction. I have to disagree. I think it seems that way because he never turns down a movie. He’s done 55 movies in the time since then (some still in production). His performances in **Die Hard** , **The Great White Hype** , **A Time To Kill** , **The Negotiator** , **Changing Lanes** , **Unbreakable** , **Coach Carter** , and \*\*the Incredibles \*\*have shown he can play a variety of different characters. All of them were done after Pulp Fiction. ---
**Author:** ![A.R.Cane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@A.R.Cane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.R.Cane)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-who-are-one-trick-ponies/333342/43 "2005-11-30T17:06:08Z")
How 'bout Brando? All this talk about what a great actor he was, I never got it. I thought he was pretty bad myself. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-who-are-one-trick-ponies/333342/44 "2005-11-30T17:30:27Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > One of the greatest actors in the history of television has flopped pretty badly whenever he stepped out of the role that will typecast him forever: Dennis Franz as Andy Sipowicz. Oh come on. He was good in ‘Homer S. Portrait of an Ass Grabber’. ---
**Author:** ![Millit\_the\_Frail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@Millit\_the\_Frail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Millit_the_Frail)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-who-are-one-trick-ponies/333342/45 "2005-11-30T17:30:50Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > Sammy Jackson. One of my all-time favorite actors but – let’s get real – he plays damn near the same exact do-not-piss-off-this-man-he’s-a-total-badass character in every single movie role since Pulp Fiction. And that’s why we love him. (Snakes on a Plane!) Can I say it again? Snakes! On a plane!! ---
**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:** [November 30, 2005, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-who-are-one-trick-ponies/333342/46 "2005-11-30T17:30:51Z")
[QUOTE=Little Nemo] There was a time when I would have agreed completely. But I saw Danza playing a lawyer on a dramatic series and I was amazed. He played this character he was highly intelligent and serious and he was convincing. [\quote] That would be _The Practice_. I remember the episodes in which he guest-starred; I too was surprised by his credibility. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-who-are-one-trick-ponies/333342/47 "2005-11-30T17:31:58Z")
I’ll defend Jim Carrey and I don’t think you need _Eternal Sunshine_ to do it. Even if we just stick to his straight up comedies, I think his characters in _Ace Ventura_, _The Mask_, _Dumb and Dumber_, _Me, Myself & Irene_ are each distinct and funny in their own way. More of the laughs in _Dumb and Dumber_ came from his delivery and sense of timing than physical buffoonery. (“I’m going to Aspen”, “mmm. . .California, beautiful.”) Now consider _The Cable Guy_, _The Truman Show_, _Lemony Snicket_, _Man in the Moon_. This guy may be alot of things, but a one-trick pony, he’s not. Look at that list of Carrey movies, and then compare to what De Niro has done over a similar period of time: Cape Fear, Heat, Goodfellas, Analyze This (& That), Casino, Midnight Run, The Score, Meet the Parents (& Fockers). You tell me who the one-trick pony is. Anyone of those characters could be plugged into any other one of those movies without missing a beat. Don’t read too much into that. I do like De Niro. I think he showed more breadth (if not more depth) early on. He’s magnetic and I like watching him, but he can still be weak at times (cf. Goodfellas crying scene). ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-who-are-one-trick-ponies/333342/48 "2005-11-30T17:32:01Z")
I can’t believe, on a board where “Lost” is as popular as it is, that we haven’t discussed Michelle Rodriguez yet. “Blue Crush” - tough Latina chick. “Lost” - tough Latina chick. “Girlfight” - tough Latina chick. That movie with aliens - tough Latina chick. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-who-are-one-trick-ponies/333342/49 "2005-11-30T17:35:44Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I can’t believe, on a board where “Lost” is as popular as it is, that we haven’t discussed Michelle Rodriguez yet. > > “Blue Crush” - tough Latina chick. > “Lost” - tough Latina chick. > “Girlfight” - tough Latina chick. > That movie with aliens - tough Latina chick. Good call. The first time I saw her was Girlfight, and it was good and she was good, but that was pretty much all you’re gonna get from her. She was also in S.W.A.T. - tough Latina chick. ---
**Author:** ![cbawlmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cbawlmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbawlmer)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-who-are-one-trick-ponies/333342/50 "2005-11-30T17:45:03Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > Good call. > > The first time I saw her was Girlfight, and it was good and she was good, but that was pretty much all you’re gonna get from her. > > She was also in S.W.A.T. - tough Latina chick. What about _The Fast and the Furious_, where she played…oh, wait. Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-who-are-one-trick-ponies/333342/51 "2005-11-30T17:48:24Z")
Quote=Askia Sammy Jackson. One of my all-time favorite actors but – let’s get real – he plays damn near the same exact do-not-piss-off-this-man-he’s-a-total-badass character in every single movie role since Pulp Fiction. [/quote] > [@Robot Arm](#): > > Since Pulp Fiction, maybe, but go back and watch Jurassic Park. He’s the borderline-geeky, chain-smoking programmer who tries to get things working after Nedry (Wayne Knight) sabotages the computer systems. > > That was one of those cases where I didn’t know who he was when I first saw the movie. Saw it again a few years later and thought “that’s Samuel L. Jackson?” > [@brickbacon](#): > > I have to disagree. I think it seems that way because he never turns down a movie. He’s done 55 movies in the time since then (some still in production). His performances in **Die Hard** , **The Great White Hype** , **A Time To Kill** , **The Negotiator** , **Changing Lanes** , **Unbreakable** , **Coach Carter** , and \*\*the Incredibles \*\*have shown he can play a variety of different characters. All of them were done after Pulp Fiction. I think Jackson’s typical character is the reason Joe Pesci doesn’t get much work lately. The story calls for a tough little ashole, Pesci is rumored to be ‘difficult to work with’, so they rewrite the part for Jackson, because he can play a tough prick with as much intelligence as he has cunning. And you gotta admit, Pesci’s stock character is cunning but not intelligent. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-who-are-one-trick-ponies/333342/52 "2005-11-30T17:48:42Z")
> [@A.R. Cane](#): > > How 'bout Brando? All this talk about what a great actor he was, I never got it. I thought he was pretty bad myself. How much of his pre-1980’s work have you seen? Starting with, approximately, **Apocalypse Now** he started doing increasingly bizarre things. I have long held the opinion that he was doing much the same thing as Andy Kaufmann. He was entertaining himself by making his audience uncomfortable. I think that even his enormous weight gain was just to offend those who wanted him to be the young, beautiful Brando of the 1950’s. ---
**Author:** ![crazyjoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@crazyjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazyjoe)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-who-are-one-trick-ponies/333342/53 "2005-11-30T17:55:10Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#): > > Pesci’s character in _Raging Bull_ was something of a tour de force. The sedds of what ws to become ‘professional Pescism’ are visible, but it’s an understated performance that gains much in retrospect by the ‘realism’ - of the kitchen sink variety, as we Brits would say - and the lack of wise-cracking. His scenes with de Niro are some of the tenderest and most tortured love scenes (in the David and Jonathan sense of platonic love between two men) on film. I’d also like to humbly submit the movie “With Honors” which was not a typical Pesci role. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-who-are-one-trick-ponies/333342/54 "2005-11-30T18:06:01Z")
> [@tripthicket](#): > > What? Thirty-someodd posts in and no mention of _Jeff Goldblum_? Admittedly, I haven’t seen _all_ of his performances, but the ones I can recall off the top of my head (_The Fly_, _The Big Chill_, _Jurassic Park_, _Independence Day_) show very little if any variation in the character played. I like the guy, but his playing Jeff Goldblum in every film kinda takes me out of the moment, if you know what I mean. You should see him in _Igby Goes Down_, or _The Tall Guy_. ---
**Author:** ![NicePete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee7513/32.png) [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-who-are-one-trick-ponies/333342/55 "2005-11-30T18:32:28Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > Look at that list of Carrey movies, and then compare to what De Niro has done over a similar period of time: > Cape Fear, Heat, Goodfellas, Analyze This (& That), Casino, Midnight Run, The Score, Meet the Parents (& Fockers). > > You tell me who the one-trick pony is. Anyone of those characters could be plugged into any other one of those movies without missing a beat. > > Don’t read too much into that. I do like De Niro. I think he showed more breadth (if not more depth) early on. He’s magnetic and I like watching him, but he can still be weak at times (cf. Goodfellas crying scene). I won’t contest that De Niro has established his “gangster” character very well. However, if you’re suggesting that’s all he’s capable of I think you’re sadly misinformed. Awakenings. The King of Comedy. Mad Dog and Glory. Frankenstein. Brazil. The Deer Hunter. Bang the Drum Slowly. Raging Bull. Taxi Driver. Hell, he was the only funny thing in the live action Rocky and Bullwinkle movie as Fearless Leader. Even in his gangster roles there’s a big difference between his characters in Analyze This/That, Goodfellas and Casino. And I don’t see how you can lump Max Cady from Cape Fear in with the gangster portrayals. Max Cady may be similar to Travis Bickle, but he’s no mafiosi. Perhaps he is resting on his laurels a little. But damn, the guy has got some pretty huge laurels to rest on. ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-who-are-one-trick-ponies/333342/56 "2005-11-30T18:34:28Z")
Didn’t Charleton Heston always play an arrogant prick with a big chin? I have to admit I haven’t seen much of his work besides _The Ten Commandments_ and the science fiction he did in the 60s and 70s, but he always seemed to deliver his lines the same way. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-who-are-one-trick-ponies/333342/57 "2005-11-30T19:20:00Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > The single biggest one trick pony in the show’s history was Melanie Hartsell (Tory Spelling and Jan Brady among other characters), who one critic rightly called “The woman of a thousand faces, all of them the same”. I thought it was Terry Sweeney, who couldn’t do anything but a weird impression of Nancy Reagan. > [@](#): > > John Candy I thought his cameo in _JFK_ was pretty respectable. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-who-are-one-trick-ponies/333342/58 "2005-11-30T19:24:32Z")
This thread reminds me of a comment made snidely about a particular actor: “Alan Ladd has two expressions. Hat on and hat off.” ---
**Author:** ![mamboman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mamboman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamboman)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-who-are-one-trick-ponies/333342/59 "2005-11-30T20:32:04Z")
Kevin Spacey. And it’s a shame, because you so suspect he can do better… mm ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-who-are-one-trick-ponies/333342/60 "2005-11-30T20:40:51Z")
Nicholas Cage [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-who-are-one-trick-ponies/333342.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-who-are-one-trick-ponies/333342.md?page=4)