# Actors always associated with two separate roles **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 14, 2010, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-always-associated-with-two-separate-roles/553721 "2010-09-14T13:59:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-always-associated-with-two-separate-roles/553721/21 "2010-09-14T16:00:59Z")
Clint Eastwood has done a lot more with his career, but in a sense he’ll always be both The Man With No Name and Dirty Harry. ---
**Author:** ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-always-associated-with-two-separate-roles/553721/22 "2010-09-14T16:17:17Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Robert Preston: Harold Hill (_Music Man_) and Toddy (_Victor/Victoria_). This is what I was coming in to say. And I think the two roles effectively bracketed his career, too. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-always-associated-with-two-separate-roles/553721/23 "2010-09-14T16:37:33Z")
Raymond Burr as Perry Mason and Ironside. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-always-associated-with-two-separate-roles/553721/24 "2010-09-14T16:49:39Z")
Another TV one: Jack Klugman, as Oscar Madison on _The Odd Couple_, and the title character on _Quincy_. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-always-associated-with-two-separate-roles/553721/25 "2010-09-14T16:53:46Z")
Levar Burton as Kunta Kinte and Geordi LaForge. (John Amos, who he tag-teamed as Kunta, is also strongly identified as James Evans on _Good Times_ and as Mr. McDowell in _Coming to America_.) ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-always-associated-with-two-separate-roles/553721/26 "2010-09-14T17:03:31Z")
It’s hard to pick which of his main three roles Marlon Brando is associated with: Stanley Kowalski Terry Malloy Vito Corleone There are even others he may affect different viewers with. For me, Paul Newman is either Butch Cassidy or Cool Hand Luke. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-always-associated-with-two-separate-roles/553721/27 "2010-09-14T17:06:21Z")
Vivien Leigh is Scarlett O’Hara and/or Blanche DuBois ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-always-associated-with-two-separate-roles/553721/28 "2010-09-14T17:09:20Z")
Patrick Stewart is Captain Picard and Professor X. ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-always-associated-with-two-separate-roles/553721/29 "2010-09-14T17:12:56Z")
Dirk Benedict: Starbuck & Face Dwight Shultz: Murdock & Barclay Ricardo Montalban: Roarke & Khan Michael J. Fox: Keaton, McFly, Flaherty ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-always-associated-with-two-separate-roles/553721/30 "2010-09-14T17:15:16Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Levar Burton as Kunta Kinte and Geordi LaForge. And the cutie from Reading Rainbow. He is solidly in my mind as those three people. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-always-associated-with-two-separate-roles/553721/31 "2010-09-14T17:42:51Z")
Michael Chiklis is The Commish & Vic Mackey. And two starring roles don’t come much more different than those. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-always-associated-with-two-separate-roles/553721/32 "2010-09-14T17:57:09Z")
> [@FordTaurusSHO94](#): > > Patrick Stewart is Captain Picard and Professor X. His co-star Ian McKellan is Magneto and Gandalf. (I don’t know whether it’s true but he says he was offered the role of Dumbledore but turned it down because he was tired of long beards and robes.) McKellan’s costar Orlando Bloom is famous as a blonde elf Legolas and the short haired occasional pirate Will Turner. He has yet to have a major hit in which he does not swing a sword. ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-always-associated-with-two-separate-roles/553721/33 "2010-09-14T18:05:25Z")
Michael Landon: Little Joe Cartwright, Charles Ingalls, Jonathan Smith. ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-always-associated-with-two-separate-roles/553721/34 "2010-09-14T18:30:40Z")
James Garner: Maverick (1957 - 1960) and The Rockford Files (1974 - 1980) ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-always-associated-with-two-separate-roles/553721/35 "2010-09-14T18:35:28Z")
A fairly early one: Robert Young as Jim Anderson (Father Knows Best, 6 seasons) and as Marcus Welby, MD, for 7 seasons. Roddy ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-always-associated-with-two-separate-roles/553721/36 "2010-09-14T19:30:50Z")
> [@Bearflag70](#): > > Michael J. Fox: Keaton, McFly, Flaherty Christopher Lloyd: Dr. Emmett L. Brown and Jim Ignatowski ---
**Author:** ![Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fried_Dough_Ho)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-always-associated-with-two-separate-roles/553721/37 "2010-09-14T19:39:37Z")
Richard Chamberlain as Young Dr. Kildare and the priest from _The Thorn Birds_, Ralph de Bricassart ---
**Author:** ![KennerTheGreat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a8b319/32.png) [@KennerTheGreat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KennerTheGreat)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-always-associated-with-two-separate-roles/553721/38 "2010-09-14T19:48:57Z")
Caroll O’Connor as Archie Bunker and Bill Gillespie. You could throw in TJ Hooker for Shatner as well. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-always-associated-with-two-separate-roles/553721/39 "2010-09-14T19:49:29Z")
Bea Benaderet must have held some sort of record for the most TV work of any actress of her day. (It’s been since supplanted I’m sure, but then she’s been dead for 42 years.) Roles she’s equally remembered for in no particular order: Kate from _Petticoat Junction_, Cousin Pearl from _The Beverly Hillbillies_, and the voice of Betty Rubble from _The Flintstones_, in addition to which she had any number of lesser TV roles. (She was almost Ethel on _I Love Lucy_ but passed due to contractual obligations and a dislike of Lucy [whom she’d worked with in radio].) Julia Roberts won an Oscar for _Erin Brockovich_ and has been in any number of movies but her “Come and knock on our door…” roles will always be two back to back early ones: Shelby in _Steel Mangolias_ and Vivian in _Pretty Woman_. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-always-associated-with-two-separate-roles/553721/40 "2010-09-14T19:53:24Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Or on TV, William Shatner with James T. Kirk and Denny Crane. YMMV, I guess, but I think most people associate Shatner with Star Trek a lot more strongly then with Boston Legal. Kirk takes up a lot of space in the pop-culture hivemind, it would take a pretty big hit to match it. George C. Scott’s had two iconic roles, in Patton and Dr Strangelove. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-always-associated-with-two-separate-roles/553721.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-always-associated-with-two-separate-roles/553721.md?page=3)