Actors appearing in different roles in different versions of films

Cafe Society
#1

I’m pretty sure I’ve done this before, but I found new stuff. I’s like to ignore cameos, if possible. There are a LOT of those, but I want to restrict this to actors who had substantive different roles in at least two films.

Klaus Kinsky played Renfield in Jess Franco’s Dracula, but played the Count (Count Orlak) in Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu (I don’t think it’s a stretch to equate Dracula and Nosferatu)

Vincent Price played Clifford Pyncheon in the 1940 House of the Seven Gables and Gerald Pyncheon in the “House of the Seven Gables” segment of Roger Corman’s 1963 Twice-Told Tales.

Michael Caine plated Milo Tindle in the original 1972 film of Anthony Shaffer’s Sleuth, and Andrew Wyke in Harold Pinter’s 2007 rewrite.

He thus is the only actor I know to play all parts in a show having more than one character

Jeremy Brett played Dorian Gray in the 1961 “Armchair Theater” version of The Picture of Dorian Gray (the version with the Dick Smith makeup). In the 1976 TV version (with the John Osborne script) he played painter Basil Hallward.

(Speaking of Brett, they’re not exactly versions of the same work, but he played Dr. Watson to Charlton Heston’s Sherlock Holmes in the LA production of Crucifer of Blood, which was sort-of adapted from The Sign of Four, and was filmed. Brett, of course, played Holmes himself on BBC/WGBH, including an adaptation of The Sign of Four.)

Tony Curtis played Joe/“Josephine” in Some Like it Hot in 1959. Much later, in the stage musical (originally called Sugar, but later rechristened Some Like it Hot, he played Osgood Fielding, the Joe E. Brown part in the movie.

Again, not exactly what I originally asked for, but Bela Lugosi played the villain, Roxor, in the 1932 Chandu the Magician, but went on to play Chandu himself in The Return of Chandu (1934) and Chandu on Magic Island (1935).

Similarly, Boris Karloff famously played the Frankenstein monster in three films, the original 1931 James Whale Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, and The Son of Frankenstein. He played Baron Victor von Frankenstein in the 1958 film * Frankenstein 1970* (He had previously played several Mad Scientists, most notably Dr. Gustav Nieman in 1944’s House of Frankenstein at the same studio where he’d played the monster.)

#2

Sorry for distorting your premise on the first reply, but the ones I thought of relate to stage versions. Some of yours kind of did, so maybe it’s OK.

Louis Jourdan played Gaston in the movie of Gigi, but later toured with the play doing Gaston’s uncle Honoré, done by Maurice Chevalier in the movie.

Johnny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch were in a London production of Frankenstein, for which they switched roles on alternate nights, each playing both the Doctor and the Monster. Curiously, both ended up later playing modernized Sherlocks on TV.

#3

Off the top of my head…

Vin Price plays Duke of Clarence in Tower of London (1939) and the future King Dick III in Tower of London (1962).

Finlay Currie plays different roles in Rome Express (1930) and its superior remake Sleeping Car to Trieste (1948).
Albert Popwell appears in four of five Dirty Harry films as different characters. I think he dies in two of them and gets arrested in the other two.

#4

Anthony Quinn and Laurence Olivier switched off the roles of Henry II and Thomas Becket during the original Broadway run of Jean Anhouilh’s Becket, or the Honour of God in 1960

#5

Bruce Spence plays The Gyro Captain in Mad Max 2 and Jedediah the Pilot in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, I didn’t realise they weren’t the same character until it was mentioned in a thread on the SD. They’re such similar characters that having the same actor play them is a casting choice so bizarre its hard to credit.

Edit: sorry on re-checking this isn’t what you’re asking about, but I’ll leave it up so other people can have the same wtf moment I had on first learning this fact.

#6

Annette O’Toole played Lana Lang in the movie Superman III with Christopher Reeve and played Martha Kent on the tv series Smallville.

#7

I’m sure I remember there being some actor from the original Battlestar Galactica who played a different character in the 2003 version, but I can’t remember who it was.

#8

Yeah, this has been done before. A suitable search for Patty Duke and The Miracle Worker might find them.

#9

Richard Hatch, who starred as Apollo in the original, played Tom Zarek in a number of episodes in the reboot.

#10

Derek Jacobi in Hamlet.
1980 BBC TV version, playing Hamlet.
1996 film version, playing Claudius.

#11

Back to the stage versions, years ago I saw Robert Goulet play King Arthur in Camelot. (He was Lancelot in the film).

Matthew Poretta was Will Scarlet O’Hara in Men in Tights. He was later promoted to Robin Hood for The New Adventures of Robin Hood TV series.

#12

Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck were in both versions of Cape Fear as different characters.

#13

Faye Dunaway in both versions of The Thomas Crown Affair.

#14

Jeff Conaway played the lead Danny Zuko in the Broadway run of Grease but played Kenickie in the film version. John Travolta played Zuko in the film, but played the r Doody in the same Broadway production.

#15

Although technically not different versions of the same film, Hugh Keays-Byrne played Immorten Joe in Mad Max: Fury Road and the Toecutter in the original Mad Max.

#16

I figured *Doctor Who *might yield some examples, and I was right.

Best known actor would seem to be Geoffrey Palmer who was in two classic Who episodes and also in “Voyage of the Damned.”

Clive Swift played Jobel in “Revelation of the Daleks” (classic) and Mr. Copper in “Voyage of the Damned” (new Who).

Sheila Reid was Etta in “Vengeance of Varos” and Clara’s gran in two new Who episodes.

David Troughton was King Peladon in “The Curse of Peladon” and Professor Hobbes in “Midnight.”

Pauline Collins was in “The Faceless Ones” (classic) and “Tooth and Claw” (new).

#17

I think quite a number of actors have done different bit parts in the same soap operas over the years, particularly Coronation Street - I’ve seen several mentions in recent obits.

One that I noticed for myself is that Robin Ellis (who played Ross Poldark in the original BBC TV series decades ago) turned up as the hanging judge in the current revival.

#18

Charlton Heston was in Planet Of The Apes from 1968 playing Taylor. He also was in Planet Of The Apes from 2001 playing Zaius, an ape this time, and uncredited, intended as a cameo.

#19

Kirk Alyn and Noel Neil had a cameo in Superman the Movie.

Adam West has played various non-Batman characters in various Batman animated TV shows.

Burt Reynolds had a cameo in he Adam Sandler version of The Longest Yard.

Lou Ferrigno had a cameo as a security guard in The Incredible Hulk

Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson all had supporting roles in Ghostbusters: Answer the Call.

#20

Dragnet is fertile ground for examples. Jack Webb liked using certain actors over and over, and the show was a parade of characters, so actors often played different roles in different episodes. Some examples:

Ralph Moody appeared (as different characters) in 15 episodes of the 1950s Dragnet and in five of the 1967 revival.

Virginia Gregg topped that; she was in the original series, the 1966 TV movie, and the 1967 series, playing different characters in each episode. Gregg’s career consisted mostly of playing one-off characters.

Same for Vic Perrin.

There are many others.