Watching TOS, the episode with the alien that assumes he’s the Greek God Apollo. I recognized the girl as Jocelyn from The Manchurian Candidate. (Boy did she give Starfleet the heave ho & fall for that guy in a hurry, but hey - she came around).
Anyway, it got me wondering what other actors are famous for exactly two roles? Yes, I’m sure if you check IMDb you’d find more than two, but for our purposes let’s say two clearly famous roles.
Another example: Danny Noonan’s Irish girlfriend from Caddyshack was also Mayor Carmine DePasto’s 13 year old daughter from Caddyshack.
Speaking of Caddyshack, Lacy Underall was in Tron and AFAIK nothing else.
No matter who you mention, someone will inevitably come in with, well x was also great in y with someone else chiming in yeah, and don’t forget him/her in movie z.
Having said that and acknowledging that he’s done fine work in a lengthy, successful career, Alan Rickman will be chiefly remembered as Hans Gruber and Snape. (Again I know he was great as Sheriff Nottingham and in Love Actually and any number of other films in his filmography.)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus is known primarily as Elaine in Seinfeld but also as Christine in The New Adventures Of Old Christine, and won Emmy Awards for both of them. She has plenty of other roles but I think those are her only two you could say she is “famous for”.
Sean Connery is famous for a lot more than two roles. There’s also Jim Malone in The Untouchables, Indy’s father in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, John Patrick Mason in The Rock, Marko Ramius in The Hunt for Red October. . .
Andy Griffith is also famous for playing Lonesome Rhodes in A Face in the Crowd and Private Stockdale in No Time for Sergeants.
John Cazale for Fredo from the Godfather I and II (that’s one role!) and whoever he played in The Deer Hunter. At least, I remember him for those two roles, and the other movies he was in did not become classics on the level of the above mentioned ones. Interestingly enough, all 5 movies he was in were nominated for Best Picture. That has to be a record in some way.
OK, an obscure one: Angelo Rossitto. He played assorted “little people” roles in movies for over 50 years. While the name might not ring a bell, his best known roles might, although they are over 50 years apart:
In the movie “Freaks” (1931), he played the dwarf who walked across the table leading the “Gooble Gobble” chant.
In “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” (1985), he played “Master,” whom Max described as “the little man with the knowin’s of a lotta things.”
He probably appeared in over a hundred movies, mostly not credited. I think I might have spotted him in “Requiem for a Heavyweight,” but I’m not completely sure. There were only so many bow-legged little little people actors.