Michael Biehn is always a marine, or Navy Seal, or special forces of some type. After seeing Aliens, Navy Seals, and The Rock, I can’t see him as anything else.
The late Sir Alec Guinness is always Obi-Wan, much to his chagrin.
Whats-him-face … you know, the guy with the hair. That one guy in the movie. You know, about the other guy. He’s always that one thing. You know, the thing, where he did that stuff. Yeah, him. He’ll never be anything else.
is Sam Spade
And let’s not forget Terminator. Aliens is one of my favorite movies (I love it when girls get to kick ass-- The Long Kiss Goodnight is another of my favorites for this reason) but every time Ripley spoke to him I expected him to answer, “Come with me if you want to live.”
Larry Hagman as Major Tony Nelson AND J.R. Ewing.
Susan Dey as Laurie Partridge AND Grace Van Owen
Alas, all other Brady/Partridge kids=Brady/Partridge Kids
Burgess Meredith=Penguin
Julie Newmar=Catwoman
John Astin=Gomez Adams
Thing=Thing
Carroll O’Connor=Archie Bunker
Here’s a twist/hijack: What ROLE do you always associate with a specific actor e.g. Stanley Kowalski=Marlon Brando
Carroll O’Connor will always be Archie Bunker.
Richard Thomas will always be John Boy Walton.
Everyone from The Brady Bunch will be the character the played.
Man, I’ve got to stop taking breaks while typing a post, King Rat nailed two of mine while I was screwing arond with the dog!!
Not to mention The Abyss, where he played a deranged - GASP! - Navy SEAL.
Actually, I thought quite the opposite. I think that Patrick Stewart (and I don’t know how he did it) got out of the typecast quite well. I think he is an excellent actor.
However, absolutely everyone else that every starred in ST-TOS and TNG is screwed.
Linda Hamilton - Always should be in a Terminator flick.
I can’t hear Kesley Grammar without thinking “Sideshow Bob.”
Roseanne will always be…Roseanne.
Michael Richards – Kramer
And although it’s a bit too soon to tell, many other actors from Seinfeld could be lumped in here, too.
Disagree – Mark Hamill’s Joker (from the Batman animated series) outshines his [i}Star Wars* work.
And to go with John Bredin and Persephone, wouldn’t the Star Trek movies have been more interesting if Christopher Lloyd was Reverend Jim? “You … want the … Genesis device? (pause) Okay.”
And Don Adams will be Maxwell Smart forever. 
Jean Reno will always be Victor the Cleaner, no matter what his character name is…
I think we can agree that the cast of very popular TV shows become identified with the character they played (Happy Days, Brady Bunch, etc.). It’s movie actors being identified with their characters that’s rarer. What do you think about when someone mentions Sigourney Weaver… Alien, of couse.
Sir Anthony Hopkins – Hannibal Lecter.
Or what about John Wayne – who, no matter what character he played, played John Wayne.
Same goes for Marilyn Monroe.
Or Elvis.
In other words, people whose image overwhelmed whatever accomplishments they had.
Clint Eastwood - Dirty Harry and the Stranger.
John Astin - Gomez Addams
rttgirl I’ll always think of Jean Reno as Leon, since I saw The Professional at first. I just saw La Femme Nikita last week. (Victor = Leon = Guy from Mission Impossible = Guy from Ronin) You’re right, they’re all the same character with a different name.
My personal one is that Jenna Elfman will always be Dharma. That’s all I could think about while watching Keeping the Faith.
Christopher Walken will always be a calm psychopath.
Christopher Walken is a calm psychopath - no one can act that well.
Raymond Burr is Perry Mason, even after Ironsides (sp?)
David Jansen is The Fugitive and Harry O
Marlo Thomas is That Girl
and
after years of making movies Robin Williams has left Mork from Ork behind…
Ok I KNOW that this is my 3rd post on this thread but I HAD mention
Peter Falk=Columbo
Wim Wenders’s Wings of Desire pretty much confirmed that!
For that matter, one of the few roles Marlon Brando accepted in later years was to parody Don Vito Corleone in The Freshman.
Dustin Hoffman = Rainman