# Actors forever playing one minor role **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 25, 2002, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887 "2002-10-25T20:31:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Legomancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/779978/32.png) [@Legomancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legomancer)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2002, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/41 "2002-10-28T16:12:48Z")
Need someone creepy for your movie or TV show? Why not call **Brad Dourif**? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2002, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/42 "2002-10-28T19:39:08Z")
Ooh! Ooh! Brad Dourif’s going to play **Grima Wormtongue!** Oh, and sorry about the John Wayne suggestion. I missed the “bit-part” part of the OP. My bad. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2002, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/43 "2002-10-28T19:45:06Z")
On the other hand, while the roles he played weren’t minor, they were pretty much the same role, which is what I think you meant, **Ethilrist**. And a lot of the people in this thread are victims of typecasting, more than anything else. ---
**Author:** ![murky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@murky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/murky)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2002, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/44 "2002-10-28T20:47:18Z")
phreesh, thanks for the fametracker shout out. I was going to do the same thing myself. My personal favorite was their “hey, its’ that salt of the earth matron!” I’d also like to give a shout out to David Krumholtz. Usually plays very smart ass, quick witted character. Was a favorite of mine in The Santa Clause as Bernard. I’m psyched they’re bringing him back for The Santa Clause 2. ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2002, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/45 "2002-10-28T23:05:32Z")
Sid Haig, “Craterfaced Mobster’s Goon” ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2002, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/46 "2002-10-29T00:15:12Z")
Alan Hale (father of Alan Hale, jr. the Skipper on _Gilligan’s Island_) played Little John in three seperate Robin Hood movies; _Rogues of Sherwood Forest_ (1950), _The Adventures of Robin Hood_ (1938) and _Robin Hood_ (1922). Interestingly, he played opposite three different Robins; John Derek, Errol Flynn and Wallace Beery, respectively. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2002, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/47 "2002-10-29T07:16:04Z")
**Ice-T** as the streetwise tough guy. He has played this role in many movies. I just watched “3000 Miles to Graceland” (I know, I know–I shouldn’t have) and Ice-T shows up in the last 10 minutes to play this ridiculous, billy-badass with about 2 lines of dialogue who shoots a bunch of cops. Imagine that. To a lesser extent, **Ice Cube** plays similar roles. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2002, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/48 "2002-10-29T12:16:58Z")
If you’re looking for people stuck/blessed playing the same roles, there’s: **William Daniels** – played John Adams in **1776** on Broadway and in the film, then played Sam Adams in the John Jakes miniseries on TV. **Howard da Silva** played Ben Franklin in **1776** on Broadway and in the film, then went on to play Fraklin in a number of other places, including a series of ads for General Electric. **Charles Grey** (the Narrator in Rocky Horror Picture Show) played Mycroft Holmes in **The Seven Per Cent Solution** , then came back to play Mycroft in the PBS/Granada TV version of **Sherlock Holmes** opposite Jeremy Brett. When Brett got sick, Gray virtually took over, with episides rewritten to Mycrift in where he never was in the stories. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2002, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/49 "2002-10-29T12:58:51Z")
That’s also the same Charles Gray who played Blofeld in one of the Bond films. He died in 2000, I believe. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2002, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/50 "2002-10-29T14:09:09Z")
> [@](#): > > That’s also the same Charles Gray who played Blofeld in one of the Bond films. He died in 2000, I believe. Yeah, and he also played “Mr. Henderson” in the Bond film **You Only Live Twice** , which made it pretty confusing when he played Bliofeld only a couple of films later, looking exactly the same. It’s true that he died recently. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2002, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/51 "2002-10-29T14:19:35Z")
> [@](#): > > That’s also the same Charles Gray who played Blofeld in one of the Bond films. He died in 2000, I believe. Yeah, and he also played “Mr. Henderson” in the Bond film **You Only Live Twice** , which made it pretty confusing when he played Bliofeld only a couple of films later, looking exactly the same. It’s true that he died recently. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2002, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/52 "2002-10-29T19:41:01Z")
**Tom Sizmore** is quickly becoming the wise, tough, fatalistic war movie sargeant or officer (Pearl Harbor, Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down). **Dale Dye** is generally the highest ranking officer in any war movie (I believe he is also a creative consultant for them as well) **Ron Livingston** (Office Space, Two Ninas, Swingers) as a sad sack everyman. And lets not forget Ron Howard’s brother. ---
**Author:** ![hazel-rah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/73ab20/32.png) [@hazel-rah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hazel-rah)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/53 "2002-10-30T07:42:18Z")
**O-lan Jones**. Waitress or hick, take your pick. ---
**Author:** ![Bomzaway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e480ec/32.png) [@Bomzaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bomzaway)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/54 "2002-10-31T18:23:27Z")
Sorry for the late response, but how about **Reginald VelJohnson**? He was the cop on **Die Hard**. He also played a cop in various other movies such as **Turner and Hooch, Plain Clothes, Ghost Busters** as well as the TV series **Family Matters**. Dude is ALWAYS a cop…with a doughnut problem. ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/55 "2002-10-31T21:20:17Z")
It was Ernie Hudson in “Ghostbusters”, not Reginald VelJohnson. Although Mr Hudson has his own share of “token black character” roles, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Bomzaway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e480ec/32.png) [@Bomzaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bomzaway)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887/56 "2002-10-31T22:27:32Z")
Um, no actually, I was commenting on VelJohnson’s repeated performances as a law enforcement officer. In the **Ghostbusters** example, he played a prison guard. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-forever-playing-one-minor-role/133887.md?page=2)