# Actors playing the same character in different TV shows/movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 8, 2009, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401 "2009-12-08T02:48:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/21 "2009-12-08T12:14:13Z")
Timothy Bottoms, who played Bush II in “That’s My Bush” also played him in DC 9/11 and as a cameo part in several other shows. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/22 "2009-12-08T12:14:26Z")
Here’s another one for you, more obscure (I had to look up the actress’s name). [Helen Ryan](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0752571/) apparently bears a strong resemblance to Queen Alexandra, the wife of Edward VII. She has played her on three occasions, in “The Elephant Man,” in an episode of Sherlock Holmes, and in a miniseries about Edward VII. ETA: Francesca Annis also appeared in the Edward VII miniseries as Lily Langtry, then later played the Jersey Lily in another minseries all about her. ---
**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:** [December 8, 2009, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/23 "2009-12-08T13:30:32Z")
Miss Mapp already beat me to Charles Grey and yojimbo to Peter o’Toole, so I’ll have to list the others: **William Daniels** played John Adams in **1776** (on stage and screen) and in **The Rebels**. He also played Sam Adams in **The Bastard** and John Quincy Adams in **A Woman for the Ages** and in **the Adams Chronicles**. I’m pretty sure he played John in some small bits of advertising, too, and did the voice for **The American Revolution** in 1994. He had a lock on the Adams family. **Howard da Silva** played Benjamin Franklin in **1776** , again on both stage and screen, and went on to play him in a series of commercials for GE **Herbert Lom** played Napoleon Bonaparte in **War and Peace** and in **Young Mr. Pitt** ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/24 "2009-12-08T13:33:04Z")
> [@Leiko](#): > > It’s worth noting that one of Belzer’s appearances as Munch was on Arrested Development, which isn’t exactly part of the same world as the rest of the shows. Neither is Seasame Street. 😛 ---
**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:** [December 8, 2009, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/25 "2009-12-08T13:35:53Z")
> [@](#): > > Christopher Lee famously played Dracula in several films, beginning in 1958. Some of the subequent films were direct sequels, but some of them were unrelated other than ultimately stemming from the same source material. But two of them were nominally based directly on the book _Dracula_ – The hammer film released in the US as **Horror of Dracula** and the Jess Franco film released in the US as **Count Dracula**. That’s pretty impressive. ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/26 "2009-12-08T13:53:33Z")
I don’t know if this counts, but David Morse played George Washington in the miniseries **John Adams** and also provided the voice of Washington for the updated “Hall of Presidents” attraction at Disney World. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/27 "2009-12-08T14:04:23Z")
Actually, it’s much rarer for an actor to play the same fictional role in movies that were not sequels or part of a series. Here are a few: Brian Donlevy and Akim Tamaroff played McGinty and The Boss in **The Great McGinty**. The played the same characters in **Miracle of Morgan’s Creek**. Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche played the Duke brothers in **Trading Places** and also in **Coming to America** (a cameo). Michael Keaton played Ray Nicolette in **Jackie Brown** and later in **Out of Sight** Margaret Rutherford played Miss Marple in a series of films. She also played the role as a cameo in the film **The Alphabet Murders** , which was not a Miss Marple film. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/28 "2009-12-08T14:46:41Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > [Michael Sheard](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0790410/) has played Hitler five different times, most notably in _Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade_. He also played Himmler three times. [Günter Meisner](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0577070/) (Willie Wonka’s nemesis Mr. Slugworth) played Hitler in three projects. Typecast as Hitler or at best Himmler…what a fate. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/29 "2009-12-08T14:59:01Z")
James Cagney won an Oscar playing song-and-dance man George M. Cohan in “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” Years later, he played Cohan again, in a much smaller role in Bob Hope’s “The Seven Little Foys.” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/JOoNOs8Ql28/hqdefault.jpg "Great Dance Routine: James Cagney and Bob Hope") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOoNOs8Ql28) John Houseman played Charles Kingsfield, the snooty law professor from “The Paper Chase,” on at least two sitcoms: “The Associates” and “222.” ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/30 "2009-12-08T15:07:59Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Michael Keaton played Ray Nicolette in **Jackie Brown** and later in **Out of Sight** Angela Jones played the same character in the short [Curdled](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101634/), then appeared as the same character (with a slightly different name) in [Pulp Fiction](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110912/), then did a full-length film version of [Curdled](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115994/). The classic example is Ed Asner playing Lou Grant in the [Mary Tyler Moore](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065314/) show then playing Lou Grant (minus a sense of humor) in the show [Lou Grant](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075528/). And apparently, the character also showed up in Rhoda and Roseanne. ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/31 "2009-12-08T15:11:44Z")
Charles Laughton played the title role in Captain Kidd (1945) and again in Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952). ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/32 "2009-12-08T15:38:07Z")
> [@Leiko](#): > > It’s worth noting that one of Belzer’s appearances as Munch was on Arrested Development, which isn’t exactly part of the same world as the rest of the shows. And he played “Munch” in the Very Brady Sequel as well. Although IMDB just lists him as LAPD Detective, the scene was a send up of Homicide. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/33 "2009-12-08T16:17:46Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Dennis Franz is always a cop. He should partner up with Reginald VelJohnson. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/34 "2009-12-08T16:19:20Z")
I had it in my head that he did it even more frequently, but Edward Herrmann played Franklin Roosevelt in \*Eleanor and Franklin \* (and its sequel) and then again in _Annie_. The classic example may be Raymond Massey, who played Abraham Lincoln in the movie _Abe Lincoln in Illinois_, then in two different TV productions of the screenplay, then in _The Day Lincoln Was Shot_ and finally in _How the West Was Won_ – a 22 year stretch. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/35 "2009-12-08T16:31:20Z")
> [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](#): > > Typecast as Hitler or at best Himmler…what a fate. Now, I know him best as Admiral “As Clumsy As He Is Stupid” Ozzel, from “The Empire Strikes Back”. 🙂 ---
**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:** [December 8, 2009, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/36 "2009-12-08T17:04:11Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > Christopher Lee famously played Dracula in several films, beginning in 1958. Some of the subequent films were direct sequels, but some of them were unrelated other than ultimately stemming from the same source material. Likewise, Peter Cushing played Van Helsing a number of times, both the original and modern day descendants. He also played Frankenstein several times. And he played Sherlock Holmes in two movies and a TV series. Queen Victoria has several repeat performers, including Prunella Scales, Mollie Maureen, Fay Compton, Anna Neagle and others. ---
**Author:** ![Carl\_Corey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Carl\_Corey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carl_Corey)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/37 "2009-12-08T18:01:21Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Now, I know him best as Admiral “As Clumsy As He Is Stupid” Ozzel, from “The Empire Strikes Back”. 🙂 And I remember him as Laurence Scarman in the Doctor Who serial “Pyramids of Mars.” Well, and as the supervisor who gets infected in “The Invisible Enemy.” ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/38 "2009-12-08T18:07:47Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > I had it in my head that he did it even more frequently, but Edward Herrmann played Franklin Roosevelt in \*Eleanor and Franklin \* (and its sequel) and then again in _Annie_. HE was FDR?! Man, I always knew there were a lot of surprisingly famous people in Annie (Ann Reinking, Tim Curry, Bernadette Peters, and of course Carol Burnett), but I didn’t know about him. Have to rewatch that one. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/39 "2009-12-08T18:24:00Z")
> [@wedgehed](#): > > Charles Laughton played the title role in Captain Kidd (1945) and again in Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952). And Bela Lugosi played Count Dracula in both **Dracula** and **Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein**. Lon Chaney, Jr. played Larry Talbot in the same film, reprising his role in **The Wolf Man** ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/40 "2009-12-31T07:28:41Z")
[Michael Sheen](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0790688/) has played Tony Blair three times. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401.md?page=3)