# Actors playing the same role over long periods
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-role-over-long-periods/369172
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 18, 2006, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-role-over-long-periods/369172 "2006-08-18T01:36:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2006, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-role-over-long-periods/369172/21 "2006-08-18T10:53:25Z")
> [@Askance](#):
>
> Topol has played Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof since 1967, so 39 years. I suspect that’s a record for live performance.
OP specified not the same work, but the same character in different works.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2006, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-role-over-long-periods/369172/22 "2006-08-18T12:12:01Z")
**Sean Connery** played James Bond first in **Dr. No** in 1962 and for the last time in **Never Say Never Again** in 1984 22 years (for an action role!). If you count voice-only work, he voiced Bond anew in the video game **From Russia With Love** in 2005, for 43 years.
\*\*Herbert Lom[/Bplayed police commisioner Charles Dreyfus first in **A Shot in the Dark** in 1964 (He apparently wasn’t in The Pink Panther), and played him in many of the sequels until 1993’s **Son of the Pink Panther**. He apparently wasn’t in the remake, so he’s never been in “THe Pink Panther” directly, but he spent 29 years playing the same caracter in sequels.
He also played Napoleon twice, 14 years apart , in **The Young Mr. Pitt** in 1942 and **War and Peace** in 1956. They should get bhim to fo it again, and hje’d break the record.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2006, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-role-over-long-periods/369172/23 "2006-08-18T12:25:27Z")
**William Daniels** has a lock on the Adams faily – the historical ones. He’s famous for playinmg John Adams in **1776** in 1972 (and since at least 1970 on Broadway) and in **The Rebels** (1978) and Sam Adams in and **The Bastard** (1979). But he gets the longevity award for playing John Qyuincy Adams in **Hallmark Hall of Fame – A Woman for the Ages** in 1952 and again in **The Adams Chronicles** in 1976. That’s 24 years.
Jack Lemmon and Waltter Matthau played Oscar Madison and FElix Unger in **The Odd Couple** in 1968 and \*\*The Odd Couple II \*\* in 1998 – 30 years (Matthau played him longer on stage, although Art Carney started the role of Felix).
Tony Randall and Jack Klugman did the same roles from 1970 to 1993 ( **The Odd Couple: Together Again**.
If you’re just looking at cameos, **Kevin McCarthy** appeared as Dr. Miles J. Bennell in the 1956 **Invasion of the Body Snatchers** , essentially reprised the part in the 1978 version, then did it again in **Looney Tune: Back in Action** in 2003, a total gap of 47 years.
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2006, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-role-over-long-periods/369172/24 "2006-08-18T12:34:16Z")
[Hal Holbrook](http://www.pbs.org/now/arts/holbrook.html) has been playing Mark Twain for fifty years.
Beat that!
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2006, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-role-over-long-periods/369172/25 "2006-08-18T12:38:15Z")
I know that we’ve discounted voice work, but I have to mention **Mae Questel** , who first did Betty Boop in 1930’s **Dizzy Dishes** , and last did her in 1988’s **Who Framed Roger abbit** – a total of 58 years. She wasn’t the first or only Betty Boop, but she was easily the most famous.
She also voiced Olive Oyl from 1933 through 1957
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2006, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-role-over-long-periods/369172/26 "2006-08-18T12:47:34Z")
**John Carradine** played Dracula in the movies from 1944 to 1979 – 35 years. But he did the role on stage for longer, although I can’t find cites.
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### Author:  [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2006, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-role-over-long-periods/369172/27 "2006-08-18T12:58:25Z")
Pardon me, ma’am, but… have you forgotten Peter Falk?
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2006, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-role-over-long-periods/369172/28 "2006-08-18T13:28:45Z")
34 years later, \*\*elisha Cook, Jr. \*\* and **Lee Patrick** reprised their roles from **The Maltese Falcon** in **The Black Bird**.
**Vera Miles** and **Anthony Perkins** reprised their roles from **Psycho** (1960) in **Psycho II** (1983). Perkins would go on playing Norman Bates until \*\*Psycho IV \*\* in 1990, for a total of 30 years.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2006, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-role-over-long-periods/369172/29 "2006-08-18T13:31:06Z")
**Paul Newman** played Eddie Felson in 1961’s **The Hustler** and 1986’s **the Color of Money** , 22 years apart. Walter Tevis wrote both.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2006, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-role-over-long-periods/369172/30 "2006-08-18T13:40:29Z")
Come to think of it, both the **Star Wars** and **Star Trek** franchises kept a lot of actos employed in the same roles for long periods. **Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker** , and the voice of **James Earl Jones** appeared in the 1977 original and in the last, \*\*Revenge of the Sith \*\* in 2005 (28 years) , with lots of other actors working on several between.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2006, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-role-over-long-periods/369172/31 "2006-08-18T14:20:13Z")
**Al Lewis** ke[t playing his “Grampa Munster” character (or copyright-avoiding variations on it) for year after the TV show The Musters (started 1964) up through 1995.
He also reappeared as Leo Schnauser from **Car 54 Where Are You?** the movie in 1994, 33 years after originating the role on the TV show in 1961.
**June Foray** (voice again) did “Granny” in Warner Bothers cartoons from at least 1953 (and possibly 1943 – she did “Granny” in “Hiss and Make Up”, but I;m not sure it’s the same Granny) through 2005. And she;s still around – she can keep on doing it. That’s 52 or possibly 62 years.
She’s also done Rocket J. “Rocky” Squirrel from 1959 through 2000, and can keep on doing that.
**Raymond Burr** did Perry Mason from 1957 to 1993, for 36 years. He also played Steve Martin in **Godzilla** (1956) and **Godzilla 1985** , 29 years apart.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2006, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-role-over-long-periods/369172/32 "2006-08-18T15:16:38Z")
The bunch from **The Dick Van Dyke Show** (1961) reappeared together many times, most recently in 2004 with **The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited** , with the following reprising their roles:
**Dick Van Dyke
Mary Tyler Moore
Rose Marie
Carl Reiner
Larry Mathews
Ann Morgan Guilbert
Jerry Van Dyke**
(Morey Amsterdam had appeared in previous get-togethers, but he was dead by then)
That’s 43 years for much of the original cast.
(By the way, Daws Butler bragged that when they got together to do new episodes of **The Jetsons** , they were the only show to regroup after so long a time with the entire original cast. That’s 1962 to 1987, for 25 years. For the 1990 movie, some voices were changed.)
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2006, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-role-over-long-periods/369172/33 "2006-08-18T15:20:14Z")
Does it count if you voice the restored audio for your own movie? **Tony Curtis** did that for the 1991 restoration of the 160 movie **Spartacus** , and **Peter O’Toole** and others did it for 1989 restoration of the 1962 film **Lawrence of Arabia**.
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### Author:  [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2006, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-role-over-long-periods/369172/34 "2006-08-18T20:14:48Z")
> [@commasense](#):
>
> I just caught an episode of the new _Twilight Zone_ from 2003 called “It’s Still a Good Life.” It’s a sequel to the memorable 1961 episode of the original _TZ_ called “It’s a Good Life” about a petulant little boy with the power to vanish anything or anyone who annoys him “to the cornfield.” The 2003 show is about the same boy forty years later, now that he has his own seven-year-old daughter.
>
> The character of Anthony Fremont in the original show was played by seven-year-old actor [Billy Mumy](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0612621/), who went on to play Will Robinson in _Lost in Space_. The actor playing 49-year-old Anthony Fremont in the 2003 was…
>
> [Bill Mumy](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0612621/).
>
> Yep, same guy, 42 years later.
Gee whiz, are you guys all slipping? Nobody brought up that Cloris Leachman _also_ reprised her role for that episode, as Anthony’s mother? That was the more amazing part for me.
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### Author:  [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2006, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-role-over-long-periods/369172/35 "2006-08-18T22:57:37Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> **Sean Connery** played James Bond first in **Dr. No** in 1962 and for the last time in **Never Say Never Again** in 1984 22 years (for an action role!). If you count voice-only work, he voiced Bond anew in the video game **From Russia With Love** in 2005, for 43 years.
Keeping it to the films, Desmond Llewelyn has him beat. From the same series, he played Q from 1964 (Goldfinger) until his death in 1999 (The World is Not Enough). 35 years of gadgety goodness.
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