# Actors that will always be that one particular role for you, no matter what. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 11, 2014, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-will-always-be-that-one-particular-role-for-you-no-matter-what/701027 "2014-10-11T07:22:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-will-always-be-that-one-particular-role-for-you-no-matter-what/701027/21 "2014-10-11T18:13:43Z")
Bill Paxton will forever be Hudson from _Aliens_… ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-will-always-be-that-one-particular-role-for-you-no-matter-what/701027/22 "2014-10-11T18:23:18Z")
Keanu Reeves as Bill in “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”. ---
**Author:** ![Eddie\_F](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/22d042/32.png) [@Eddie\_F](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eddie_F)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-will-always-be-that-one-particular-role-for-you-no-matter-what/701027/23 "2014-10-11T18:27:04Z")
> [@Abracadebra](#): > > There’s an actor on the new show “Gracepointe”, Kevin Rankin. He plays a reverend on this series, but to me he will always be Kenny from “Breaking Bad”. He’ll always be Devil from **Justified** to me. And I can’t believe I’m the first person to mention Tony Soprano, er, I mean James Gandolfini. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-will-always-be-that-one-particular-role-for-you-no-matter-what/701027/24 "2014-10-11T18:36:26Z")
On that note: Marlon Brando IS Don Corleone. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-will-always-be-that-one-particular-role-for-you-no-matter-what/701027/25 "2014-10-11T18:38:09Z")
> [@Eddie\_F](#): > > He’ll always be Devil from **Justified** to me. > > And I can’t believe I’m the first person to mention Tony Soprano, er, I mean James Gandolfini. Devil, fer sure. Too stupid to live. “Kenny” didn’t do or say much one way or another to invest me in the character. But James Gandolfini had six seasons to “own” Tony Soprano. By contrast, Joseph Siravo, with only spot appearances in 5 episodes, is now and forever Johnny Boy Soprano (Tony’s father). ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-will-always-be-that-one-particular-role-for-you-no-matter-what/701027/26 "2014-10-11T18:53:56Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Keanu Reeves as Bill in “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”. No, he was Ted “Theodore” Logan. Alex Winter was William S. Preston, Esquire. (Bill.) Two for me: Although he was Capt. Archer on _Enterprise_ and was in _Men of a Certain Age_ and now _NCIS New Orleans_, Scott Bakula will always be Dr. Samuel Beckett from _Quantum Leap_ for me. And although he had numerous film roles, including in _Bridge on the River Kwai_, Sir Alec Guinness will forever be Obi-Wan Kenobi. ---
**Author:** ![JesterX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/439d5e/32.png) [@JesterX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JesterX)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-will-always-be-that-one-particular-role-for-you-no-matter-what/701027/27 "2014-10-11T19:17:25Z")
I have a really obscure one. On Law and Order, S. Epatha Merkerson played Lt. Van Buren for YEARS. But before they introduced that character, she played a crackhead on the same show a season or two before. For all the time she was Van Buren, I was always in awe of the transformation she made from that crackhead, but I still saw a little of it in her. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-will-always-be-that-one-particular-role-for-you-no-matter-what/701027/28 "2014-10-11T19:36:07Z")
One of the SVU DAs, Diane Neal I believe, played a vic several seasons earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Skara\_Brae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Skara\_Brae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skara_Brae)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-will-always-be-that-one-particular-role-for-you-no-matter-what/701027/29 "2014-10-11T19:45:04Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > One of the SVU DAs, Diane Neal I believe, played a vic several seasons earlier. Actually, she played a perp, a female rapist and murderer. Very bad girl. ---
**Author:** ![Recusant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@Recusant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recusant)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-will-always-be-that-one-particular-role-for-you-no-matter-what/701027/30 "2014-10-11T19:52:50Z")
To my mind, Chris Cooper is and shall always be Bob Cody. And let me tell you, that made watching the 2011 Muppets movie _weird._ ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-will-always-be-that-one-particular-role-for-you-no-matter-what/701027/31 "2014-10-11T19:58:23Z")
Clancy Brown will always be the Kurgan. ---
**Author:** ![Eddie\_F](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/22d042/32.png) [@Eddie\_F](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eddie_F)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-will-always-be-that-one-particular-role-for-you-no-matter-what/701027/32 "2014-10-11T20:31:36Z")
Garret Dillahunt will always be _two_ characters in my mind (both from **Deadwood** ): Jack McCall and Francis Wolcott. And much like the description of (the excellent) S. Epatha Merkerson’s remarkable transformation from crack whore to police captain above, when many people tuned into the second season of **Deadwood** , they hadn’t the slightest idea that the man playing the refined, handsome, and utterly insane “Mr. W.” was the same actor who played the filthy drunk Jack McCall in the early episodes of the show’s first season. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-will-always-be-that-one-particular-role-for-you-no-matter-what/701027/33 "2014-10-11T20:58:19Z")
Sam Waterson IS Jack McCoy. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-will-always-be-that-one-particular-role-for-you-no-matter-what/701027/34 "2014-10-11T21:16:41Z")
Laurence Fishburne will always be Morpheus. I don’t care what role he’s playing, I know he has those pills in his pocket. > [@Stoid](#): > > For me, there’s a few that I always associate with a particular role, but one does stand way out in front of and on top of everyone: Ted Levine, no matter how many frustrated middle aged cops or anything else he ever plays, he will ALWAYS be Jamie Gumb. Recently when I was watching his middle aged police captain crawling around with gunshot wounds looking for a place to hide on “The Bridge”, I was saying out loud to the TV and the dogs: “Oh no! Captain It Puts The Lotion On Its Skin can’t die!” I recently realized that the woman who has to put the lotion on her skin has a part in _Ray Donovan_. Now it’s hard to think of anything else when she’s in a scene. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-will-always-be-that-one-particular-role-for-you-no-matter-what/701027/35 "2014-10-11T21:18:19Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Keanu Reeves as Bill in “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”. Ted, but yeah that’s what I came to say. Not because the role was so iconic. Just because it appears to have been the only role that he could really be convincing at. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-will-always-be-that-one-particular-role-for-you-no-matter-what/701027/36 "2014-10-11T21:41:56Z")
Sean Connery as Bond. James Bond. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-will-always-be-that-one-particular-role-for-you-no-matter-what/701027/37 "2014-10-11T21:44:25Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > No, he was Ted “Theodore” Logan. Alex Winter was William S. Preston, Esquire. (Bill.) Easiest way to remember this is to recall the line “Shut up, Ted!” ---
**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:** [October 11, 2014, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-will-always-be-that-one-particular-role-for-you-no-matter-what/701027/38 "2014-10-11T21:53:43Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > On that note: Marlon Brando IS Don Corleone. Not only that, Robert DeNiro won an Oscar for playing Don Corleone and Marlon Brando is STILL Don Corleone. ---
**Author:** ![CT\_Damsel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CT\_Damsel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CT_Damsel)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-will-always-be-that-one-particular-role-for-you-no-matter-what/701027/39 "2014-10-11T22:03:13Z")
> [@JesterX](#): > > I have a really obscure one. On Law and Order, S. Epatha Merkerson played Lt. Van Buren for YEARS. But before they introduced that character, she played a crackhead on the same show a season or two before. For all the time she was Van Buren, I was always in awe of the transformation she made from that crackhead, but I still saw a little of it in her. Nit Pick The episode was Mushrooms. Her character was a hard working cleaning lady, not a crackhead, whose 12 yr old son is shot and her baby is killed when the hit man (a young boy) went to the wrong address because he could not read. ---
**Author:** ![C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C.Montgomery_Burns)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-will-always-be-that-one-particular-role-for-you-no-matter-what/701027/40 "2014-10-11T22:25:14Z")
Don’t know if this counts, but I can’t watch anything with somebody from Whose Line Is It Anyway, especially Wayne Brady and Colin Mochrie (Ryan Stiles I saw in several other things, particularly The Drew Carey Show, so it doesn’t affect him much), without thinking, “That’s the guy from Whose Line!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-will-always-be-that-one-particular-role-for-you-no-matter-what/701027.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-will-always-be-that-one-particular-role-for-you-no-matter-what/701027.md?page=3)