Actors that will always be that one particular role for you, no matter what.

[garygnu]

Ron Livingston will always be Peter from Office Space. Bill Pullman is Lone Starr.

[mbh]

John Astin was all over television from the 1960s to the present day, but to me, he will always be Former Mental Patient Buddy Ryan, from Night Court. Even when I see old Addams Family episodes, I always expect to hear him say, “But I’m feeling much better now.”

Charles Gray is a fine actor, but to me, he will always be The Man With No Neck.

I have never even watched Deliverance. The only scenes I have ever seen are the “Dueling Banjos” scene, and Warren Beatty’s magnum opus.

[not_what_you_d_expect]

Vincent D’ Onofrio is always the bug from Men in Black.

Always.

[Obeseus]

Christopher McDonald. No matter what role he turns up in, all I can think of is Shooter McGavin from Happy Gilmore.

[rocking_chair]

@gwendee

Also from Guiding Light. When I was in high school James Rebhorn played an awful, awful man on the soap. The character beat his wife and raped his stepdaughter. (Lizzie’s mother, Beth).

That was in the mid 1980s. Between then and his death earlier this year he racked up nearly a hundred film and TV credits. He would show up as a chief of staff or an attorney - many roles in suits, most as perfectly benign characters. I never once saw him that my brain didn’t shout “Yikes! Bradley Raines!!!”

He was in White Color as a chief/director for the FBI. I was certain that we’d find out he was a bad guy. Nope.

i agree, i only saw guiding light for one year, but it was that year. a friend’s mother was hooked and i would go over to their house after school. that character had no redeeming qualities.

melina kanakaredes will always be the woman who was a very bad for constable fraser. haven’t quite gotten over that, don’t know if i ever will. i can’t watch anything she is on.

[Tim_R.Mortiss]

Sean Bean is always Boromir to me.

Ted Levine, however, is always Frank Holman, the small-time crook from Crime Story in my book.

[JesterX]

@CT_Damsel

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.

Thanks for the correction.

[terentii]

@mbh

I have never even watched Deliverance. The only scenes I have ever seen are the “Dueling Banjos” scene, and Warren Beatty’s magnum opus.

That was, uhm, the late Ned Beatty, not Warren “God’s Gift to Women” Beatty. Though I admit to being greatly amused at the thought of the latter having to take a Redneck up the chute.

Gives whole new meaning to the line “You got a purty mouth!”

[etv78]

Ned is alive!

[Jim_s_Son]

A couple months ago TCM showed “The Big Broadcast of 1937”. I kept thinking Jack Benny was Jack Benny but he wasn’t.

[cochrane]

@terentii

That was, uhm, the late Ned Beatty, not Warren “God’s Gift to Women” Beatty. Though I admit to being greatly amused at the thought of the latter having to take a Redneck up the chute.

Gives whole new meaning to the line “You got a purty mouth!”

@etv78

Ned is alive!

Yup, he is. But I’ll always think of him as Luthor’s bumbling assistant, Otis, in “Superman.”

[terentii]

Huh! I thought Ned took the big one some time ago. Glad I was mistaken!

[Eddie_F]

@not_what_you_d_expect

Vincent D’ Onofrio is always the bug from Men in Black.

Always.

He’s Private Pyle to me.

Always.

[etv78]

Detective Goren to me.

[JKellyMap]

@Stoid

I probably should’ve been more specific on how I worded the OP; A lot of actors like the ones you name, are known almost exclusively for one particular long-running role, which they played for years and for many collective hours making it almost impossible to break out in any way. But Ted Levine in SOTL had maybe what,? 20 or 30 minutes of screen time of the film versus years on Monk, now 2 years on The Bridge and 60 other things on his resume. That’s a pretty unusual thing.

I feel exactly the sane way about Ted Levine. My other example would be the woman who played his still-alive victim in “Lambs.” I’ve seen the actress in several roles recently. My wife us going through a Gray’s Anatomy obsession right now, and she’s in that – but she will ALWAYS be the girl in “Lambs” for me. An American Girl.

[GoodOmens]

I had to stop myself from posting the one that came to mind immediately for me, because it would be a MASSIVE SPOILER. So, instead, I’ll go with an easy one…Heath Ledger is The Joker. I caught some of 10 Things I Hate About You on cable a while ago and feared for poor Julia Stile’s safety.

[JKellyMap]

@GoodOmens

I had to stop myself from posting the one that came to mind immediately for me, because it would be a MASSIVE SPOILER.

Do tell us! Just put it in spoiler tags – place this before it, but without spaces: [ spoiler ] and then place this after it, again without spaces: [ /spoiler ]

[GoodOmens]

Oh, right, I forgot this board has spoiler tags.

Kevin Spacey IS Keyser Soze

[JKellyMap]

@GoodOmens

Oh, right, I forgot this board has spoiler tags.

Kevin Spacey IS Keyser Soze

Clever.

[Nom_de_Plume]

Giovanni Ribisi was in an episode of X-Files where he could control lightning. My wife and I still call him “Lightning Boy” when we see him in any other role