Chocolat.
It’s only that most of the time (and specially when the director is Tim Burton) he gets paid to do the exact same thing.
Post 42 before I get to mention…
Bob Denver = Gilligan
Don Knotts = Barney Fife
I disagree. Don Knotts is the incredible Mr. Limpett.
A distinction without a difference, but still.
I think you see this more with TV actors with the characters they portray. Henry Winkler, Gary Coleman, all of the Brady’s, etc. Such that I understand it’s sometimes difficult for them to find work since audiences see them first as that TV character which disrupts the flow of the viewing experience.
I’ll throw in Ralph Macchio who was and forever will be the Karate Kid.
Also here’s a quick trivia question on the theme.
What actor (or you can name the character) legally changed his name -well, tacked it on as a middle name actually- to that of the character he portrayed after he was so thoroughly identified in that role?
I’ll come back and reveal it in a spoiler box if no one gets it after a spell.
I’ve heard Tim Matheson say that, when he was playing the Vice President on “West Wing,” he was still invariably addressed on set as Otter, and Timothy Busfield, who was playing a top Washington journalist, was always addressed as Poindexter, the character he’d played on “Revenge of the Nerds” years earlier.
Jason Alexander as George Costanza.
I second Kelsey Grammer as Frasier. I’ve seen him on talk shows and been annoyed that his voice isn’t actually as deep as Frasier’s, as it should be!
I can disassociate the two roles, amazingly, partly because Fillion seems a little older and stockier in Castle, plus he wears almost the exact opposite of the clothes he wore in Firefly. Watching Dr. Horrible in between the two shows might also have helped shock me out of the Fillion = Reynolds link.
For me, it’s John Goodman = Dan Conner, but perhaps that’s mostly because Goodman tends to have a Father mode he kicks on for appropriate roles and they all tend to look the same. Not that I dislike him as an actor, though, quite the opposite.
I think Mr. Furley is sufficiently different from Barney to put paid to that one.
Thank you Hammer Man, I don’t think I can explain how important it was that you weren’t that (Mal) man. 
Yeah, I know, I just rhymed ‘man’ with ‘man’. It’s late and I can’t sleep.
The old Television Without Pity boards referred to Hoynes as “VPOTTER” rather than “VPOTUS” for this reason.
And I noticed Will Sawyer on “The West Wing” was Danny Noonan from Caddyshack, and although he was only in one episode, I still couldn’t buy him as a hard-core investigative journalist.
Ray Liotta. I always see him as Henry Hill from Goodfellas, even though he’s now a lot paunchier (not to mention 20 years older) than when he did that role.
He has proven himself an adept comic actor in recent years though. I thought he was good in “Observe and Report,” “Youth in Revolt” and “Wild Hogs.” Yes, I did say “Wild Hogs.” The rest of the movie sucked, but Ray Liotta was the one bright spot in it.
Wait till House ends and Hugh Laurie tries to get another gig.
Personally, I think he’ll be okay. I think a lot of the House character is tied up in the limp, the cane, the language and the (“American”) accent. I don’t see him having a problem playing another role as long as it’s sufficiently different.
Ray Liotta was very good in Something Wild which was before Goodfellas.
He definitely wouldn’t have a problem, but the casting agents might have one with his strong identification as House.
I can’t see Ray Liotta without thinkng about little Joey Perrini on the soap Another World. He looks exactly the same, only older.
I watched a few episodes of the Dragnet relaunch a few years ago & Ed O’Neill was great as Joe Friday. I’ll always think of Bundy for the first few seconds I see him but I can soon accept him in other roles. He’s also great in Modern Family. One scene when he was fighting with his stepson, but steps up to be his Dad really get to me (the boy’s Dad was supposed to take him to Disneyland but bailed on him, so Ed tells him that the Dad couldn’t make it so he sent a limo to take them all to Disneyland… also great was the look of total adoration the Mom gave to Ed.)
Jerry Stiller is so identified as Frank Cazanta and Arthur Spooner, which were basically the same role and I think they were the same person living a double life.
It’s hard to see him as anyone else.
Peter Faulk as Columbo
John Houseman as Proff. Kingsfield
George C. Scott had a more impressive voice. If you’ve ever heard recordings of the real Patton, he had a startlingly high-pitched voice. Scott’s deeper, more gravelly tones are how you would* expect *Patton to sound.