# Actors who are typecast, but only for you **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, movies\ **Created:** [December 22, 2025, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-typecast-but-only-for-you/1025960 "2025-12-22T19:26:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-typecast-but-only-for-you/1025960/21 "2025-12-24T03:18:25Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > There’s an actor whose name I don’t even know-- he’s a “THAT guy!” Once, in an episode of _L&O: TOS_, he played a VERY creepy stalker-killer, and that’s all I can ever see him as since, even though for a while he was popping up some place different every other week. [Ritchie Coster](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0182662/?ref_=tt_cst_t_8) by any chance? ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-typecast-but-only-for-you/1025960/22 "2025-12-24T04:59:58Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > William Boyett. He had a long career in 50s and 60s television and _always_ played a cop. I’m not sure he meets the criteria of the thread, then—if he _always_ played a cop, then surely he must have been typecast for everyone, not just for you…? ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-typecast-but-only-for-you/1025960/23 "2025-12-24T05:07:12Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > There’s an actor whose name I don’t even know-- he’s a “THAT guy!” Once, in an episode of _L&O: TOS_, he played a VERY creepy stalker-killer, and that’s all I can ever see him as since, even though for a while he was popping up some place different every other week. Nick Chinlund? [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0157915/](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0157915/) ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-typecast-but-only-for-you/1025960/24 "2025-12-24T06:22:28Z")
I think Rowan Atkinson has avoided being typecast in my head because he has had two standout but very different roles in his career: the aforementioned Mr Bean, but also Blackadder (albeit the latter with differences each series). ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-typecast-but-only-for-you/1025960/25 "2025-12-24T06:26:20Z")
The very first thing I ever saw Mark Ruffalo in was the underappreciated _You Can Count On Me_, where he played Laura Linney’s kinda ne’er do well brother, Terry. He’s carved out a nice career, and I really enjoyed his Bruce Banner in the Marvel projects. But he’ll always be Terry to me. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-typecast-but-only-for-you/1025960/26 "2025-12-24T13:17:33Z")
Sean Penn will always be Spicoli from _Fast Times at Ridgemount High_ ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-typecast-but-only-for-you/1025960/27 "2025-12-24T14:45:09Z")
My game (or maybe my way to be annoying) is that when someone is the “killer of the week” on a show like Monk or Criminal Minds they are branded as a murderer (if I remember who they are). If they show up in a different show then I call out “murderer” when they are on the screen. So Norm Wendt is a murder on a Columbo episode and gets called a murderer every time we watch Cheers. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-typecast-but-only-for-you/1025960/28 "2025-12-24T15:25:35Z")
[It’s this guy:](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/lawandorder/images/0/06/3c91beb7-414a-470a-88df-0ec62d98fb30.png/revision/latest?cb=20250308020540) His name is Tim Guinee. He’s got a very “sensitive guy” look and soft voice, so he takes you by surprise when he turns out to be a particularly cruel mass murderer/stalker/serial killer. Yes, he is both a mass murderer and a serial killer-- and a child murderer. He also gets a “not guilty” by taking the jury foreman out to dinner, and convincing her that they are soulmates– and you believe he could do it. And his cruelty doesn’t even end there. The murderers who look like murderers on _L&O_ don’t creep me out, because I’d cross the street if I saw them coming and there weren’t a lot of people around, but this is the kind of guy who, if he sat next to me on a subway or a plane, and said something to me, I’d probably start talking to him without even really thinking about it. If he were model-attractive, or banker-slick, I’d notice, but he’s more ordinary. And it’s so creepy to watch happen to someone else, especially realizing that if it happened to ME, I might not even notice. ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-typecast-but-only-for-you/1025960/29 "2025-12-24T16:38:14Z")
David Anders is Sark from _Alias_. Every time we see him, one of us mentions Sark. Whatever character Melissa George is playing is not to be trusted, due to her role as Lauren Reed, also from _Alias_. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-typecast-but-only-for-you/1025960/30 "2025-12-24T16:51:13Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > but this is the kind of guy who, if he sat next to me on a subway or a plane, and said something to me, I’d probably start talking to him without even really thinking about it. > > If he were model-attractive, or banker-slick, I’d notice, but he’s more ordinary. And it’s so creepy to watch happen to someone else, especially realizing that if it happened to ME, I might not even notice. This is exactly why I find Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates in Psycho to be so disturbing, ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-typecast-but-only-for-you/1025960/31 "2025-12-24T16:56:15Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > The very first thing I ever saw Mark Ruffalo in was the underappreciated _You Can Count On Me_, where he played Laura Linney’s kinda ne’er do well brother, Terry. Same for me. Great film BTW. That scene towards the beginning at the restaurant as he reunited with his sister had me squirming in sympathy as he was trying to explain himself to her. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-typecast-but-only-for-you/1025960/32 "2025-12-24T16:59:43Z")
Jeremy Allen White will always and forever be Lip Gallagher from _Shameless_. He’s not a chef (_The Bear_), and he certainly isn’t Bruce Springsteen (_Deliver Me From Nowhere_), although I thought he did a fine job in that movie. ---
**Author:** ![De\_La\_Rue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@De\_La\_Rue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/De_La_Rue)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-typecast-but-only-for-you/1025960/33 "2025-12-24T18:25:34Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > William Boyett. He had a long career in 50s and 60s television and _always_ played a cop. He was also one of the villain’s victims in _The Hidden_, not even an authority figure but a hospital patient whose job is never specified. On the other hand, Kyle MacLachlan plays an FBI agent (three years before _Twin Peaks_). Quasi-related to this topic, I first heard of Danny Elfman as the voice of Jack Skellington in _The Nightmare before Christmas_, and it took me a bit to move him from the mental category of “voice actor” to “composer”. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-typecast-but-only-for-you/1025960/34 "2025-12-24T18:52:05Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Rowan Atkinson is Mr Bean. > [@iamatractorboy](#): > > I think Rowan Atkinson has avoided being typecast in my head because he has had two standout but very different roles in his career: the aforementioned Mr Bean, but also Blackadder Since I didn’t care for my brief exposure to Mr. Bean, I watched very little of it. But I loved Blackadder (minus the one-offs), so Rowan Atkinson is only and always Blackadder 🙂. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-typecast-but-only-for-you/1025960/35 "2025-12-24T20:40:52Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > His name is Tim Guinee. He’s got a very “sensitive guy” look and soft voice, so he takes you by surprise when he turns out to be a particularly cruel mass murderer/stalker/serial killer. Yes, he is both a mass murderer and a serial killer-- and a child murderer. He also gets a “not guilty” by taking the jury foreman out to dinner, and convincing her that they are soulmates– and you believe he could do it. I remember that episode. I thought it was Nathan Fillion in that role for a while, then found out it wasn’t. Guinee was in one of the _Iron Man_ movies, wasn’t he? Ritchie Coster is the killer on _L&O_ that was so creepy his public defender was freaked out to be in the same room with him. Then his second lawyer goes to look at some dead bodies the client tells him about and winds up getting convicted as an accomplice to murder. He shows up in a couple more episodes in the Law-and-Orderverse; once as a rather effete orchestra conductor, I think. I knew I recognized him from somewhere, but took a while to make the connection. > [@De\_La\_Rue](#): > > Quasi-related to this topic, I first heard of Danny Elfman as the voice of Jack Skellington in _The Nightmare before Christmas_, and it took me a bit to move him from the mental category of “voice actor” to “composer”. My favorite movie is _The Right Stuff_. Levon Helm plays Yeager’s engineer, Jack Ridley; clean cut, short hair. When I saw a clip from _The Last Waltz_ with him singing “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” I barely recognized him. Next time I saw the movie I noticed how he twirled a piece of broomstick on his fingers; a skill I’m sure he honed with drumsticks. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-typecast-but-only-for-you/1025960/36 "2025-12-24T21:42:30Z")
> [@Author\_Balk](#): > > My game (or maybe my way to be annoying) is that when someone is the “killer of the week” on a show like Monk or Criminal Minds they are branded as a murderer (if I remember who they are). If they show up in a different show then I call out “murderer” when they are on the screen. LOL that reminds me of an episode of Criminal Minds my wife was watching a while back, where the serial killer of the week was Brian Baumgartner, aka Kevin from The Office. I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t take him seriously as the SKotW after all those years of Kevin. He’s not that smart! ---
**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 24, 2025, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-typecast-but-only-for-you/1025960/37 "2025-12-24T22:09:18Z")
> [@De\_La\_Rue](#): > > Quasi-related to this topic, I first heard of Danny Elfman as the voice of Jack Skellington in _The Nightmare before Christmas_, and it took me a bit to move him from the mental category of “voice actor” to “composer”. Whereas, I originally knew of Danny Elfman as the vocalist and co-leader of the '80s rock band Oingo Boingo, in particular their songs _Dead Man’s Party_ and _Weird Science_. When he started writing film scores – especially the 1989 _Batman_ film – I kept thinking of him as “that Oingo Boingo guy,” and it took me a while to think of him otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-typecast-but-only-for-you/1025960/38 "2025-12-24T22:13:53Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > Since I didn’t care for my brief exposure to Mr. Bean, I watched very little of it. But I loved Blackadder (minus the one-offs), so Rowan Atkinson is only and always Blackadder 🙂. And of course Captain Blackadder of “Blackadder Goes Forth” famously hated another mostly-silent film actor…. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-typecast-but-only-for-you/1025960/39 "2025-12-24T22:25:41Z")
Please please please. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-typecast-but-only-for-you/1025960/40 "2025-12-24T23:30:30Z")
> [@BrickBat](#): > > Ron Livingston is simply “Nix”, or Captain Lew Nixon from ‘Band of Brothers’, first and foremost, though is character as Peter Gibbons from ‘Office Space’ gives him a good run for his money For me, Ron ruined _Band of Brothers_. I kept expecting him to complain about TPS reports and Flair. But now that I think about it, Nixon was a little bit like Peter. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-typecast-but-only-for-you/1025960.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-typecast-but-only-for-you/1025960.md?page=3)