# Actors who have played two generations of real people **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 23, 2021, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-two-generations-of-real-people/947161 "2021-07-23T21:51:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2021, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-two-generations-of-real-people/947161/1 "2021-07-23T21:51:18Z")
While watching the King’s Speech (as HBO tells me it’s leaving the HBO app, they clearly know their punters I had no real desire to rewatch before that 🙂 ) I realize Helena Bonham Carter plays the duchess of York (and future queen mother) in that film and went in to play her daughter Princess Margret in the Crown. Any other examples of this? ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2021, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-two-generations-of-real-people/947161/2 "2021-07-23T23:36:08Z")
If not limited to separate productions, George Arliss played Mayer Rothschild and his son Nathan in _The House of Rothschild_ (1934). ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2021, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-two-generations-of-real-people/947161/3 "2021-07-24T02:06:32Z")
Patrick Stewart played Henry II in the 2003 TV version of _The Lion in Winter_ and Richard I in _Robin Hood: Men in Tights_. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2021, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-two-generations-of-real-people/947161/4 "2021-07-24T02:55:03Z")
The Royals have a wealth of this. Helen Mirren has played both [Elizabeth I](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_I_(2005_TV_series)) and [Elizabeth II](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Queen_(2006_film)). ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2021, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-two-generations-of-real-people/947161/5 "2021-07-24T03:07:40Z")
But Elizabeth II is not descended fro Elizabeth I, so does that count as two generations? ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2021, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-two-generations-of-real-people/947161/6 "2021-07-24T03:30:03Z")
They are 1st cousins, either 13 or 14 times removed, depending on whom you ask (according to google). I’m also not sure if that counts or not. 1st cousins (once removed) are different generations (that’s what the removed indicates), but not directly connected… Brian ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2021, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-two-generations-of-real-people/947161/7 "2021-07-24T09:36:17Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > I realize Helena Bonham Carter plays the duchess of York (and future queen mother) in that film and went in to play her daughter Princess Margret in the Crown. And her on-screen sister, Olivia Colman, had also previously played their mother in _Hyde Park on Hudson_. Vanessa Redgrave was Anne Boleyn in _A Man for All Seasons_ and Elizabeth I in _Anonymous_. (And she was Mary, Queen of Scots.) Rupert Everett was Charles I in _To Kill a King_ and then was Charles II in his next film, _Stage Beauty_. In _The Young Victoria_, Jim Broadbent played William IV, having previously been Prince Albert in _Blackadder_, while his on-screen wife, Harriet Walter, subsequently played his grandmother, Princess Augusta, in _A Royal Affair_. For the classier type of British actors, this game isn’t too difficult to play. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2021, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-two-generations-of-real-people/947161/8 "2021-07-24T09:38:26Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > But Elizabeth II is not descended fro Elizabeth I, so does that count as two generations? The convoluted inbreeding of the royal lineage suggests yes. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2021, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-two-generations-of-real-people/947161/9 "2021-07-24T09:40:03Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > The convoluted inbreeding of the royal lineage suggests yes Related, not descended. Elizabeth I didn’t have any children. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2021, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-two-generations-of-real-people/947161/10 "2021-07-24T09:40:04Z")
In the comedy department - didn’t Dick Van Dyke play Old Mr. Dawes in the original _Mary Poppins_ and his son Mr. Dawes Jr. in _Mary Poppins Returns?_ ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2021, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-two-generations-of-real-people/947161/11 "2021-07-24T13:52:04Z")
The OP specifies “real people”, though. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2021, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-two-generations-of-real-people/947161/12 "2021-07-24T14:05:32Z")
A bright line not to be crossed, though you must admit that the portrayals of many historical figures are pretty darn fictional. Ralph Finnes 3-generational in 1999’s _Sunshine_ is a fiction, but borrows much from the real person of Attila Petschauer. Not a great movie but not a bad one, but its main virtue is that, a Hungarian production, admits to their own involvement in the same events of which they were also the victims. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2021, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-two-generations-of-real-people/947161/13 "2021-07-24T16:07:12Z")
Geraldine Chaplin played her own grandmother in _Chaplin._ She also is listed in the IMDB as playing herself. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2021, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-two-generations-of-real-people/947161/14 "2021-07-24T16:32:52Z")
ISTR Michael Palin doing that too. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2021, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-two-generations-of-real-people/947161/15 "2021-07-24T16:49:21Z")
William Daniels famously played John Adams and less-famously played John Quincy Adams. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2021, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-two-generations-of-real-people/947161/16 "2021-07-27T15:33:02Z")
Twice! He also played Sam Adams. And he played John Adams more than once. Daniels had a lock on the Adams family.