# Actors with the same LAST name as their character **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 13, 2014, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-the-same-last-name-as-their-character/693008 "2014-07-13T18:51:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-the-same-last-name-as-their-character/693008/41 "2015-02-28T18:47:59Z")
Christian Slater voices Slater on _Archer_, though AFAIK they haven’t revealed whether that’s the character’s first or last name. ---
**Author:** ![Orr\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ee59a6/32.png) [@Orr\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orr_G)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-the-same-last-name-as-their-character/693008/42 "2015-02-28T21:54:04Z")
> [@Flywheel](#): > > Christian Slater voices Slater on _Archer_, though AFAIK they haven’t revealed whether that’s the character’s first or last name. “Slater” is a mononym on that show. Slater states it specifically at some point. Not sure how that fits into the OP’s scheme. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-the-same-last-name-as-their-character/693008/43 "2015-02-28T23:00:25Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > On Family Guy, the role of Mayor West is voiced by Adam West. Mayor’s not a name, it’s a title. The character he plays is Adam We. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-the-same-last-name-as-their-character/693008/44 "2015-02-28T23:22:39Z")
Greg Kinnear played a news reporter in 1964 Mississippi with the name Greg Kinnear in a movie about the murders of Cheney, Goodman, and Schwermer. (I guess it was the only way he’d be sure to get the line right.) Katharine Hepburn played Mary, Queen of Scots in the movie _Mary of Scotland_. Fredrick March played her third husband, James, Earl of Bothwell. His surname was never used in the movie, but in real life it was Hepburn. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-the-same-last-name-as-their-character/693008/45 "2015-03-09T22:21:40Z")
In _ **The Maltese Falcon** _, Elisha Cook Jr. played the young gunsel (in the book version, he was also Joel Cairo’s gay lover) Wilmer Cook. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2015, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-the-same-last-name-as-their-character/693008/46 "2015-03-10T01:33:33Z")
“Gay lover of somebody important” (a.k.a. “catamite”) is the primary definition of “gunsel.” The definition of the word as “gunman” is a secondary definition. The motion pictures censors and the publishers of the book missed what the word meant, so they allowed it in the book and the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2015, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-the-same-last-name-as-their-character/693008/47 "2015-03-10T12:58:23Z")
This is a bit of a cheat, but the actress who portrayed Anne Shirley in the 1934 film “Anne of Green Gables,” Dawn O’Day, changed her stage name to Anne Shirley after making the film. She then went on to reprise the role in “Anne of Windy Poplars.” ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2015, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-the-same-last-name-as-their-character/693008/48 "2015-03-10T16:46:40Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > “Gay lover of somebody important” (a.k.a. “catamite”) is the primary definition of “gunsel.” The definition of the word as “gunman” is a secondary definition. The motion pictures censors and the publishers of the book missed what the word meant, so they allowed it in the book and the movie. Huh… I encounter the word “gunsel” so rarely that I never paid it much mind. I just assumed it meant a thug with a gun. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2015, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-the-same-last-name-as-their-character/693008/49 "2015-03-10T18:26:10Z")
[quote=“Wendell\_Wagner, post:19, topic:693008”] Maybe Fleming’s use of the phase “a Lonsdale kind of character” was a reference to this person: > **[Konon Molody](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konon_Molody)** > > Konon Trofimovich Molody (Russian: Ко́нон Трофи́мович Моло́дый; 17 January 1922 – 9 September 1970) was a Soviet intelligence officer, known in the West as Gordon Arnold Lonsdale. Posing as a Canadian businessman during the Cold War he was a non-official (illegal) KGB intelligence agent and the mastermind of the Portland Spy Ring, which operated in Britain from the late 1950s until 1961. > A person by the name of Gordon Arnold Lonsdale was born on 27 August 1924 in Cobalt, Ontario, Canada. His f... …QUOTE] That was my thought, though I didn’t recall the Russian name. I just knew of him as real life spy Gordon Lonsdale. ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2015, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-the-same-last-name-as-their-character/693008/50 "2015-03-10T18:26:17Z")
A lot of these are interesting, but are ignoring one of the OP’s key conditions: > [@Shoeless](#): > > Have there been any instances in movies or TV where an actor played a character with _ **a different first name** _ but the same last name? ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2015, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-the-same-last-name-as-their-character/693008/51 "2015-03-11T01:55:26Z")
The Abbott and Costello show had four: Abbott, Costello, Sidney Fields and Hillary Brooke. Somehow Gordon Jones and Joe Besser got different names. > **[The Abbott and Costello Show (TV Series 1952–1957) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044229/)** > > The Abbott and Costello Show: With Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Sid Fields, Gordon Jones. Bud and Lou are unemployed actors living in Mr. Fields' boarding house. Lou's girlfriend Hillary lives across the hall. Any premise would lead to slapstick, puns,... ---
**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:** [March 11, 2015, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-the-same-last-name-as-their-character/693008/52 "2015-03-11T04:27:36Z")
BD Wong played Dr. George Huang on _L&O: SVU_. “Huang” is pronounced “Wong.” People in the US of Chinese descent just got different transliterations when they immigrated, but it’s probably the same name. I know I see this among Jews all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2015, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-the-same-last-name-as-their-character/693008/53 "2015-03-11T22:45:41Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > The Abbott and Costello show had four: Abbott, Costello, Sidney Fields and Hillary Brooke. Yeah, but they all had the same first names, too. The OP asked about actors with the same \*last \*name but different \*first \*name than their character. ---
**Author:** ![Beelzebubba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Beelzebubba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beelzebubba)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2015, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-the-same-last-name-as-their-character/693008/54 "2015-03-12T15:41:39Z")
I can’t think of any instances where an actor played a character with the same first and last name, but I do know of one that had the same first and middle name. On the television show “Reba”, the main character’s name was Reba Nell Hart and she was played by Reba Nell McEntire. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-with-the-same-last-name-as-their-character/693008.md?page=2)