# Actors you were surprised to recognize **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 19, 2017, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-you-were-surprised-to-recognize/791618 "2017-07-19T01:39:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-you-were-surprised-to-recognize/791618/1 "2017-07-19T01:39:31Z")
Have you ever watched a show and though “No! That can’t be \_\_\_\_\_”, and had to Google to find out: Yes it is the same actor. (Make of this thread what you will. Obviously actresses are eligible as well as actors. 🙂 ) The first of my two examples is Stringer Bell, now playing John _Luther_, high-ranking British cop. What’s with the glottalized T? He sounds like he comes from Essex, not Baltimore. As with my other example, the physical resemblance is unmistakable, but I still Googled to find this actor didn’t grow up in the 'Hood with Avon Barksdale — he was born in London. My other example comes from the movie _To Live and Die in L.A._ (If you’ve never seen this movie, stop whatever you’re doing and watch it now! IMDB gives it only 7.3 stars — that’s not nearly enough.) But I did a double-take when I re-watched the movie. That can’t be Gil Grissom of _CSI Las Vegas_! Gil seems so straight-laced, a scientific cop. The Secret Service agent in _To Live and Die in L.A._ should probably be locked up in prison! ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-you-were-surprised-to-recognize/791618/2 "2017-07-19T02:01:15Z")
I’m not sure if this is exactly what you want. I was watching an episode of Midsomer Murders called Secrets and Spies (nice cast, Peter Davison, Alice Krige, Anna Massey) and one older fellow who I knew I had seen any number of times but could not place. So I looked him up: it was Benjamin Whitrow. Still did not ring a bell, so I looked at his filmography. Turns out he played Mr. Bennett way back in 1995, the version of Pride and Prejudice that many people list as their favorite. It certainly is mine, and I’ve seen it several times over the years. I don’t think I’ve seen him in anything else, but he certainly popped out of the cast for me. On reflection, this is not what you want, since he looked almost identical even after 14 years and there was really no mystery except that his _oeuvre_ is just a bit obscure to me. But I’m going to leave it in anyway, since I took the trouble to type it out. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-you-were-surprised-to-recognize/791618/3 "2017-07-19T02:05:13Z")
I, too, was flabbergasted when I found out Idris Elba was British. (That was like nine years ago, though…you must have missed the “who should be the next James Bond?” threads of recent years!). Sticking with _The Wire_, do you know about Dominic West? The trend got to be a “thing” in cable dramatic series, such that the first words out of Bryan Cranston’s mouth in the season 1, episode 1 of _Breaking Bad_ on th DVD commentary were (in a fake English accent): “Nobody knows I’m British!” 🙂 ---
**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:** [July 19, 2017, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-you-were-surprised-to-recognize/791618/4 "2017-07-19T02:32:49Z")
This happens to me all the time watching _Law & Order_ reruns. I see someone who looks familiar and look them up on IMDb. Half the time, I recognize them from another episode of _Law & Order_, which doesn’t really count. The only other one I remember at the moment was from the episode “Legacy”. A woman whose husband died years earlier falling from a rock in Central Park married her husband’s best friend. Later it turns out the best friend killed the husband and stalked her (without her realizing) until they got married. I recognized the woman. Looked her up, she was Millie in _Bull Durham_. I remember when we didn’t have IMDb, and you had to rely on your memory. I still try to do that sometimes. I was watching _Breaking Away_ a few years ago. Dave and his friends have a run in with some jocks from the college while swimming in the quarry. I recognized one of them.Ellis, the guy in _Die Hard_ who pretends to be McClane’s friend until Hans shoots him. The actor’s name is Hart Bochner. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-you-were-surprised-to-recognize/791618/5 "2017-07-19T03:19:17Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > I, too, was flabbergasted when I found out Idris Elba was British. (That was like nine years ago, though…you must have missed the “who should be the next James Bond?” threads of recent years!). > > Sticking with _The Wire_, do you know about Dominic West? I clicked to watch _Luther Season 1_ almost randomly just 2 or 3 days ago, without much thought and _am shocked_, just now, to learn it aired seven years ago. :smack: You see how out of touch I am. (Now I’ll have to decide whether to binge-watch more than one season — I’m midway through Episode 2 and am luke-warm on it.) I was aware that the McNulty actor was English … perhaps from an SDMB thread laughing at an English actor pretending to have a fake English accent! ETA: No one want to share my love for _To Live and Die in L.A._ ? 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-you-were-surprised-to-recognize/791618/6 "2017-07-19T07:21:45Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > I, too, was flabbergasted when I found out Idris Elba was British. The same for me with Hugh Laurie while he was doing _House_. Richard Pryor in _Lost Highway_. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-you-were-surprised-to-recognize/791618/7 "2017-07-19T10:34:52Z")
I was watching **Game of Thrones** and realized that one of the family heads in the North, all swords and proclamations, is the husband of the wheelchair-bound friend in **Notting Hill**. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-you-were-surprised-to-recognize/791618/8 "2017-07-19T14:13:42Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > I was watching **Game of Thrones** and realized that one of the family heads in the North, all swords and proclamations, is the husband of the wheelchair-bound friend in **Notting Hill**. \*That’s \*what your go-to reference for [Tim McInnerny](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/88/c1/9d/88c19dae165a252e1939edd44baaa1f2--tim-mcinnerny-lord.jpg) is? Notting _Hill_? ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-you-were-surprised-to-recognize/791618/9 "2017-07-19T14:34:05Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > \*That’s \*what your go-to reference for [Tim McInnerny](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/88/c1/9d/88c19dae165a252e1939edd44baaa1f2--tim-mcinnerny-lord.jpg) is? Notting _Hill_? I knew him from NH before I watched any Black Adder, sorry. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-you-were-surprised-to-recognize/791618/10 "2017-07-19T16:11:28Z")
But you have \*seen \*Blackadder, right? ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-you-were-surprised-to-recognize/791618/11 "2017-07-19T16:14:14Z")
Happens to me all the time. Most recently, I was watching the first episode of _Bosch_ last night and immediately recognized the actor playing William Golliher as the same guy who played one of Cybill Shepherd’s ex-husbands on _Cybill_. I don’t remember seeing him in anything else in the twenty years since that show went off the air. I had to look up the actor’s name (Alan Rosenberg). My record for age difference is 56 years. About 2011, the first time I saw _Stalag 17_ (1953), I recognized the actor who played Hoffy (Richard Erdman) as the guy who played Leonard on _Community_ starting in 2009. Again, I don’t remember seeing him in anything else in between. I’m pretty sure it was mainly his voice that gave him away because he hardly looks like the same person. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-you-were-surprised-to-recognize/791618/12 "2017-07-19T17:44:46Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > Happens to me all the time. Most recently, I was watching the first episode of _Bosch_ last night and immediately recognized the actor playing William Golliher as the same guy who played one of Cybill Shepherd’s ex-husbands on _Cybill_. I don’t remember seeing him in anything else in the twenty years since that show went off the air. I had to look up the actor’s name (Alan Rosenberg). > > My record for age difference is 56 years. About 2011, the first time I saw _Stalag 17_ (1953), I recognized the actor who played Hoffy (Richard Erdman) as the guy who played Leonard on _Community_ starting in 2009. Again, I don’t remember seeing him in anything else in between. I’m pretty sure it was mainly his voice that gave him away because he hardly looks like the same person. My wife is a film and TV buff and has a frighteningly encyclopedic/photographic memory concerning actors. Example: last night we were watching a TV series and she said “oh, as a child actor that woman played the friend of the kid who got sucked into the television in _Poltergeist_.” As always, she was right (thank god for the confirming powers of IMDB). We started watching GLOW on Netflix a few days ago and the woman playing the lead character’s best friend was sooooo familiar, but neither of us could put a hoof on where we had seen her. I was in bed last night musing on something and out of nowhere my head came up with: “She played the hot blonde doctor on _Nurse Jackie_!!” I don’t get to be right very often about these things and had to leap downstairs to share the news. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-you-were-surprised-to-recognize/791618/13 "2017-07-19T18:30:11Z")
“Breaking Away” reminded me of one. . . I remember back in the late 1970s or early 1980s a commercial for Arid deodorant. The labeling on the deodorant showed the name ‘Arid’ several times and two X’s for (‘double extra dry’). The actor, holding the deodorant, looks at the camera and says, “Announcing new Arid Arid Arid Eks Eks.” Director calls to him from off camera, "No, Paul, it’s just “Arid Double X.” Paul and the director have a few words back and forth on Paul’s disagreement on how it should be read. Paul never does get it right to the director’s satisfaction, and the commercial ends with the director, still off camera, saying “DOUBLE X, PAUL! DOUBLE X!” Some time later, I’m watching “Breaking Away,” and whaddaya know, the dad is was the same guy from the Arid commercial, Paul Dooley (whose name I didn’t know until after the credits had run). ---
**Author:** ![Hocus\_Pocus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/41988e/32.png) [@Hocus\_Pocus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hocus_Pocus)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-you-were-surprised-to-recognize/791618/14 "2017-07-19T19:43:50Z")
Was watching _A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court_, and all of a sudden there’s Alfred, Batman’s butler (Alan Napier). ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-you-were-surprised-to-recognize/791618/15 "2017-07-20T02:32:41Z")
Paul Dooley also played Enabran Tain (sp?) in a couple of DS9 episodes but you’ve got an excuse for not recognizing him there. (Full Cardassian makeup.) ---
**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:** [July 20, 2017, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-you-were-surprised-to-recognize/791618/16 "2017-07-20T03:11:47Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > Paul Dooley also played Enabran Tain (sp?) in a couple of DS9 episodes but you’ve got an excuse for not recognizing him there. (Full Cardassian makeup.) Andrew Robinson, who played the killer in _Dirty Harry_, was Garak on DS9. ---
**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:** [July 20, 2017, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-you-were-surprised-to-recognize/791618/17 "2017-07-20T14:43:38Z")
There was an episode of DS9 in season 6, I think, where Sisko was dreaming/hallucinating that he was a writer for a sci-fi magazine back in the 40s. Just about all the regulars appear on that episode without their makeup. It was fun to try to identify them all. ---
**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:** [July 20, 2017, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-you-were-surprised-to-recognize/791618/18 "2017-07-20T14:48:22Z")
Oh and that reminds me, there was an old Rockford Files episode where a semi attempts to run him off the road out in the desert, and he stops at a little gas station out in the middle of nowhere to call the police on the pay phone. The skinny guy working at the gas station is Marc Alaimo, who played Gul Dukat in DS9. I don’t think I would have even recognized him if I hadn’t seen his name in the credits. ---
**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:** [July 20, 2017, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-you-were-surprised-to-recognize/791618/19 "2017-07-20T16:52:02Z")
I was familiar with Victor Garber from “Alias”. I finally got around to watching “Godspell”, filmed 25 years earlier and yup, it’s “Daddy Spy” as Jesus with suspenders, Superman shirt and a big frizzy 'fro. But the nose and jaw were recognizable, and the voice to a certain degree. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-you-were-surprised-to-recognize/791618/20 "2017-07-20T17:56:31Z")
Dunno if it counts, but I recognized (kinda) Jim Broadbent in the most recent Game of Thrones episode. The kinda is because I knew the voice, but I didn’t recognize the man, so I thought it was his brother or something. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-you-were-surprised-to-recognize/791618.md?page=2)