Kevin Spacey stands out for me. Equally plausible as an intolerable asshole, a realistic or over-the-top villain, a sensitive and sympathetic protagonist, or as the devil himself wearing a disarmingly innocent mask.
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IIRC, he set a record by muscling up between The Machinist and Batman Begins.
And the POTUS in The Contender.
It’s hard to believe that the gentle Hamish Macbeth, or Gaz from The Full Monty, were played by the same man, Robert Carlyle, who was genuinely scary as Begbie in Trainspotting.
Christopher Lloyd.
I imagine Doc Brown from the Back to the Future trilogy is the first role everyone will think of, but he was also:
Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Uncle Fester in The Addams Family
Klingon Commander Kruge in The Search for Spock
I emphasized Kruge because he’s the biggest contrast–the manic-but-kindhearted inventor of time travel was also the Klingon who battled James T. Kirk over a rift full of lava on a dying planet. IMDB lists him with roles in 165 titles, however, so it’s possible he’s played roles even farther apart than those.
The thing about Christopher Lloyd is that he always plays a weirdo of some sort. I can’t think of any truly straight roles that he’s had.
Danny DeVito, on the other hand… Check him out in Cuckoo’s Nest compared to any other role that he’s been in. For that matter, Brad Dourif in that movie as well, though I don’t think I’d consider him a great actor.
That’s a good one. (Although maybe not middle school appropriate.)
This is not fair, but **Jerry O’Connel **in *Stand By Me *vs. marrying Rebecca Romijn
Bryan Cranston in Malcolm in the Middle vs. Breaking Bad
Jason Isaacs has great range, and you can see both ends of his spectrum (ahem) in Peter Pan, where he plays both bumbling but good-hearted Mr. Darling and wicked, wicked Captain Hook.
He’s the one I came in here to say. He probably does a better job of disappearing into a role than pretty much anyone aside from maybe Gary Oldman and Daniel Day Lewis. It’s a testament to his acting abilities that you don’t watch “Ed Wood” and think, 'Hey, there’s Jack Sparrow" or vice-versa.
Or Edward Scissorhands!
Oh, and of course Lon Chaney, Sr. was the *master *at that sort of thing.
Good one. I loved him in the Showtime series “Brotherhood” where he played an irish gangster in Rhode Island. Almost couldn’t believe he was the same guy that played Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films.
How about John Lithgow, then? He’s played over-the-top characters in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, and 3rd Rock From the Sun, a bit more realistically sinister in Cliffhanger, and guy-next-door types in Terms of Endearment, and The Manhattan Project. (You might be able to find his deleted scene from L.A. Story where he plays a rather flamboyant talent agent.)
An even better example might be Eli Wallach. Watch him in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and How to Steal a Million, both released in 1966.
Have to mention the incredible performance of **Linda Hunt **in *The Year of Living Dangerously *playing a man. Not a woman pretending to be a man either. She won Best Actress in a supporting role for that.
And of course you have to see him as Cecil Vyse in A Room With a View!
How’d I forget Victor Garber, who was both a lethal spy in the TV series Alias and the hippie-dippie clown Jesus in the musical Godspell?
Or juxtapose Jimmy Cagney doing a soft shoe number in ***Yankee Doodle Dandy ***with one of his tough-guy gangster roles.
Or show Leslie Nielsen in one of his goofy comedies, then show one of his very serious roles from his younger days- like, when he was captain in*** The Poseidon Adventure.***
How’d you forget me mentioning him on the first page? 
I like this one because both rolls have similar settings in that both characters are suburban dads, but he still manages to play them differently.
Really? I like Hall, but he plays Dexter pretty similar to how hey played his gay mortician.