Characters from movies who have played their role in other media.

Cafe Society
1

What are some well-known characters from movies that were so popular or have made such an impact that the original actors occasionally play them in other roles outside of the regular franchise they’re in?

I can think of two, off hand.

“Doc” Emmett Brown (from Back to the Future) has appeared in a few commericals, the most recent being the link above.

…and Robert Patrick has played his T-1000 character a few times in other movies and commercials. Here’s a well known clip from Wayne’s World. He also had a cameo in Last Action Hero, if I remember correctly.

Any others like this?

2

Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels made at least one commercial in character.

Micheal Keaton played Ray Nicolette, a minor character in Jackie Brown in Out of Sight and Karen Sisco (TV show)

Similarly, the Duke Twins from Trading Places show up in Coming to America.

Jimmy Cagney won an Oscar for Yankee Doodle Dandy and appeared again as George M. Cohan in The Seven Little Foys

Akim Tameroff and Brian Dunleavy reprised their characters from The Great MdGinty in Miracle of Morgan’s Creek

Margaret Rutherford appeared as Miss Maple in a cameo in The Alphabet Murders.

3

I don’t know if it counts because its a joke but John Hurt had an alien bust out of his chest in Spaceballs.

4

Daniel Craig appeared as James Bond in the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympics.

5

Harold Sakata reprised his role as Oddjob in Goldfinger for a cough syrup commercial.

6

Gary Burghoff reprised the role of Radar in the TV version of M.A.S.H.

7

Mark Hamil played Luke Skywalker in an episode of the Muppet Show.

8

Spoiler for the upcoming SHIELD TV series…

Phil Coulson from the Avengers and prequels will be in the TV series. There are likely to be other cameos, such as Tony Stark.

Or so we’ve been told.

9

Carrie Ann Inaba and Diane Mizota (who aren’t related) played the twins Fook Mi and Fook Yu opposite Mike Myers as Austin Powers in Goldmember. The three of them repeated the characters in a Japanese commercial for Motorola.

10

There were a number of DirecTV commercials which had actors recreating famous roles from their movies. Among them are Ben Stein as Ferris Bueller’s home room teacher, Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown, Verne Troyer as Mini-Me from Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, and Charlie Sheen from Major League. William Shatner also played Captain James T. Kirk in a scene from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and Robert Patrick played his T-1000 character from Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

11

Reginald VelJohnson played his character from Die Hard, Sgt Powell, in a particularly good episode of Chuck.

12

Adam West has been Batman or Batman-like in nearly every appearance he’s made since the end of the series.

Harpo Marx played his silent character while appearing as Sir Isaac Newton in The History of the World.

Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto portray dueling Spocks (to a certain extent) in the new Audi commercial.

13

Richard Belzer wins this whole thread…

He started the character John Munch on the David Simon (Jesus incarnate) series Homicide: Life on the Street. He then plays the same character on the long-running Law & Order: SVU.

He’s also played the same character on numerous other shows and in one sketch…

  • The Beat
  • The X-Files
  • Law & Order: Trial By Jury
  • Arrested Development
  • The Wire (the holiest of holies)
  • 30 Rock
  • Regular Law and Order
  • Jimmy Kimmel Live!

edit: Nevermind…he’s not from a movie. Still keeping this up here, though. Fun bit of trivia.

14

Which, oddly enough, might place Chuck in not only the same universe as Die Hard*, but the same one as Commando…and Predator, as well. Which by extension, links it to Aliens, very possibly Blade Runner, and perhaps even Terminator.

15

George Reeves was Superman on the big screen – in SUPERMAN AND THE MOLE MEN – long before he showed up on I LOVE LUCY in cape and tights.

16

Those take place in the same universe, so I’m not sure it counts as “different media.”

17

You should include this appearance.

18

Cliff Clavin from Cheers (played by John Ratzenberger) was the spokesperson for the Dummies series book.

19

John Wayne reprised his role of Rooster Cogburn for a sketch on the Red Skelton Show (and possibly others).

Bruce Campbell’s Ash appeared in Broadway’s Evil Dead: The Musical and a number of video games.

Tom Baker did a series of radio commercials for an Australian bank as The Doctor.

20

The topic does say movies, though, and I don’t think Tom Baker played The Doctor in any theatrical movie. Then again, the first post kind of only mentions “other media”.

Nearly all the Doctor actors have played their character on radio episodes of the show. Heck, Paul McGann exists way more as a radio Doctor than a TV one.
Arnold played the Terminator in a theme park ride, which was kind of a movie, but was not a theatrical thing. It was even directed by James Cameron.