Stephen Colbert plays a character named Stephen Colbert on The Colbert Report
Brent Butt is Brent Leroy on Corner Gas.
Sort of an odd one, as the character was NOT named for the actress, it just ended up that she was cast - Andrea Parker as Miss Parker on The Pretender. (Although on preview, I see Chuck beat me to her. Don’t know how I missed that on reading the thread. Heh.)
Jim Belushi in According to Jim.
Audie Murphy in To Hell and Back.
Arlo Guthrie and William “Officer Obie” Obanhein in Alice’s Restaurant
More stand up guys: George Lopez as George Lopez, Ray Romano as Ray Barone, and Bernie Mac as Bernie McCullough
Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrence in The Shining. The character was already named, but the Jackness was nice.
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOYALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOYALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOYALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOYALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOYALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOYALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOYALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOYALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOYALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOYALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOYALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOYALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOYALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOYALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOYALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY
MiM
John Malkovich as John Malkovich in “Being John Malkovich.”
I’d always wondered that actually. In some cases, like John, it’s not so weird. But a Woody playing a Woody is definitely a huge coincidence.
Similarly, when the producers of Night Court were auditioning actors for the lead part of Judge Stone, they had already named him Harry before Harry Anderson tried out for the part. They also had established Harry Stone as a Mel Torme fan. Coincidentally, Harry Anderson is also a big Mel Torme fan.
Mentioned in the O.P.
Actually, Harry Anderson was Harry the Hat before he got on Cheers.
Do not play a game of chance with him either.
George Burns & Gracie Allen on the Burns & Allen Show.
Yeah. They’re usually not actors and maybe the networks want to make sure viewers know who the comedian is. Ray Romano as Ray Barone is another example.
Jonah, Jay, Martin, and Jason in Knocked Up were played by Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Martin Starr, and Jason Segel- all old Rogen/Apatow people from F&G and Undeclared.
Not sure if it counts, but Redd Foxx of Sanford & Son was born John Elroy Sanford. He took the name of Fred G. Sanford to honor his later brother of that name. (In his brother’s name, the G stood for Glenn in case you’re interested.)
I watched a movie called Murder in Mississippiabout the “Mississippi Burning” murders (Chaney, Goodman, Schwermer). A reporter was played by a then unknown Greg Kinnear and I was surprised to hear the fictitious 1960s reporter say “this has been Greg Kinnear for [whatever the station]”.
Something like that happend when My Big Fat Greek Wedding became My Big Fat Greek Life. Toula became Nia in an attempt to establish name recognition with Nia Vardalos.
What about if your character is named John 37 times (accounting for 20% of your films over a 45 year period)?
He was also Jack Napier in Batman.
On The Games, an Australian mockumentary series set during the organizing of the Sydney Olympics, the three main characters played by John Clarke, Bryan Dawe, and Gina Riley were named, respectively, John Clarke, Bryan Dawe, and Gina Riley. Several guest stars used their real names, too. Sam Neill was in an episode, but I don’t recall if his name was ever mentioned.
Joel Hodgson played Joel Robinson on MST3K, and they didn’t even bother with a fake last name with his replacement Mike Nelson.
Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy used their real names as their characters’ names in nearly all their films. IIRC, this is because in their early days in the silents, they had seen studios take a character away from the actor who had originated it and give it to another player.