# Fictional Characters You Associate With One Actor **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 20, 2000, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-you-associate-with-one-actor/33811 "2000-09-20T02:06:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-you-associate-with-one-actor/33811/1 "2000-09-20T02:06:57Z")
After Sir Alec Guinness played George Smiley in a BBC adaptation of “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,” John Le Carre supposedly said that Guinness was so perfect in the role, Le Carre now envisioned Guinness whenever he thought about George Smiley. What actors have similarly defined literary characters in your mind? Any actor SO good in a role that, when you READ a book featuring that character, you can’t help envisioning the actor? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-you-associate-with-one-actor/33811/2 "2000-09-20T02:34:50Z")
Sherlock Holmes/Basil Rathbone ---
**Author:** ![JBENZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b77776/32.png) [@JBENZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBENZ)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-you-associate-with-one-actor/33811/3 "2000-09-20T02:45:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor \* > \*\*Sherlock Holmes/Basil Rathbone \*\* Pshaw…Sherlock Holmes: Jeremy Brett. 🙂 Bond: Connery. Lone Ranger: Clayton Moore Philip Marlowe and/or Sam Spade: Bogie Nick & Nora Charles: Powell & Loy ---
**Author:** ![Scribe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Scribe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribe)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-you-associate-with-one-actor/33811/4 "2000-09-20T02:49:42Z")
I beg to disagree…Holmes/Rathbone And… Bond/Connery Dracula/Lugosi ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-you-associate-with-one-actor/33811/5 "2000-09-20T02:54:01Z")
Harrison Ford is Indianna Jones. Clint Eastwood is Dirty Harry. and I want you to think of this. If a faithful version of _The Dark Knight Returns_ was ever made. Clint Eastwood would **be** the perfect Batman IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Eo\_Echo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ebca7d/32.png) [@Eo\_Echo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eo_Echo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-you-associate-with-one-actor/33811/6 "2000-09-20T04:36:12Z")
William Shatner is Captain Kirk. ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-you-associate-with-one-actor/33811/7 "2000-09-20T05:24:04Z")
Ed O’Neil is Al Bundy. Michael J. Fox is Alex Keaton. Andre Braugher is Lt. Frank Pemberton. James Earl Jones is your father, I mean Darth Vader. ---
**Author:** ![Kallessa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7993a0/32.png) [@Kallessa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kallessa)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-you-associate-with-one-actor/33811/8 "2000-09-20T05:32:37Z")
No James Earl Jones is Simba’s dad. Perhaps Simba and Luke are brothers? ---
**Author:** ![Kallessa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7993a0/32.png) [@Kallessa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kallessa)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-you-associate-with-one-actor/33811/9 "2000-09-20T05:37:53Z")
Vivian Leigh = Scarlett Clark Gable = Rhett James Steward = Elwood George Burns = God Katherine Hepburn = Eleanor of Aquitane And I agree–no one could ever play Nick and Nora as well as powell and Loy. ---
**Author:** ![Sapphire\_Bullet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@Sapphire\_Bullet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapphire_Bullet)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-you-associate-with-one-actor/33811/10 "2000-09-20T06:58:43Z")
Katharine Hepburn- Jo from Little Women Yaphet Kotto- G on Homicide and ditto, Kallessa, on Rhett and Scarlett ---
**Author:** ![Kilt-wearin\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@Kilt-wearin\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilt-wearin_man)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-you-associate-with-one-actor/33811/11 "2000-09-20T08:12:15Z")
Let’s see… Hugh Jackman IS Wolverine. It’s incredible. Sean Connery IS James Bond. On the flipside, Han Solo IS Harrison Ford. Wrap your brain around that… And of course, the only one who could do Yoda, Frank Oz is. Maybe we should talk about laughable mis-casting…like that movie where John Wayne played Genghis Khan, or the one where Sean Connery played an immortal Egyptian-turned-Spaniard… ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Cynical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@Mr.Cynical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Cynical)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-you-associate-with-one-actor/33811/12 "2000-09-20T13:16:15Z")
Indiana Jones IS Harrison Ford. I can’t see anyone else in the role. ---
**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:** [September 20, 2000, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-you-associate-with-one-actor/33811/13 "2000-09-20T13:29:08Z")
When the movie version of My Fair Lady was being cast, producers wanted Cary Grant for the role of Professor Higgins, instead of Rex Harrison who had played the role on stage. Grant told them that if Harrison didn’t play the part, he wouldn’t even bother to see the movie. ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-you-associate-with-one-actor/33811/14 "2000-09-20T13:32:37Z")
Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in _To Kill a Mockingbird_. The kids were pretty nondescript (even cute little Dean Stockwell), but Peck **was** Atticus, exactly as written. Also, Spencer Tracy as Henry Drummond in _Inherit the Wind_. Jack Lemmon didn’t do _terribly_ in the recent TV version, but Tracy is so dignified and skilled, I can’t see anyone else in the part. (Conversely, I thought George C. Scott did a better job than Fredric March as Matthew Brady, but either one could play the role just fine.) ---
**Author:** ![bovary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e68b1a/32.png) [@bovary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bovary)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-you-associate-with-one-actor/33811/15 "2000-09-20T14:09:24Z")
Paul Reuben is and always will be Pee Wee to me. Whenever I see John Goodman I think Roseanne. All this talk about Vader, What about Luke? Mark Hammill (sp?) ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-you-associate-with-one-actor/33811/16 "2000-09-20T14:12:15Z")
Adam West is Batman, Bob Denver is Gilligan, and Michael Richards is Kramer Forever and ever. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-you-associate-with-one-actor/33811/17 "2000-09-20T14:23:05Z")
Maybe we should start a special thread just for Sherlock Holmes fans. Basil Rathbone just never cut it for me. I saw Leonard Nimoy play Holmes on the stage in the '70s, and I thought he did a fine job…I also admire the old photos of William Gillette, who was the actor most identified with Holmes before Rathbone started making the movies. Peter Cushing, ehhh. John Barrymore did a nice job in 1922. But Jeremy Brett just blew everyone out of the water in those 1980s BBC productions. He didn’t wear the stupid fucking deerstalker hat in London like everyone else did (Yeah, right, like a 1890s British gentleman would have worn a country hat in the city), for openers. He had ALL the tics and eccentricities down…the sudden bursts of manic athleticism rising from torpor, the pride, the wit. The two Watsons, David Burke and Edward Hardwicke, were also excellent (I lean slightly toward Burke’s characterization), allowing the Doctor to be a man of normal intelligence rather than the subhuman he’s often played as. The the screenwriters! Every time they diverged from the original stories, they IMPROVED them! Fascinating footnote: Brett played Freddie Eynsford-Hill in the 1964 film version of MY FAIR LADY. Wild, huh? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-you-associate-with-one-actor/33811/18 "2000-09-20T14:28:24Z")
Ernest Brognine will forever be Quentin McHale. Sorry, Tom Arnold fans, but he was just a poser. ---
**Author:** ![Crunchy\_Frog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ebca7d/32.png) [@Crunchy\_Frog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crunchy_Frog)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-you-associate-with-one-actor/33811/19 "2000-09-20T14:35:37Z")
A lot have already been mentioned, but here goes a few (sticking solely to literary characters): Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lector in _Silence of the Lambs_ Spencer Tracey as Manuel in _Captains Courageous_ Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone in _The Godfather_ Marlon Brando (again) as Stanley in _A Streetcar Named Desire_ (do plays count as literature?) Tom Hanks in _Forest Gump_ If we’re listing fictional characters altogether I’ll add: Kevin Kline as Otto in _A Fish Called Wanda_ ---
**Author:** ![Odieman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a87d85/32.png) [@Odieman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odieman)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-you-associate-with-one-actor/33811/20 "2000-09-20T15:15:38Z")
Robert Urich as “Spenser” in Spenser for Hire. Joe Montegna is a fine actor, but he most definietly isn’t Spenser, the only worse casting would have been to put Jaleel White into the roll. Keith [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-characters-you-associate-with-one-actor/33811.md?page=2)