Peter Dinklage played the dead father’s Little Person gay lover in the original British movie Death at a Funeral and in the American remake. They changed the character’s name (from Peter to Frank) but almost all other parts of the role- the revelation, the blackmail, the coffin escapade, etc.- were the same.
Has any other actor ever played the same character in two versions of the same film? (Cameos or guest roles by stars of the original as another character in a remake don’t count.)
Penélope Cruz, as Sofia in Abre los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) and Vanilla Sky.
Evil Dead and Evil Dead II were basically the same movie with different budgets. Bruce Campbell starred in both.
Wasn’t there a recent British TV mystery series that was remade as an American series with the same lead actor?
Howard Hawkes remade Rio Bravo twice, once as El Dorado, and again as Rio Lobo. John Wayne played the lead in all three films.
That sounds very familiar.
Broadchurch, being remade for the US market as Gracepoint, both starring former Dr. Who David Tennant.
Gracepint/Broadchurch with David Tennant?
Well, the James Bond movie*** Never Say Never Again was a re-make of the earlier James Bond flick Thunderball***, and Sean Connery starred in both versions.
Was it a literal remake- same villain and plot and all?
Good call. David Tennant played the same character Alex Hardy/Emmett Carver in Gracepoint/Broadchurch, a british show remade for American audiences.
StG
Though it never aired in the US (it was announced on the NBC schedule, but a change in management led to it being cancelled before it aired), there were both US and UK versions of The IT Crowd. Richard Ayoade played Moss in both of them.
Well, Evil Dead 2 is a different movie, despite going over some of the same ground. I know it gets described as a Evil Dead remake, but it is a sequel.
Yes- the plot was identical, the love interest was a girl named Domino, the villain was named Emilio Largo.
Thunderball was a rare James Bond story that Cubby Broccoli didn’t have rights to. So, it was possible to hire COnnery to do a remake of that movie.
Ingrid Bergman played the same character in both versions of “Intermezzo.”
One for TV: Amanda Pays played scientist Tina McGee in the 1990 and 2014 series, The Flash(es).
Was there anybody who appeared in Robert Rodriguez’s tiny-budget action flick ***El Mariachi *** who also appeared in the bigger-budget remake Desperado?
Brigette Helm (she was both Maria and the Robot in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis) played Antinea, the Queen of Atlantis, in three different -language versions of l’Atlantide made in 1932. She was in the German, English-language, and the French cast.
Tela Tchai (Tschai) played the same role in all three versions, too. Vladimir Sokoloff and Gustav Diessl appeared in the same role in two of the films.
Sean Connery’s dual run as James Bond in Thunderball and Never Say Never Again has been mentioned, as has Penelope Cruz’ two turns in Vanilla Sky and its predecessor, so I only have one other one:
Clark Gable played the same role (but with different character names) in the 1932 film Red Dust and in its 1953 remake, Mogambo
(The films Dracula (1931) and F.P. 1 Doesn’r Answer (1932) were remade in different languages at the same time, but I don’t know of any overlaps in the casting in those cases)
I remember back in the '80s Sophia Loren said she and her husband wanted to do an English language remake of her film Two Women in which she’d play the same role she did originally because she wanted it to reach a wider audience, but apparently she never got funding.
I thought *Desperado *was a sequel, not a remake ? (Not snark, I only saw Once Upon A Time In Mexico)