Let’s start by saying I’m an unashamed, unironic Kurl Russell fan and, in times of trouble, I use his movies as a narcotic. Girlfriend breaks up with me? I watch “Tombstone.” Lose my job? Cue up “The Thing.”
So, as 2009 has been particularly awful for me (see above paragraph), I’ve been wallowing with Kurt. A few nights back, I made myself some popcorn, opened a Tecate, and popped in my “Tango and Cash” VHS. Not one of his best movies, admittedly, but it’s loveably stupid and that’s what I needed. Then I discovered something: James Hong, who plays the counterpart of Jack Palance in T&C, has the most impressive IMDB profile I’ve ever seen. Seriously. Look at this.
Which got me thinking: is there anyone with more roles than this guy? He’s amazing! Granted, a lot of them are tantamount to “Asian Guy,” but he’s worked tirelessly since the mid-50s and has the perfect storm of bit parts needed for a profile this unfathomably long.
I’m assuming you mean individual line entries for different roles? Because Richard Whiteley has 4,567 entries on IMDb, but 3,983 of them were of individual episodes as the host of “Countdown.”
I got nuthin’ - I seriously doubt Kevin Bacon comes close, even with all of his interconnectedness, but I do bet that someone like lissener or another film buff can comment on what character actors are all over the place…
Morbo’s right: I’m looking for individual roles here, so, though I applaud the out-of-the-box-nicity of pornstars, narrators, voice actors, and game show hosts. I don’t mind if our actors have a few of the abovementioned roles (Hong did a voice in “Kung Fu Panda,” for example), but I’d rather that those weren’t the bulk of the work. Though it’s still interesting. So, really, knock youselves out.
Francis Ford (brother of John Ford) was in 475 features (granted, many of them were shorts of the early silent era, but he did a whole boatload of them).
For the record, Richard Whiteley more than doubles Johnny Carson. Found this listof “most prolific,” but none are individual credits (most just being hundreds if not thousands of appearances on the same show)
Walt Disney has a lengthy list as producer, the people above him on the list of prolific producers whose lists are actually longer are producers of shorts in the very early day of cinema.
Not surprising, when you think about it, given how much WWII archival footage gets around.
I’ve heard that Christopher Lee, not Kevin Bacon as is usually thought, is actually the centermost vertex on the actor connectedness graph. In other words, the game ought to be called “Six Degrees from Christopher Lee”.
If we’re sticking to the spirit of the OP (i.e., a actor’s appearances in an on-screen role),Charles Lane has 347 acting credits in sound films, so he’s still ahead of Howe.
