OK, in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Russell Brand plays Aldous Snow, a rock star; Jonah Hill plays Matthew, a waiter. In Get Him to the Greek, Russell Brand plays Aldous Snow, a rock star; Jonah Hill plays Aaron Green, a music industry worker.
Has any similar casting happened before; which is to say, one actor plays the same character in two films, while another actor plays different characters in the same two films?
The Great McGinty and The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek both had Brian Donlevy and Akim Tamiroff playing the parts of McGinty and “Boss” respectively. William Demerest was in both films – Skeeters in the first, and Mr. Kockenlocker in the second.
This happened quite often in TV shows of the 50s and 60s. Most famous was when Henry Morgan appeared as a crazy Colonel in one episode of MASH, and then as Sherman Potter.
See the whole list of Kevin Smith films. Ben Afleck plays at least three characters (including a parody of himself) Matt Damon at least two. Jason Lee plays a bunch, as well. Through most of them you have Jason Mewes and Smith as Jay and Silent Bob, and in a couple there are actors reprising two different roles in the same movie.
Hammer’s Dracula films had a few cases.
In the original film, Peter Cushing played van Helsing, and Christopher Lee played Dracula. Miles Malleson played a gravedigger.
The first sequel, The Brides of Dracula had Cushing reprise the role of van Helsing, and Malleson played the character of Doctor Tober.
The third sequel, Dracula Has Risen From the Grave, had Lee as Dracula again, and introduced Michael Ripper as the character of Max. (George Woodbridge is credited as a landlord in this one, as well as the first, though I am unsure if they’re meant to be the same character.)
Ripper would reappear as Inspector Cobb in the next, Taste the Blood of Dracula, as well as a landlord in the one after that, Scars of Dracula, alongside Lee’s Dracula in both cases.
Interestingly, their Frankenstein series doesn’t provide any true examples, but comes close with David Prowse playing the Creature in 2 instalments - The Horror of Frankenstein (a sort of remake of the original) with Ralph Bates playing Frankenstein, and again in Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell, where Frankenstein is played by Cushing, who played him in all the other films in the series (Lee played the Creature in the original) - but Prowse’s character in Monster From Hell is a new creature created by Frankenstein, not the same as the first one, so it doesn’t really count as Prowse playing the Creature opposite two different Frankenstein actors, nor Cushing playing Frankenstein opposite two different Creature actors.
Kevin Smith’s films have a lot of these. Jay and Silent Bob alone appear in nearly all of them. In Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, some of the actors from earlier films had dual roles reprising earlier characters. So all sorts of examples and variations like the OP in the View Askew universe.
(And he was so short of money for Clerks that several people played different characters in that.)
My favorite example icomes from Chasing Amy, where Alyssa says she had sex with Gwen Turner (a minor character in Mallrats). Joey Lauren Adams played both of them. Ben Affleck appeared in both movies in different roles as did several others. But Jay and Silent Bob were the same.
Shane Rimmer (the American sub commander in The Spy Who Loved Me) shows up in several James Bond movies as a different character each time. As for TV, I think Rachel Dratch on 30 Rock may hold some kind of record.
Didn’t MASH and Hawaii 5-0 re-use the same Asian actors like thirty times in different roles?
Roger Moore played James Bond in THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, with Maud Adams as fourth-billed Andrea Anders: the beautiful and duplicitous go-between who sets the plot in motion and sleeps with the bad guy and eventually winds up dead. The producers apparently liked the actress enough to bring her back – still opposite Roger Moore as James Bond, but this time she ranked second-billing – in OCTOPUSSY, as, well, Octopussy.
**Garret Dillahunt **played two separate characters on different seasons of “Deadwood.”
For what it’s worth, Michael Dorn of course played Worf in STAR TREK: GENERATIONS, with William Shatner as Captain Kirk; Dorn had previously played Worf’s grandfather in STAR TREK VI, serving as defense attorney for – of course – Shatner-as-Kirk.
And let’s not forget the BACK TO THE FUTURE series, where Michael J. Fox spends three consecutive movies having Marty McFly get the better of three separate Thomas F. Wilson characters…
Got another Bond movie: Joe Don Baker played the villainous Brad Whitaker in THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS, ultimately getting killed by Timothy Dalton as 007. Baker returned as good guy Jack Wade in GOLDENEYE, helping out Pierce Brosnan as 007 – which counts, since Desmond Llewelyn was still playing Q.
Peter Ustinov, as Hercule Poirot, treated Maggie Smith as a suspect in DEATH ON THE NILE – sussing out that the ultra-efficient Miss Bowers wasn’t born to be a long-suffering personal assistant, but came from an old-money family suddenly fallen on hard times due to the murder victim’s father.
Ustinov returned as Poirot in EVIL UNDER THE SUN, again treating Maggie Smith as a suspect – but this time she was retired-entertainer-turned-innkeeper Daphne Castle, who had a love-triangle motive for murder.
More James Bond examples!
Bert Kwouk (Goldfinger, You Only Live Twice)
Charles Gray (You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever)
Both with Sean Connery as Bond.
It’s so common for this to happen in TV - and not just for asians - that it’s not very interesting, IMO.
Nor, I think, is one actor playing ancestors or descendants of their earlier characters particularly the same thing. (Though if we are going to bring it up, we go back to the Hammer Draculas - Dracula 1972 AD has Lee as Dracula and Cushing as van Helsing again, but Cushing also plays van Helsing’s 20th century descendant.)
Bruce Campbell played three different roles in the Spider-Man films. Firstly the ring announcer at the wrestling match, then the doorman at the theatre, and finally the waiter in the restaurant.
Arguably he could be the same character in different jobs, but I don’t think that’s even implied.
While this did not, James Whale’s Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein had Colin Clive and Boris Karloff play Frankenstein and his monster. Dwight Frye played Fritz, the doctor’s assistant (“It was a very fresh one.”), in the first film and Karl in the second. He was killed in both films.
And five characters on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles:
Terminator “Cromartie”
George Laszlo
The “Beast Wizard” character Laszlo played
FBI Agent Kester (may not count as this is just Cromartie in disguise)
John Henry
Dude is versatile!
(I have also seen him on some wacky comedy show playing a very different character from all of the above)
I can’t imagine that Dragnet isn’t the overall winner of this game on television. Jack Webb was very loyal to his actors. One woman always played the older woman, one the younger. There was a man who played the old, bespectacled guy and one who played the younger man. They’d appear in various episodes fulfilling their roles and moving on to the next time and time after time. Even some of the radio actors from the 1940s made it through the 50s tv show and into the later 1960s show. From time to time they’d show on Webb’s 70s productions Adam-12 and Emergency, too.
Some of those actors must have had 100 credits as different characters with Jack Webb playing Joe Friday.