I’m thinking here about things like Sleuth. In the 1972 film, Michael Caine played Milo Tindle, but in the 2007 film (with a completely different script by Harold Pinter) he plays Andrew Wyke.
I’m not looking for cameos here (like Victor Mature appearing in a small role in the 1984 TV movie Samson and Delilah, having played Samson in the 1949 movie Samson and Delilah), but substantial roles. I’m also not looking for cases where the two lead actors in a play switch roles every other night, as is wrongly reported of Anthony Quinn and Lawrence Olivier in Becket or as correctly reported for Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller in Frankenstein.
Vanessa Redgrave played a non-speaking part as Anne Boleyn in the 1966 film A Man for All Seasons and played the more substantial role of Lady Alice More in the 1988 TV version.
(Although some list the former as a “cameo”, it’s longer than that, and she certainly didn’t get the part because she would later play a bigger role in the future)
Jeremy Brett played Dr. Watson (opposite Charlton Heston’s Sherlock Holmes) onstage in Crucifer of Blood before going on the play Holmes himself in the BBC/WGBH TV series.
Christopher Lee played Sherlock Holmes in a German film and two TV films, and played Mycroft Holmes in the 1970 Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (the only actor I know of to take both parts). He also played Sir Henry Baskerville in the 1959 Hound of the Baskervilles
Klaus Kinski played Renfield in Jesus Franco’s 1970 Count Dracula and Count Dracula himself in Werner Herzog’s remake of Nosferatu nine years later.
Tony Curtis played Joe in 1959’s Some Like it Hot. In 2002 he took the role of Osgood Fielding (the Joe E. Brown part) in the stage musical (retitled to Some Like it Hot from its original title Sugar)
John Rubinstein played the title character in Pippin during the original Broadway run. In the 2013 revival, he came in to play Pippin’s father, Charles.
William Danials got his first break in 1952 playing John Quincy Adams in Woman for the Ages. In 1972, he played JQA’s father John Adams in 1776. And finally, John Quincy Adams again in The Adams Chronicles (1977).
Are you thinking about things like how Ian Holm played Frodo Baggins in the 1981 BBC Radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, and then Bilbo Baggins in the Peter Jackson movies?
Didn’t S. Epatha Merkerson have a one-episode role on Law & Order a couple of years before joining the regular cast as the police captain? Is that the kind of thing we’re talking about?
(There have probably been a ton of actors who have played multiple one-off roles on L&O.)
There is also Caitlin Brown, who played Na’Toth on season 1 of Babylon 5. She was replaced by another actress in season 2, but had a guest shot as a lawyer for Capt. Sheridan in one S2 episode. Then she came back again as Na’Toth in a couple of guest shots in later seasons.
There are literally hundreds of examples in episodic TV, but I’ll crack the door open just a bit with three examples from the original Star Trek.
Mark Lenard, who first appeared as a Romulan opponent of Kirk’s, then hit god as Spock’s father.
Diana Muldaur, who played two different roles in TOS (as a redhead and brunette - producers joked that if the series had gone on, they wanted to bring her back as a blonde) and ended up as Dr. Pulaki in TNG.
William Campbell, who was Trelayne in The Squire of Gothos, returned as Koloth in The Trouble with Tribbles and reprised that role decades later in Voyager.
David Suchet played Inspector Japp in the 1985 Hercule Poirot movie Thirteen at Dinner in which Peter Ustinov played Poirot. In 1989 Suchet was cast as Hercule Poirot for the TV series in which he played the character in adaptations of every story written by Agatha Christie with its final episode n 2013.
Also before Peter Capaldi became the 12th Doctor in Doctor Who he had already appeared in the show as a character when David Tennant was the 10th Doctor.
A 2008 episode of Doctor Who, “The Fires of Pompeii,” during David Tennant’s run as the Tenth Doctor, featured two guest stars who later went on to star in the series.
Peter Capaldi played Caecilius in the episode; in 2013, he became the Twelfth Doctor, and starred in the series for four years
Karen Gillan played a soothsayer in the episode; she then played Amy Pond, one of the Doctor’s companions, form 2010 until 2013
Edit: ninjaed, but I included mention of Gillan, as well
Lalla Ward played Princess Astra and was then cast as the companion Romana II
Colin Baker had a guest role before eventually being cast as The Doctor.
Ian Marter appeared in “Carnival of Monsters” before being cast as companion Harry Sullivan.
Geoffrey Palmer appeared in both original Who and New Who is guest roles.
Philip Madoc played three different characters in the original run.
Dennis Franz played two big roles in Hill Street Blues.
From Wikipedia:
Franz first played the role of Detective Sal Benedetto, a corrupt cop in the 1983 season, who later kills himself. Due to his popularity with fans, he returned in 1985 as Lt. Norm Buntz, remaining until the show’s end in 1987. He also starred in the short-lived Beverly Hills Buntz as the same character.
Scottish-born Finlay Currie was an American press agent in Rome Express (1932), but played Cedric Hardwicke’s part in the superior remake Sleeping Car to Trieste (1948) in which the role of the press agent was eliminated.
Do musicals count? I’ve seen (recorded, not live) two versions of Les Miserables with Lia Salonga. In one she was Éponine and in the other she was Fantine.
Agents of SHIELD had several of these. Most notably Clark Gregg who played Coulson, then a character that looked just like Coulson, then an enhanced LMD of Coulson.
