# Movies with overlapping casts
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-overlapping-casts/1014577
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** movies
**Created:** [February 20, 2025, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-overlapping-casts/1014577 "2025-02-20T15:17:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-overlapping-casts/1014577/1 "2025-02-20T15:17:11Z")
I was watching the new Bridget Jones movie yesterday, starring Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, and Chiwetel Ejiofor…and realized: "Hey! All those guys were in _Love, Actually"_
I thought there might also be a connection with Sense and Sensibility, and I was close: Thompson, Grant and Alan Rickman – all in Love, Actually.
(This seems particularly coincidental because these 3 films do not have a common director.)
I thought this would be a fun game: name 2 movies that have 3 actors in common, playing different parts - so sequels don’t count. (Marx Bros don’t count, either)
I figure it had to have happened with Ben Stiller - Owen Wilson - Vince Vaughn - Will Farrell.
Or directors that like to use the same “troupe”, like John Ford, Wes Anderson, Quentin Tarantino.
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### Author:  [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-overlapping-casts/1014577/2 "2025-02-20T15:37:12Z")
Steve McQueen, James Coburn and Charles Bronson were all in _The Magnificent Seven_ and _The Great Escape_, but both were directed by John Sturges so not a huge surprise, especially considering they are ensemble films.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-overlapping-casts/1014577/3 "2025-02-20T15:57:24Z")
A pair of Japanese movies I like (both directed by Katsuhito Ishii) with English names _The Taste of Tea_ and _Funky Forest_ share at least five actors:
Takahiro Satô
Maya Banno
Ryo Kase
Rinko Kikuchi
Hideaki Anno
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### Author:  [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-overlapping-casts/1014577/4 "2025-02-20T16:02:18Z")
The Rat Pack and the Brat Pack have entered the discussion, as have every movie that Frank Darabont has ever made.
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-overlapping-casts/1014577/5 "2025-02-20T16:08:09Z")
Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny DeVito started in _Romancing the Stone_, the sequel _Jewel of the Nile_, and the unrelated _War of the Roses_ (also directed by DeVito with some clear Hitchcock homage). Apparently they enjoyed working together on the first two movies so much (despite the fiasco that was _Jewel_) that they happily collaborated on _War of the Roses_, and it shows.
“Because. When I watch you eat. When I see you asleep. When I look at you lately, I just want to smash your face in.”
Stranger
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### Author:  [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-overlapping-casts/1014577/6 "2025-02-20T16:10:46Z")
Clint Eastwood, Geoffrey Lewis, and John Quade in “High Plains Drifter” and “Every Which Way But Loose”.
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### Author:  [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-overlapping-casts/1014577/7 "2025-02-20T16:12:42Z")
A Fish Called Wanda and Fierce Creatures have John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and Michael Palin.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-overlapping-casts/1014577/8 "2025-02-20T16:20:50Z")
There’s overlap between the casts of the Peter Bogdanovich comedy **What’s up Doc** (staring Ryan O’Neal and Barbra Streisand) and Mel Brooks’ **Young Frankenstein** :
Madeline Khan
Liam Dunn
Kenneth Mars
Several years ago I did a chart showing the common actors and tropes among four “Planet Full of Women” comedy SF films from the 1950s:
**Abbott and Costello Go to Mars
Cat-Women of the Moon
Missile to the Moon
Queen of Outer Space**
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-overlapping-casts/1014577/9 "2025-02-20T16:21:15Z")
> [@jsc1953](#):
>
> Or directors that like to use the same “troupe”,
Eastwood, Sondra Locke and Bill McKinney were in Josie Wales and the Gauntlet (if you will).
He uses a lot of the same actors, so it’s easy to find movies with two, but three is, as the OP notes, tougher.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-overlapping-casts/1014577/10 "2025-02-20T16:26:13Z")
There’s also overlap between two suspense movies with scripts by Peter Stone, **Charade** (1963) and **Mirage** (1965). The former is a comedy, so it’s in color and stars Cary Grant; the latter is much darker, so it was filmed in black and white and stars Gregory Peck. Different directors, too
Walter Matthau
George Kennedy
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-overlapping-casts/1014577/11 "2025-02-20T17:00:32Z")
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES had Christopher Nolan dip right back into his INCEPTION cast for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, and, of course, Michael Caine (plus a small role in each for Cillian Murphy).
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### Author:  [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-overlapping-casts/1014577/12 "2025-02-20T17:02:39Z")
> [@jsc1953](#):
>
> I was watching the new Bridget Jones movie yesterday, starring Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, and Chiwetel Ejiofor…and realized: "Hey! All those guys were in _Love, Actually"_
>
> I thought there might also be a connection with Sense and Sensibility, and I was close: Thompson, Grant and Alan Rickman – all in Love, Actually.
>
> (This seems particularly coincidental because these 3 films do not have a common director.)
They have different directors but Richard Curtis wrote the 1st and 2nd Bridget Jones movies, and directed Love, Actually in between.
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### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-overlapping-casts/1014577/13 "2025-02-20T17:11:48Z")
Jim Broadbent, Tom Felton, and Mark Williams all appeared together in _The Borrowers_ and two of the _Harry Potter_ films.
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### Author:  [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-overlapping-casts/1014577/14 "2025-02-20T17:26:38Z")
_Casablanca_ (1942) and _The Conspirators_ (1944) – Paul Henreid, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Steven Geray
_Casablanca_, B_ackground to Danger_ (1943) and _The Mask of Dimitrios_ (1944) – Greenstreet, Lorre, Geray
_Casablanca_ and _Passage to Marseilles_ (1944) – Bogart, Claude Rains, Greenstreet, Lorre, Helmut Dantine
_Casablanca_ and _Hotel Berlin_ (1945) – Lorre, Dantine, Geray
_Casablanca_ and _Rope of Sand_ (1949) – Henreid, Lorre, Rains
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### Author:  [@Leo\_Krupe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Krupe)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-overlapping-casts/1014577/15 "2025-02-20T17:26:52Z")
Christopher Guest had his troupe in _Waiting for Guffman_, _Best in Show_, and _A Mighty Wind_.
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### Author:  [@Leo\_Krupe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Krupe)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-overlapping-casts/1014577/16 "2025-02-20T17:28:44Z")
Hammer Films used both Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing pretty extensively. So did Universal with Karloff and Lugosi, and depending on the movie, Lon Chaney, Jr.
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### Author:  [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-overlapping-casts/1014577/17 "2025-02-20T17:36:46Z")
A comprehensive list! Except the most obvious one: Casablanca and Maltese Falcon (Bogart, Lorre and Greenstreet).
As your list demonstrates, in the days when studios were all-powerful (in this case, Warner Bros) overlapping casts would be more common.
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### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-overlapping-casts/1014577/18 "2025-02-20T17:44:41Z")
The Coen Brothers brought back John Goodman, John Turturro, and Steve Buscemi for **The Big Lebowski** after casting all three in **Barton Fink**.
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-overlapping-casts/1014577/19 "2025-02-20T17:52:30Z")
> [@jsc1953](#):
>
> As your list demonstrates, in the days when studios were all-powerful (in this case, Warner Bros) overlapping casts would be more common.
See also: Universal pairing Rock Hudson with Doris Day in three _‘and Tony Randall’_ movies.
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### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-overlapping-casts/1014577/20 "2025-02-20T17:57:39Z")
Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber (the Banks children) and Ed Wynn (Uncle Albert) from **Mary Poppins** also appeared in the lesser-known live-action Disney film **The Gnome-Mobile**.
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