# No matter how good an actor (so and so) is, he (or she) will always be \_\_\_\_\_\_ (role) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 9, 2007, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-matter-how-good-an-actor-so-and-so-is-he-or-she-will-always-be-______-role/411037 "2007-07-09T13:00:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-matter-how-good-an-actor-so-and-so-is-he-or-she-will-always-be-______-role/411037/21 "2007-07-09T15:43:47Z")
No matter how hard they try to convince me that Sarah Jessica Parker is sexy I will always think of her as one of the nerdy girls on Square Pegs. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-matter-how-good-an-actor-so-and-so-is-he-or-she-will-always-be-______-role/411037/22 "2007-07-09T15:51:25Z")
[QUOTE=Zeldar] I felt the same until I saw Quigley. [/QUOTE] Metatron in DOGMA ---
**Author:** ![chrissysissystar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5e9695/32.png) [@chrissysissystar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrissysissystar)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-matter-how-good-an-actor-so-and-so-is-he-or-she-will-always-be-______-role/411037/23 "2007-07-09T15:53:02Z")
[QUOTE=sciurophobic] No matter how hard they try to convince me that Sarah Jessica Parker is sexy I will always think of her as one of the nerdy girls on Square Pegs. [/QUOTE] I’ll never be convinced she’s sexy, no matter what her past roles were. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-matter-how-good-an-actor-so-and-so-is-he-or-she-will-always-be-______-role/411037/24 "2007-07-09T15:54:22Z")
[QUOTE=sciurophobic] No matter how hard they try to convince me that Sarah Jessica Parker is sexy I will always think of her as one of the nerdy girls on Square Pegs. [/QUOTE] Fortunately, when I saw her in Steve Martin’s L.A. STORY, I did not recognize her as the SP girl, so her sexy cred was intact, until she got older & her SP features seemed to re-emerge. Now she’s OK looking but not hot. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-matter-how-good-an-actor-so-and-so-is-he-or-she-will-always-be-______-role/411037/25 "2007-07-09T15:56:06Z")
[QUOTE=Sefton] I’ve seen **Better off Dead** so many times that I can’t see John Cusack as anyone else but Lane Meyer. Wow, Lane Meyer’s in a horror movie! Lane Meyer’s in a war movie! Whaddaya know? [/QUOTE] May I congratulate you on a terrific User Name. That and your “location” convince me you have excellent tastes in movies and actors. One of the best. ---
**Author:** ![GraceTX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c4cdca/32.png) [@GraceTX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GraceTX)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-matter-how-good-an-actor-so-and-so-is-he-or-she-will-always-be-______-role/411037/26 "2007-07-09T16:03:28Z")
[QUOTE=e-logic] My wife is having a hard time taking Matthew Perry seriously in SSOTSS - he’s always Chandler to her. Likewise the rest of the Friends cast… David Schwimmer in Band of Brothers jarred for me. [/QUOTE] I think that’s the case for any actor who comes from nowhere to have a big, recurring role. The Friends cast will always be the Friends cast (particularly Matt LeBlanc and Lisa Kudrow for me), the Seinfeld cast will always be the Seinfeld cast, and the Buffy cast will always be the Buffy cast (except for Anthony Head - he’ll always be the guy from the Nescafe Gold Blend ads). It mostly affects TV series casts - after all, they run for so much longer - but the same can occur in movies too. No matter how much I enjoyed the way Dominic Monaghan played Charlie in Lost, he was always Merry the hobbit in the back of my mind, and the same will be true of Billy Boyd, should I ever see him in anything else. Orlando Bloom escaped that fate, although that’s probably down to the fact that he’s so bland in every role he plays they all roll into one. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-matter-how-good-an-actor-so-and-so-is-he-or-she-will-always-be-______-role/411037/27 "2007-07-09T16:04:16Z")
Alec Guiness was a pretty good, classically trained actor with a worthy catalogue of roles. Unfortunately, he’s only going to be remembered as Obi Wan. ---
**Author:** ![brendon\_small](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brendon_small/32/17101_2.png) [@brendon\_small](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brendon_small)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-matter-how-good-an-actor-so-and-so-is-he-or-she-will-always-be-______-role/411037/28 "2007-07-09T16:06:22Z")
[QUOTE=chrissysissystar] I’ll never be convinced she’s sexy, no matter what her past roles were. [/QUOTE] I scrolled down slowly from the first post about her, hoping to make this statement and hoping no one else had. Thank you for saying though, so I don’t feel so guilty making the off topic statement. But seriously, she’s sexy? No way…I’m not convinced by her past roles, nor by her appearance. I’m pretty sure future roles will cause me to believe the same. Brendon Small ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-matter-how-good-an-actor-so-and-so-is-he-or-she-will-always-be-______-role/411037/29 "2007-07-09T16:12:42Z")
I think SJP is hot. ---
**Author:** ![kingpengvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9dc877/32.png) [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-matter-how-good-an-actor-so-and-so-is-he-or-she-will-always-be-______-role/411037/30 "2007-07-09T16:49:36Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] Alec Guiness was a pretty good, classically trained actor with a worthy catalogue of roles. Unfortunately, he’s only going to be remembered as Obi Wan. [/QUOTE] I always think of him a Prince Fizal… “A Slim Customer… Very good. Now we are Talking Turkey are we not?” ---
**Author:** ![nevermore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a587f6/32.png) [@nevermore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevermore)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-matter-how-good-an-actor-so-and-so-is-he-or-she-will-always-be-______-role/411037/31 "2007-07-09T17:15:15Z")
No matter how many campy farces of the same character he plays over the years, [R. Lee Ermey](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000388/) will always be the sargeant in Full Metal Jacket, and [Vincent D’Onofrio](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000352/) will always be Private Pyle. I suspect if I hadn’t seen that movie first, though, the latter would be stuck in my head as the crazy dude from The Cell. Regardless, every time I see him in any serious role, I always think “Why is he trying to act not-crazy?” [Carrie-Anne Moss](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005251/) is forever Trinity in my mind. I’ll watch her in anything, but even when she’s wearing a polka-dot sundress and a flowery hat, in the back of my mind I’m still going “Just wait 'til she kicks all your asses.” And yeah, to me, Hugh Laurie is House. OMGsoweird seeing him as the dad in Stuart Little. I was just waiting for him to bust out the mean. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-matter-how-good-an-actor-so-and-so-is-he-or-she-will-always-be-______-role/411037/32 "2007-07-09T17:57:42Z")
[QUOTE=Hung Mung] Patrick Stewart will always be captain Picard to me. As a teenager watching tNG, I had never heard of anyone on that show before, except for Lavar Burton. It doesn’t matter how much Shakespeare I see the man perform, and I greatly admire his work, he’s forever burned in my mind saying, “Make it so, Number One.” [/QUOTE] I first knew Patrick Stewart as Sejanus in _I Claudius_. That great miniseries colored my perceptions of Brian Blessed, John Rhys Davies & Derek Jacobi. And John Hurt, of course! ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-matter-how-good-an-actor-so-and-so-is-he-or-she-will-always-be-______-role/411037/33 "2007-07-09T21:23:44Z")
He’s hardly a big name, but Asian character actor **Al Leong** showed up pretty much every time there was a group of Asian thugs, and at least once (Die Hard) when there was a group of multi-racial thugs, and every time I saw him, I mentally referred to him as **Genghis Khan** (due to his standout performance in **Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure** ). ---
**Author:** ![Ol\_Gaffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-matter-how-good-an-actor-so-and-so-is-he-or-she-will-always-be-______-role/411037/34 "2007-07-09T21:40:53Z")
**Bill Paxton** as Wyatt’s older brother Chet in **Weird Science**. “How 'bout a nice greasy pork sandwich served in a dirty ashtray?” ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-matter-how-good-an-actor-so-and-so-is-he-or-she-will-always-be-______-role/411037/35 "2007-07-09T22:25:35Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] Alec Guiness was a pretty good, classically trained actor with a worthy catalogue of roles. Unfortunately, he’s only going to be remembered as Obi Wan. [/QUOTE] He’ll always be Colonel Nicholson to me. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-matter-how-good-an-actor-so-and-so-is-he-or-she-will-always-be-______-role/411037/36 "2007-07-09T22:49:16Z")
Gregory Peck will Always be Atticus Finch. Not that this would ever be a bad thing in my book. ---
**Author:** ![Acorns.but\_not\_Bacon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@Acorns.but\_not\_Bacon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acorns.but_not_Bacon)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-matter-how-good-an-actor-so-and-so-is-he-or-she-will-always-be-______-role/411037/37 "2007-07-09T22:55:47Z")
Off the top of my head Anthony Hopkins- Hannibal Lecter for me, ehh it’s a common one I bet. I watched him in a film where he was this eccentric inventor type, very smily, creeped me the fuck out. Didn’t that film have something to do with cornflakes? :dubious: He was the inventor of cornflakes…? No? ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-matter-how-good-an-actor-so-and-so-is-he-or-she-will-always-be-______-role/411037/38 "2007-07-09T23:09:42Z")
[QUOTE=MaxTheVool] He’s hardly a big name, but Asian character actor **Al Leong** showed up pretty much every time there was a group of Asian thugs, and at least once (Die Hard) when there was a group of multi-racial thugs, and every time I saw him, I mentally referred to him as **Genghis Khan** (due to his standout performance in **Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure** ). [/QUOTE] The way he tore into that big chicken leg…the way he jumped at that woman’s bosom. Oscar Award winning performance, there. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-matter-how-good-an-actor-so-and-so-is-he-or-she-will-always-be-______-role/411037/39 "2007-07-09T23:12:40Z")
[QUOTE=This is just…] Off the top of my head Anthony Hopkins- Hannibal Lecter for me, ehh it’s a common one I bet. I watched him in a film where he was this eccentric inventor type, very smily, creeped me the fuck out. Didn’t that film have something to do with cornflakes? :dubious: He was the inventor of cornflakes…? No? [/QUOTE] [The Road to Wellville](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111001/) ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-matter-how-good-an-actor-so-and-so-is-he-or-she-will-always-be-______-role/411037/40 "2007-07-09T23:31:21Z")
Matthew Broderick is Ferris Bueler. He can be no one else. Oh, sure, he may be Ferris fighting Godzilla, of Ferris dressed as Inspector Gaget, but the’s still Ferris. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-matter-how-good-an-actor-so-and-so-is-he-or-she-will-always-be-______-role/411037.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-matter-how-good-an-actor-so-and-so-is-he-or-she-will-always-be-______-role/411037.md?page=3)