OK, after posting, I became curious, so I looked up the info…
In The Gilmore Girls, Sean Gunn first appeared in episode 2 as “Mick.” Next he was in episode 3 as an unnamed swan delivery man. In episode 5, he appeared as “Kirk” and has held the role of bit-part-character ever since.
The late great Charles Lane played several crotchety charcters over the course of Bewitched.
I guess the same actor is used in multiple roles because of the tragic shortage of actors. :rolleyes:
Still, I know one Brit here who cannot stand the practice. That guy who played two roles in Deadwood, for example; my friend was becoming increasingly disenchanted with the show during the second season, but when they brought back the actor who had shot Wild Bill Hickock, that was it, he stopped watching it. Others have remarked about how you could not even tell it was the same actor, but my friend and I – although it did not bother me – said bollocks to that! It was clearly the same person.
I guess it’s sort of an “evil twin” situation but Lisa Kudrow was cast as Phoebe in Friends in part because of her recurring role as Ursula on Mad About You and they eventually had her playing Ursula a few times on Friends as well.
Speaking of the star, James Garner starred as the title character in Nichols, back in 1971. In the final episode his character was killed off, only to be replaced by his brother, played by(of course) James Garner.
Does Patty Duke on the *Patty Duke show * count? She played herself and her (non evil) cousin.
Early on in The Sopranos, Joe Gannascoli first played a random character called “Gino” who buys food at a bakery in one short scene. Then later in the series, the same actor comes back to play the character Vito, who becomes a major part of the show.
The West Wing’s Alison Janey played two characters on *Law and Order. *
Don’t forget Anya’s friend Halfrek being Spike’s old crush Cecily. Tom Lenk played both Andrew and one of Harmony’s vampire minion. Camden Toy has played one of the gentlemen, a turok han, and gnarl, as well as anothyer seperate villian on Angel. Jeff Kober also played both Rack and the insane vampire Buffy had to face for her 18th.
And I officially feel pathetic for knowing all of these now, so I’m just going to stop. But Joss Whedon is quite fond of working with the same actors he likes a lot repeatedly.
In The Cosby Show, the guy who played Denise’s husband (and father of Olivia, the insufferably twee one) appeared in the first season as a blind date for Sondra.
I wonder if this was a nod toward his days on Three’s Company.
Tambor played at least three different guest characters and then shows up in the regular line-up of the ill advised spin-off The Ropers.
Quick hijack- Were Halfrek/Cecily different characters or did human C become vengeance demon H?
Found my own answer & it seems to be weirder than that- V-Demon H was passing as human C when William met & fell for her.
It cracked me up when the first time Charlie Utter saw Wolcott on the street (gettting off the stage coach, I believe), he does a double take.
He also played numerous characters on Columbo, as did the fabulous Jack Cassidy, who played something like 3 different killers.
Columbo recycled quite a number of people.
Elizabeth Montgomery played Samatha and her cousin Serena on “Bewitched.”
I could bring in the soaps, but I’d be here all day. Suffice it to say that everyone on the soaps has a twin or look alike. Judi Evans on Days of Our Lives did play two unrelated and completely different people: the innocent Adrienne Johnson Kirakis, and later the country western golddigger Bonnie Lockhart.
Barbara Eden also player a dark haired Sister of Jeannie on “I Dream of Jeannie”.
She was already skilled at this as she played 4 different characters on Burke’s Law in a 3 year span: Vanessa Barrett, Linda Murray, Sylvia Hanson & Marni Lee.
Barney Miller was always good for having the same character actor reappear a few times. Then many of them would appear in the related show Night Court. (Many of the production crew did both series)
Doris Roberts might be the most famous of these character actors. She played Louise Kaufmann & Harriet Brower on Barney Miller.
Phil Leeds played 3 characters on Night Court and at least 5 on Barney Miller.
Jim
Allan Melvin made eight appearances on The Andy Griffith Show in eight different roles, usually as an escaped prisoner or a bully who’s intimidating Barney.
He’s the escaped prisoner who sinks in Andy’s boat, and he’s the bully that threatens to catch Barney out of uniform and beat him up.
The Andy Griffith Show also had the same actor playing Mr. Garland in a Season 7 show and Marvin Jenkins in Season 8–Jack Nicholson
For instance William Shatner did a murderer who was an exact opposite of Colombo as a neat-freak television detective and a murderer who was a take off on Rush Linburgh and also Patrick McGoohan did a couple different turns as a murderer on the program.
In Absolutely Fabulous, Jane Horrocks played both the airheaded personal assistant Bubble and the assertive television presenter Erin Grin. Even though I know it’s the same actor, they still seem like completely different people to me.