# Pairs of actors who played each other's original roles **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, movies\ **Created:** [December 16, 2020, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pairs-of-actors-who-played-each-others-original-roles/928208 "2020-12-16T23:36:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2020, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pairs-of-actors-who-played-each-others-original-roles/928208/1 "2020-12-16T23:36:03Z")
Bill Murray originated the role of Dr. Peter Venkman in the movie _Ghostbusters_. In the spinoff TV series _The Real Ghostbusters_, the same character was voiced by Lorenzo Music. Meanwhile, Lorenzo Music originated the role of Garfield in various television specials and series of the 1980s. But in the 2004 feature film _Garfield: The Movie_, the character was voiced by Bill Murray. Are there any similar examples of pairs of actors, where Actor 1 originates Role A, and Actor 2 originates Role B, and then Actor 1 later portrays Role B and Actor 2 portrays Role A? (And I shouldn’t have to say this, but let’s exclude from consideration any films, TV episodes, etc. featuring [body-swap plots](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_swap). Actors switching roles as part of a deliberate storytelling device is out of scope for this question.) ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2020, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pairs-of-actors-who-played-each-others-original-roles/928208/2 "2020-12-16T23:58:21Z")
There’s an entry on “Full Circle Portraying” on the TV Tropes website which mentions the roles you mentioned, but none of the others include actors that were both the first person to play each role as your OP requires. I think it’s going to be challenging to find another. > **[Full Circle Portraying - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FullCirclePortraying)** > > Full circle portraying is where two actors portray the same character on different occasions, and then do so again with regard to a second, unrelated character. Bonus points if a third or fourth actor does the same thing for the same set of … ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2020, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pairs-of-actors-who-played-each-others-original-roles/928208/3 "2020-12-17T08:03:51Z")
Challenging but not impossible, I think. Last night in bed I remembered that Mel Blanc, who originated the role of Barney Rubble on _The Flintstones_, was hospitalized for a car accident during the show’s second season, and Daws Butler filled in for him. Butler is perhaps most famous as the original voice of Yogi Bear, so this morning I looked up the character on Wikipedia and found that Mel Blanc voiced him in the animated segments broadcast as part of the 1983 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I think that to find further examples, it will be best to concentrate on actors in theatre, puppetry, and voice work. For their roles, consistency in the actor’s physical characteristics doesn’t matter as much as in live-action film and TV. If my original requirements are too onerous, then perhaps we could relax them to include not just original roles but also roles that a certain actor first popularized or became strongly identified with. For instance, I’m pretty sure that Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff weren’t the first actors to play Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster, respectively, but they’re the ones who are best remembered in these roles, and I suspect they even may have mixed and matched them at some point. (I can’t check now as I’m writing this message offline.) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2020, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pairs-of-actors-who-played-each-others-original-roles/928208/4 "2020-12-17T12:16:09Z")
When I read the title, I thought you meant the actors’ first roles, not the roles’ first actors. This would probably open up a lot of folks in Shakespearean circles (and other widely-popular plays). But for the first actors for each role, I don’t know how good the records are of the Globe’s original castings. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2020, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pairs-of-actors-who-played-each-others-original-roles/928208/5 "2020-12-17T14:16:58Z")
Probably not what you’re after, but Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch famously alternated roles in different nights of the same stage production of _Frankenstein_, swapping playing the doctor and the monster. And of course both played Sherlock Holmes on television (Cumberbatch first).