# Roles that literally could only have been played by one person **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 26, 2015, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roles-that-literally-could-only-have-been-played-by-one-person/720898 "2015-05-26T19:44:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roles-that-literally-could-only-have-been-played-by-one-person/720898/101 "2015-05-28T00:38:07Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Have you seen _ **The Aviator** _ (the biopic about Howard Hughes)? Cate Blanchett \*disappeared \*into Kate Hepburn for me. > > I’m trying to think of early movies, before special effects were good, where maybe an actor was the only person physically capable of pulling off some feat in a movie - like Houdini, who was reportedly a terrible, horrible, no-good very bad actor in the few movies he headlined, or Johnny Weismuller (but clearly other people played Tarzan). In one of the Tarzan books ERB has Tarzan travel to Hollywood. He is evaluated for what was basically the role of Tarzan - and rejected for not looking the part, IIRC. So Burroughs would have disagreed with the premise also. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roles-that-literally-could-only-have-been-played-by-one-person/720898/102 "2015-05-28T03:42:19Z")
A real example: “Bill” in [Free Enterprise](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0141105/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) could not be played by anyone other than William Shatner. While it maybe could have been rewritten for someone else, that particular role could not be played by someone else. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roles-that-literally-could-only-have-been-played-by-one-person/720898/103 "2015-05-28T05:57:24Z")
> [@Randolph](#): > > Book-Tyrion has no nose? How does he smell? Spoiled. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roles-that-literally-could-only-have-been-played-by-one-person/720898/104 "2015-05-28T15:32:16Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I honestly think Redford, at that time, after a vigorous workout regimen and with his hair dyed black, could’ve [played Superman], and done it quite well… Having just seen Kurt Russell in _The Thing_ (from 1982, just a few years after _Superman_), I think he could’ve done it too. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roles-that-literally-could-only-have-been-played-by-one-person/720898/105 "2015-05-28T15:35:39Z")
I once read that when the movie version of \* My Fair Lady \* was being planned, the producers approached Cary Grant to cast him as Professor Higgins. The book said, “he wisely turned the part down, saying that only a fool would try to follow Rex Harrison.” ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roles-that-literally-could-only-have-been-played-by-one-person/720898/106 "2015-05-28T16:54:07Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > I once read that when the movie version of \* My Fair Lady \* was being planned, the producers approached Cary Grant to cast him as Professor Higgins. The book said, “he wisely turned the part down, saying that only a fool would try to follow Rex Harrison.” But it’s not the role that did it, it was his iconic performance in the role. Clearly other people played Higgins quite well in the play and in the movie made from the play. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roles-that-literally-could-only-have-been-played-by-one-person/720898/107 "2015-05-28T18:41:04Z")
Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. (Don’t talk to me about Johnny Depp, please. His version of Wonka was an abomination. Interesting character, but not Wonka). I can’t think of another kid actor from the era other than NPH could have pulled off the combination of humor and intelligence to play Doogie Howser as a believable kid doctor. Maybe a 90210-style twenty-something playing a teenager might have been able to do it, but Harris really was a teenager at the time (unlike his friend Vinnie, who was played by an actor in his 20s). I disagree about Cumberbatch as modern-day Holmes. I htink Jonny Lee Miller does an excellent job in _Elementary_. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roles-that-literally-could-only-have-been-played-by-one-person/720898/108 "2015-05-28T19:40:14Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > But Hollywood has a long history of putting A-list starts who couldn’t sing very well in singing roles from Broadway adaptations - Marlon Brando in Guys and Dolls, Pierce Brosnan in Mama Mia, and heck, Russell Crowe in Les Mis. They can make do with movie magic. If they wanted someone else in that role the movie would have been made. Along that line, Paint Your Wagon. Nobody in Hollywood could possibly sing as bad as Clint Eastwood. There I win the thread. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roles-that-literally-could-only-have-been-played-by-one-person/720898/109 "2015-05-28T19:47:47Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > Nobody in Hollywood could possibly sing as bad as Clint Eastwood. > There I win the thread. I’ll call your Eastwood and raise you Pierce Brosnan in “Mamma Mia”. And wasn’t that Lee Marvin? ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roles-that-literally-could-only-have-been-played-by-one-person/720898/110 "2015-05-28T20:46:26Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > Along that line, Paint Your Wagon. > Nobody in Hollywood could possibly sing as bad as Clint Eastwood. > There I win the thread. [You got a problem with my wagon?](https://simpsonswiki.com/w/images/thumb/2/2e/Clint_Eastwood.png/250px-Clint_Eastwood.png) ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roles-that-literally-could-only-have-been-played-by-one-person/720898/111 "2015-05-29T00:22:18Z")
**erysichthon** You are free to discuss the premise of the thread without resorting to being insulting to the OP/posters contributing to the thread and threadshitting. If you have nothing to contribute beyond blanket criticism, don’t post. No warning issued, but don’t do it again. > [@erysichthon](#): > > I concur. The OP’s premise is absolutely wrong. There has _never_ been a role that only one actor in the world is capable of playing and there never will be. > > Like so many Cafe Society threads, this one is simply people listing their favorite things (in this case, actors/performances). ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roles-that-literally-could-only-have-been-played-by-one-person/720898/112 "2015-05-29T05:28:07Z")
William J. Obanhein as Office Obie in Alice’s Restaurant? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roles-that-literally-could-only-have-been-played-by-one-person/720898/113 "2015-05-29T11:29:06Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > Along that line, Paint Your Wagon. > Nobody in Hollywood could possibly sing as bad as Clint Eastwood. > There I win the thread. “I know what you’re thinking, punk. Did he sing one chorus, or two? Well, in all the excitement, I lost count myself. So you gotta ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya, PUNK?” “I gots ta know.” Eastwood begins to sing… ---
**Author:** ![Apollon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47774/32.png) [@Apollon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollon)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roles-that-literally-could-only-have-been-played-by-one-person/720898/114 "2015-05-29T12:17:27Z")
Rod Steiger as Napoleon in Waterloo (1970). The best proof that only he could play Napoleon was that many others attempted it, and they all sucked greatly. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roles-that-literally-could-only-have-been-played-by-one-person/720898/115 "2015-05-29T15:14:49Z")
Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves in Bill and Teds Bogus journey. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roles-that-literally-could-only-have-been-played-by-one-person/720898/116 "2015-05-29T18:42:37Z")
Bill Murray as Bill Murray in Zombieland. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2015, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roles-that-literally-could-only-have-been-played-by-one-person/720898/117 "2015-05-30T17:33:38Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > - **Hugh Jackman** in Les Miserables. Obviously he’s neither the only A-list movie star, nor the only trained and experienced Broadway singer in the world, but he may be the only person who is both. And a movie that prominent, with a budget that big, needed both Odd that so many other people have done the role on stage around the world, but not Jackman. And I’d still have liked to see the original Jean Valjean, Colm Wilkerson, on the screen. I doubt that anyone could have played Hellboy better than Ron Perlman. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2015, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roles-that-literally-could-only-have-been-played-by-one-person/720898/118 "2015-05-30T17:50:34Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I doubt that anyone could have played Hellboy better than Ron Perlman. If we’re going there, I doubt anyone could’ve played John Glenn better than Ed Harris. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2015, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roles-that-literally-could-only-have-been-played-by-one-person/720898/119 "2015-05-30T20:47:15Z")
Nobody could’ve been the King of Kings other than Captain Christopher Pike! ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2015, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roles-that-literally-could-only-have-been-played-by-one-person/720898/120 "2015-05-30T22:06:59Z")
[ul] [li]Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat[/li][li]Leslie Nielson as Dr. Rumack in Airplane[/li][li]Rodney Dangerfield in Caddyshack and Back to School[/li] And, 2 more besides in Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove: [li]George C. Scott as Gen. ‘Buck’ Turgidson[/li][li]Sterling Hayden as Brig. Gen. Jack D. Ripper[/li][/ul] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roles-that-literally-could-only-have-been-played-by-one-person/720898.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roles-that-literally-could-only-have-been-played-by-one-person/720898.md?page=7)