# Same Actor/Actress In Same TV Show, But Now A Different Character **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 16, 2009, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-actor-actress-in-same-tv-show-but-now-a-different-character/517751 "2009-11-16T07:26:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-actor-actress-in-same-tv-show-but-now-a-different-character/517751/21 "2009-11-16T15:13:50Z")
Several on **Doctor Who** , most notably Lalla Ward, who played the princess in “The Armageddon Factor,” and then Romana (the Doctor’s companion) in the very next series, “Destiny of the Daleks” (the resemblance was commented upon as a choice of regeneration, a change in the concept – the doctor had no control over his regenerations either before or since – written by Douglas Adams). Also of note was Colin Baker, who played a guard in one episode before being named the Doctor a little later, and Ian Marter, who played part a part in the guest cast of “Carnival of Monsters” before becoming Harry Sullivan, another companion. Philic Madoc appeared in both “The Brain of Morbius” and “The Power of Kroll.” ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-actor-actress-in-same-tv-show-but-now-a-different-character/517751/22 "2009-11-16T15:20:45Z")
> [@jonesj2205](#): > > For Dragnet, Jack Webb pretty much used the same staple of actors over and over again for guest roles. Not sure if that entirely counts since even Joe Friday and Bill Gannon changed jobs pretty much every week too. This is the one I was going to mention. [Virginia Gregg](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0339615/filmoseries#tt0061248), who played at least fifteen different roles on various incarnations of “Dragnet,” not to mention her appearances on other Webb productions like Emergency! and Adam-12. ---
**Author:** ![justrob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9adbd/32.png) [@justrob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justrob)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-actor-actress-in-same-tv-show-but-now-a-different-character/517751/23 "2009-11-16T15:27:30Z")
**Catherine Bell** on JAG. Originally she played a love interest of the lead character (Harm) that was killed off. She was so popular thought that they brought her back as a main character (Sarah MacKenzie). They used the fact that she looked like the killed off character (duh) a few times to create angst in the show. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-actor-actress-in-same-tv-show-but-now-a-different-character/517751/24 "2009-11-16T15:32:40Z")
Jeeves and Wooster did this all the time–it got so confusing. I’m not sure this counts but Sherman Hemsley guest starred on “Fresh Prince” both as Uncle Phil’s former mentor and then later opponent when he runs for judge, and then again as his old role of Mr. Jefferson. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-actor-actress-in-same-tv-show-but-now-a-different-character/517751/25 "2009-11-16T15:47:15Z")
[Law & Order: Repeat Offenders](http://www.podengo.com/apocrypha/repeatoffender.html) listing guest actors who’ve appeared numerous times, often playing unrelated characters. I’m somewhat amused by Bradley White, who played three different characters, two of them stalkers. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Hen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@Small\_Hen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Hen)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-actor-actress-in-same-tv-show-but-now-a-different-character/517751/26 "2009-11-16T15:47:40Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Jeeves and Wooster did this all the time–it got so confusing. Oh God, that cast was stuck in revolving doors or something. Buffy did this a few times, I think, though the only one I remember straight out was that Tom Lenk played one of Harmony’s vampire minions before coming back to play Andrew in season six and seven. ---
**Author:** ![badbadrubberpiggy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/57b2e6/32.png) [@badbadrubberpiggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badbadrubberpiggy)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-actor-actress-in-same-tv-show-but-now-a-different-character/517751/27 "2009-11-16T15:52:25Z")
Not the same series really, but a spinoff: Eve Myles was in the \*\*Dr. Who \*\*episode “The Unquiet Dead” as Gwyneth, a clairvoyent maid, and later went on to play the main character of Gwen in **Torchwood** , a spinoff of **Dr. Who**. Gwen was also in the final episode of series 4 of **Dr. Who**. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-actor-actress-in-same-tv-show-but-now-a-different-character/517751/28 "2009-11-16T15:55:03Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Several on **Doctor Who** , most notably Lalla Ward, who played the princess in “The Armageddon Factor,” and then Romana (the Doctor’s companion) in the very next series, “Destiny of the Daleks” (the resemblance was commented upon as a choice of regeneration, a change in the concept – the doctor had no control over his regenerations either before or since – written by Douglas Adams). > > Also of note was Colin Baker, who played a guard in one episode before being named the Doctor a little later, and Ian Marter, who played part a part in the guest cast of “Carnival of Monsters” before becoming Harry Sullivan, another companion. Philic Madoc appeared in both “The Brain of Morbius” and “The Power of Kroll.” A couple more from “Doctor Who” - Jean Marsh played Lady Joanna (a.k.a. Joan of Plantagenet) in the early serial “the Crusades.” A year later, she became a companion (albeit a temporary one) named Sara Kingdom in “the Dalek Master Plan.” Another secondary character in “Master Plan” was Brett Vyon, who was played by Nicholas Courtney - who became the long-running semi-companion character Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. The highwater mark for actors with multiple roles in series has got to be the soap opera “Dark Shadows.” The series began routinely enough - one character per actor, but radically changed after the vampire storyline was introduced. Barnabas was an ancestor of the central Collins family who simply emerged from his coffin as a vampire 200 years after he was supposed to have died. He quickly became the dominant character in the show, and fans kept clamoring to know HOW he’d become a vampire in the first place. So, the show’s principle heroine got transported back in time to the 1700s and met the residents of Collinwood manor from that time period - and apart from her & Barnabas, every other actor on the show was recast as a new character. Along the way, TPTB brought back some actors who’d been let go after their modern-day characters had been killed off or written out. The 1700s storyline was always intended to be a temporary shift, and when the storyline was wrapped up - the heroine Vicky was sent back to her rightful place in time. All the other actors resumed playing the modern day character roles they’d originally had. However, the time travel storyline was wildly popular with fans, and if there’s already a vampire, the writers figured why not a few ghosts? So characters from the 1700s began travelling from that time to the present on an almost routine basis. Almost every actor had two roles (their normal role, and the ghost of the character they’d played in the 1700s storyline.) Eventually, the ratings began dipping, so the writers had Barnabas travel back in time to the 1800s, and once again, every other actor was recast with a new part in this storyline. This time, the storyline lasted long enough that they were able to perform the usual soap trope of having characters die, only to have an exact physical double (played by the actor, natch’.) Of course, eventually, Barnabas got back to the present day, and now there was a whole new host of ghosts who looked exactly like characters from the present day starting appearing. The year after that, Barnabas made a jump to Parallel Time, an alternate universe along the lines of Earth-2, so that now there was ANOTHER set of physically similar characters. The year after that, the show went back to the 1800s, but the _early_ 1800s. And after that storyline finished, characters went back to the Parallel Time, but in the 1800s! By this point, the constant timeline (and character) changes had become so confusing that most of the fans had abandoned the show and it got cancelled. But by the show finished its’ five year run (not a long time for soaps), almost every major actor had played at least five different roles on a regular basis. One actor played at least EIGHT different characters during the run. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-actor-actress-in-same-tv-show-but-now-a-different-character/517751/29 "2009-11-16T15:56:26Z")
William Utay play Dan’s minion Phil on several episdes of _Night Court_, and later Phil’s evil twin Will after Phil got killed. Jeff Mackay played Mac, a buddy of Magnum P.I. who got killed by a car bomb (leading to the whole “Did you see the sunrise?” story arc), and later returned as an unrelated con artist who just happened to look exactly like Mac. In both cases, other characters thought Dan/Magnum was delusional for reporting that he kept seeing his dead friend, until they met the replacement for themelves. ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-actor-actress-in-same-tv-show-but-now-a-different-character/517751/30 "2009-11-16T16:01:19Z")
In **Deadwood** , the excellent Garret Dillahunt played Jack McCall, the weasel who shot Wild Bill, and later played the seriously creepy sadist Francis Wolcott. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-actor-actress-in-same-tv-show-but-now-a-different-character/517751/31 "2009-11-16T16:03:15Z")
In Barney Miller the same character actor frequently returned as a different character in later episode but [Steve Landesberg](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0484688/) first played a fake priest and later became regular [Det. Sgt. Arthur Dietrich](http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0036657/) for the bulk of the show. Florence Halop who was probably best known as the second old lady Bailiff on Night Court had 6 appearances as 6 different characters in Barney Miller. I think she had the most different characters on Barney Miller. ---
**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-actor-actress-in-same-tv-show-but-now-a-different-character/517751/32 "2009-11-16T16:05:19Z")
Garrett Dillahunt has to be the king of this, having done it on at least three shows: Deadwood, where he played Jack McCall, assassin of Wild Bill Hickock, and Francis Walcott, Hearst’s right hand man and early serial killer; Terminator: TSCC, where he played a struggling actor and two separate Terminators; and apparently, but unseen to me, has appeared on CSI in two separate guest spots. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-actor-actress-in-same-tv-show-but-now-a-different-character/517751/33 "2009-11-16T16:10:13Z")
On Deadwood **Garret Dillahunt** played both the coward Jack McCall who murdered Wild Bill Hickock and Francis Wolcott the guy who murdered whores. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-actor-actress-in-same-tv-show-but-now-a-different-character/517751/34 "2009-11-16T16:13:44Z")
**Vito Scotti** He played The Japanese Sailor on Gilligan’s Island and also Boris Balinkoff. ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-actor-actress-in-same-tv-show-but-now-a-different-character/517751/35 "2009-11-16T16:30:46Z")
Dana Elcar appears in the pilot episode of MacGyver, but not as Pete. Instead, he is one of several scientists working in an underground laboratory. His character name in that episode was Andy Colson. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-actor-actress-in-same-tv-show-but-now-a-different-character/517751/36 "2009-11-16T16:35:26Z")
> [@The New and Improved Superman](#): > > The year after that, Barnabas made a jump to Parallel Time, an alternate universe along the lines of Earth-2, so that now there was ANOTHER set of physically similar characters. If we’re including alternate-universe versions of characters, then all the Mirror Universe and alternate-timeline episodes of the various Trek series would be examples for most of the respective main casts. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-actor-actress-in-same-tv-show-but-now-a-different-character/517751/37 "2009-11-16T16:38:29Z")
Joe Gannascoli, the guy who played Vito in the later seasons of the Sopranos, had a bit part as a bakery customer in the first season. He’s waiting in line while the cashier is copping an attitude with Chris. Chris gets mad, tells Gannascoli to leave and then shoots the cashier in the foot. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-actor-actress-in-same-tv-show-but-now-a-different-character/517751/38 "2009-11-16T16:41:37Z")
Whenever a series needed a male Asian character in the '70s, the role was typically filled by one of a handful of Asian actors. Most notalble of these was [Soon-Tek Oh](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0644902/filmoseries#tt0062568). Also [Tad Horino](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0394707/filmoseries#tt0068093) and [Richard Lee-Sung](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0498519/filmoseries#tt0068098); in the '60s it was [Mako](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0538683/filmoseries#tt0055689). ---
**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:** [November 16, 2009, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-actor-actress-in-same-tv-show-but-now-a-different-character/517751/39 "2009-11-16T16:46:49Z")
Apparently there are only so many actors in New Zealand. The casts of _Hercules_ & _Xena, Warrior Princess_ definitely proved their versatility. I think Lucy Lawless appeared on _Hercules_ (as a non-Xena character) before she was Xena. When the Hollywood actress tagged for that role couldn’t make it, they let Lucy do the job. The late Kevin Smith was Ares, God of War–and he also played the brother of Hercules. Karl Urban appeared as a king’s elder son, jealous of his younger brother, who almost convinced the old guy to sacrifice the little boy, by pretending to be “God”–what a sick concept! He made many appearances as Julius Caesar on both shows. Blonde & buffed, he also showed up as Cupid–several times. It turned out that Xena had a couple of “doubles”–wackiness ensued. The actors also got to play versions of themselves in “alternate” worlds. And as descendants or reincarnations, appearing in the modern world. …These just came off the top of my head. I’m sure there were more. (Like Michael Hurst, Hercules’ sidekick, appearing as Widow Twonky in a takeoff of _Strictly Ballroom_.) ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-actor-actress-in-same-tv-show-but-now-a-different-character/517751/40 "2009-11-16T17:10:49Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > In Barney Miller the same character actor frequently returned as a different character in later episode but [Steve Landesberg](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0484688/) first played a fake priest and later became regular [Det. Sgt. Arthur Dietrich](http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0036657/) for the bulk of the show. Ron “Levitt” Carey also had a unrelated guest appearance before joining the cast as a regular character. > [@Raygun99](#): > > Terminator: TSCC, where he played a struggling actor and two separate Terminators Heck, Arnold played three different (albeit identical) characters in three different Terminator movies. Arguably the fourth too, kinda-sorta. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-actor-actress-in-same-tv-show-but-now-a-different-character/517751.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-actor-actress-in-same-tv-show-but-now-a-different-character/517751.md?page=3)