Trivia note: In the long-running TV Series “Hawaii Five-O,” the first face you ever see when the series begins belongs to Soon-Tek Oh.
Also, since Hawaii was so isolated, they used the same pool of locals over and over for bit parts. . . literally! Two of the people having multiple appearances were the late Josie Over and her late husband Lance Over.
So you’re saying these two were Over-used?
In The Sopranos, Dan Grimaldi first played Philly Parisi. When Philly got whacked, he came back as his identical twin brother Patsy.
Harmony has minions!!!
Were they in Airplane!?
I’m in the middle of watching Route 66. Many actors had multiple appearances as different characters.
Allan Melvin (Sam the Butcher), played 8 different characters on 8 different episodes of The Andy Griffith Show. Then he had a recurring character (a sergeant) on Gomer Pyle, USMC, which is the same universe.
In Star Trek TNG Michelle Forbes played an ensign before becoming Ro Laren.
Suzie Plakson also played a Vulcan doctor before becoming K’Ehleyr.
Eh, that is, once the credits finish. In the original pilot sequence, he would be preceded by 1) Jack Lord, 2) hula dancer *Helen Kuoha-Torco, 3) Elizabeth Logue (the babe), and 4) Mel Kinney (the boy).
Then, once the action starts, you see Oh.
*In the series credits montage, all you see are Ms. Kuoha-Torco’s swiveling hips. In the unedited pilot montage, you actually get to see her face, which is culled from a dance sequence in the pilot. In the two-part syndication copies of the pilot, her scene is cut to the hips-only sequence.
Carolyn Seymour played three different characters in Next Generation.
She was the Romulan commander in the episode where counselor Troi wakes up on a Romulan ship, altered to look like a Romulan.
She was also the Romulan commander from the episode where a seemingly dead planet in the Neutral Zone causes computer malfunctions due to a probe that attacks - turns out the race of people had a transporter that let them all escape to distant worlds.
And she was the alien science officer in the episode where Riker has been injured on a planet while secretly disguised as a local, and has sex with alien Bebe Neuwirth.
This is what I came in to add, except I remember it differently. I thought the ‘new’ Sipowitz was a pretty good guy. A hard ass pessimest, yes. but still basically an honest good cop. The original role Franz had was of a corrupt cop, wasn’t it?
On Days of Our Lives, a thin, blonde Judi Evans played Adrienne Johnson. Later a heavier, brunette Judi Evans played Bonnie Lockhart. In one episode someone mentioned Adrienne Johnson, and Bonnie said “Why does that name sound os familiar?”
You’re right, except for confusing Franz’ Hill Street and NYPD Blue roles. He played Sipowitz on NYPD Blue. On Hill Street he originally played a corrupt cop named Det. Sal Benedetto, and then later played gruff but honest Det. Buntz.
Oh, yeah, George Takei had a guest spot on **ST:TOS **(episode - Where No Man Has Gone Before) before becoming Sulu.
The mention of Vito Scotti reminded me of Columbo, which had numerous repeat actors. But Scotti wasn’t even tops on the list. This site lists all the repeat actors. Some of these people played murders multiple times, my favorites being Jack Cassidy, Patrick McGoohan, and William Shatner.
Majel Barrett was of course Nurse Chapel, the computer voice, #1 in the pilot repackaged as the Menagerie and then found her way into most of the later Trek productions as other characters.
bup, I am not sure about George Takei not being Sulu in *Where No Man Has Gone Before, *I think it was still Sulu just in a different department at the time.
Roger that.
Like Colombo, Burke’s Law had a few actors who played different characters in different episodes. I seem to remember Terry Thomas as a couple of different characters - the same with Caesar Romero, Nick Adams and Stu Erwin.
Paul Lynde was also in three different eps, playing the bad gay in each one.
Naturally I have no cites, examples, or statistics to back this up, but I believe it was much more routine to reuse guest stars and co-stars before syndication became common. Why wouldn’t you cast someone who you had proven chemistry with the stars, good work habits, and the ability to deliver the goods dramatically and/or comedically? The benefits would outweigh the risk that the audience would confuse the new character with one they saw for a few minutes several weeks or months ago.
Syndicated reruns changed all that by making it possible for a single guest appearance on a popular TV series to be replayed indefinitely. Home video and digital downloads even more so. That’s been the actors union’s main justification for fighting for residual payments.
Although some current series aren’t afraid to reuse guest stars, they are the exceptions to the rule. Some shows carry this to the absurd extreme of avoiding reusing extras in crowd scenes.