# Same film series, same actor, different character **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 20, 2016, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-film-series-same-actor-different-character/743646 "2016-01-20T01:35:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [January 20, 2016, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-film-series-same-actor-different-character/743646/21 "2016-01-20T04:49:02Z")
Heck, how many different Model 800s has Arnold played? Four? And that’s not even counting the two computer-generated ones that looked like a young Arnold. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-film-series-same-actor-different-character/743646/22 "2016-01-20T11:58:28Z")
Lee Van Cleef: For a Few Dollars More - Col. Douglas Mortimer The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - Sentenza / Angel Eyes Definitely different characters. (But then I’m of the opinion that Joe, Monco and Blondie are different characters too) > [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > I’m excluding TV shows Are TV \*movies \*okay? Telly Savalas played the very nasty Maggot in the original Dirty Dozen film. He was shot by his own side. He later played the lead in two made for TV sequels. > **[The Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission (TV Movie 1987) ⭐ 5.2 | Action, War](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092891/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_16)** > > 1h 30m | TV-PG > **[The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission (TV Movie 1988) ⭐ 5.0 | Action, Adventure,...](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095022/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_12)** > > 1h 40m | Not Rated ---
**Author:** ![TCMF-2L](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tcmf-2l/32/16553_2.png) [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-film-series-same-actor-different-character/743646/23 "2016-01-20T13:05:52Z")
The actor **Joe Pilato** played an unnamed police officer in the original **Dawn of the Dead** and later played Captain Rhodes in the original **Day of the Dead**. However it is possible he is playing the same character who, due to the zombie emergency, has switched from the police to the army. I know TV is supposed to be excluded from this thread but I feel compelled to mention one of the most egregious examples: The combined TV universe of **Hercules: The Legendary Journeys** and **Xena: Warrior Princess**. These shows constantly recycled actors. One fine example? Actress **Lucy Lawless** had already played at least two characters in Hercules before starring as Xena. However, well after the Xena character had become established with her own show she returned to one of her earlier roles as Lyla (the woman who married a Centaur) which led to other characters in that episode making joking references to Lyla’s similarity to Xena. TCMF-2L ---
**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:** [January 20, 2016, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-film-series-same-actor-different-character/743646/24 "2016-01-20T14:15:30Z")
We did [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=615205) a while back, which touched on some of the same examples (the 007 movies, _Get Him To The Greek_) and some that haven’t yet come up (Peter Ustinov’s outings as Poirot, the Jay-and-Silent-Bob flicks). ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-film-series-same-actor-different-character/743646/25 "2016-01-20T16:59:09Z")
Please don’t just laugh! The first actor I thought of when I read this thread’s title was [Charles Starrett (1903–1986)](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0823633/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1) who was my favorite B Westerns star in my early years. His main claim to fame was as The Durango Kid! But check out that IMDb list of his roles and try to find one whose name is NOT **Steve**! I noticed that when I was in grade school. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-film-series-same-actor-different-character/743646/26 "2016-01-20T17:06:47Z")
A lot of Kevin Smith movies take place in the same universe and have recycled actors. Joey Lauren Adams played Gwen in _Mallrats_ and Alyssa in _Chasing Amy_. Jason Lee played Brody in _Mallrats_, Bankie Edwards in _Chasing Amy_, and Azrael in _Dogma_. Ben Afleck played Shannon in _Mallrats_, Holden in _Chasing Amy_, and Holden _and_ himself in _Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back_. There are a whole bunch of others. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-film-series-same-actor-different-character/743646/27 "2016-01-20T17:11:55Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > Warwick Davis played a few different characters in Return of the Jedi, Phantom Menace, and Force Awakens. Warwick Davis also played both Flitwick and Griphook in the Harry Potter movies. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-film-series-same-actor-different-character/743646/28 "2016-01-20T17:24:32Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > Star Trek, from ST:NG and beyond recycled their actors like crazy. Mark Lenard most notably. He even meets the OP, since he played a Klingon Captain in ST:TMP and Sarek in ST:TSFS, ST:TVH and ST:TUC. ---
**Author:** ![minlokwat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minlokwat/32/2844_2.png) [@minlokwat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minlokwat)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-film-series-same-actor-different-character/743646/29 "2016-01-20T17:36:46Z")
Actor **Albert Popwell** [wiki link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Popwell) appears in several of the **Dirty Harry** films in various incarnations. In **Dirty Harry** , he is the bank robber to whom Callahan delivers the “Do you feel lucky?” speech. Powell’s line is, “I gots to know” regarding how many bullets are left in the chamber. In the follow-up, **Magnum Force** , he is now a pimp who gets pulled over in a traffic stop and then subsequently wasted. I guess he could be the same guy from the first film but that seems unlikely. He pops up again in **The Enforcer** listed as “Mustapha” in the imdb link but I don’t recall his role specifically. Then he crosses over to the good side and is Harry’s former partner in **Sudden Impact**. Quite the run though it looks like his career hit the skids coinciding with his demise in 1999. ---
**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:** [January 20, 2016, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-film-series-same-actor-different-character/743646/30 "2016-01-20T17:44:23Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > Star Trek, from ST:NG and beyond recycled their actors like crazy. Lots of shows did. If you watch the 1968-1969 incarnation of **Dragnet** you see the same actors popping up in different roles constantly. The Timothy Hutton-produced (and starring) A&E _Nero Wolfe_ series did this very openly and obviously, re-using the same ensemble of actors to play completely different characters every week. (It was kinda nice to see actor Mike Tolkan stretch outside the box he’s been typecast into, and play something besides the Tough Cop for a change.) But I’ve steered clear of TV shows, since the OP did. There are _tons_ of cases on TV. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-film-series-same-actor-different-character/743646/31 "2016-01-20T17:49:23Z")
In the TV series Babylon 5 the actor Louis Turenne played two different characters. He played Draal in two episodes, and Brother Theo in three episodes. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-film-series-same-actor-different-character/743646/32 "2016-01-20T18:00:06Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Mark Lenard most notably. He even meets the OP, since he played a Klingon Captain in ST:TMP and Sarek in ST:TSFS, ST:TVH and ST:TUC. Also Tim Russ who plays a Starfleet Lieutenant in ST: Generations (movie) but also a terrorist in a TNG episode and Tuvok in ST: Voyager. In Empire Strikes Back, Jeremy Bollock plays Boba Fett as well as an Imperial officer. ---
**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:** [January 20, 2016, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-film-series-same-actor-different-character/743646/33 "2016-01-20T18:14:19Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > Also Tim Russ who plays a Starfleet Lieutenant in ST: Generations (movie) but also a terrorist in a TNG episode and Tuvok in ST: Voyager. Michael Dorn: Worf in STAR TREK: GENERATIONS, and Worf’s grandpa – which is to say, Captain Kirk’s defense attorney – in STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-film-series-same-actor-different-character/743646/34 "2016-01-20T18:25:34Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > Warwick Davis played a few different characters in Return of the Jedi, Phantom Menace, and Force Awakens. Jack Purvis played the Chief Jawa, Chief Ugnaught, and Ewok medicine man in the respective original trilogy installments. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-film-series-same-actor-different-character/743646/35 "2016-01-20T19:16:04Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Hugh Keays-Byrne played Toecutter in _Mad Max_ and Immortan Joe in _Mad Max: Fury Road_. Which has to be close to unique as the Toecutter and Immortan Joe are the arch-villains in each movie, not little throwaway characters. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-film-series-same-actor-different-character/743646/36 "2016-01-20T19:20:50Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > Okay, here’s an odd phenomenon. In some film series (or just a film and its sequel), they will have mostly the same principal actors, it’s in the same continuum, but there’s an actor or actress in two different installments playing a different character. Here are some obvious examples, give me some better ones: > > **Stan Lee** , who plays slightly different characters in most of the Marvel Comics movies. In _Captain America: The First Avenger_, he’s a general, but in _Winter Soldier_ he’s a Smithsonian rent-a-cop. I’m certain that Stan Lee makes it a condition of using his comic-book material that he be given a cameo role in every Superhero film. If so it’s not surprising that he plays a lot of (minor) characters. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-film-series-same-actor-different-character/743646/37 "2016-01-20T19:39:45Z")
[Natalie Trundy](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0874353/) in the _Planet of the Apes_ movies; she was in all of them except the first. One of the underground bomb worshipers in _Beneath the Planet of the Apes_ One of the doctors who helps Cornelius and Zira in _Escape from the Planet of the Apes_ Lisa (Caesar’s main squeeze) in _Conquest of_ and _Batle for the Planet of the Apes_ ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-film-series-same-actor-different-character/743646/38 "2016-01-20T20:02:22Z")
Jack Palance played Curly Washburn in _City Slickers_, and Duke Washburn in _City Slickers II_. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-film-series-same-actor-different-character/743646/39 "2016-01-20T20:08:17Z")
> [@TCMF-2L](#): > > The actor **Joe Pilato** played an unnamed police officer in the original **Dawn of the Dead** and later played Captain Rhodes in the original **Day of the Dead**. However it is possible he is playing the same character who, due to the zombie emergency, has switched from the police to the army. > > I know TV is supposed to be excluded from this thread but I feel compelled to mention one of the most egregious examples: The combined TV universe of **Hercules: The Legendary Journeys** and **Xena: Warrior Princess**. These shows constantly recycled actors. > > One fine example? Actress **Lucy Lawless** had already played at least two characters in Hercules before starring as Xena. However, well after the Xena character had become established with her own show she returned to one of her earlier roles as Lyla (the woman who married a Centaur) which led to other characters in that episode making joking references to Lyla’s similarity to Xena. > > TCMF-2L Lucy also played several lookalike characters during the run. At least three I can think of; Meg, Diana and a hestian priestess whose name escapes me. ---
**Author:** ![TCMF-2L](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tcmf-2l/32/16553_2.png) [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-film-series-same-actor-different-character/743646/40 "2016-01-20T21:25:09Z")
> [@Antinor01](#): > > Lucy also played several lookalike characters during the run. At least three I can think of; Meg, Diana and a hestian priestess whose name escapes me. Leah. There were more but the OP doesn’t encourage TV examples. TCMF-2L [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-film-series-same-actor-different-character/743646.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-film-series-same-actor-different-character/743646.md?page=3)