Shows and movies that star the same actors in the same roles decades later

[silenus]

Never mind.

[fedman1]

speaking of Raymond Burr, he played Perry Mason for years, and then came back 20 years later to reprise it and with same Della Street, but otherwise new cast

[CalMeacham]

William Dennis Hunt played the Evil Emperor Wang in the parody Flesh Gordon in 1974. He returned to play him again in the much-later sequel Flesh Gordon II: Flesh Gordon meets the Cosmic Cheerleaders (1990) . He was the only original cast member to return.

Jimmy Stewart played Elwood P. Dowd in Harvey during its original Broadway run in the 1940s (although he didn’t originate the role), in the 1950 movie, reprised it for the Broadway revival in 1970, and played him again for the 1972 TV movie.

[CalMeacham]

Robert Vaughn played gunman Lee in The Magnificent Seven in 1950. In 1980 he played the gnman Gelt in Battle Beyond the Stars, a science fictionalized remake. You can argue that Gelt isn’t Lee, but if you’ve seen the movie, you know he’s playing the same role. They even re-used some of the dialogue from the earlier film.

[CalMeacham]

James Best played the hero, captain Thorne Sherman in the low-budget film The Killer Shrews in 1959. He played the same role in the 2012 sequel (which he also co-wrote) Return of the Killer Shrews in 2012.

That’s a 53 year gap between the films, which is, I think, a record for longest time between film and sequel (that has at least one returning cast member) and for portrayals of the same character, beating Jerry Lewis and Carl Reiner’s stretches.

[RealityChuck]

Yul Brynner played the king in The King and I in the original Broadway show from 1951, and in revivals in 1977 and 1985.

Carol Channing played Dolly Levi in Hello Dolly on Broadway in 1964 and in 1978 and 1995 revivals.

[CalMeacham]

Lots of Broadway actors have re-appeared in old roles. Richard Kiley starred as Cervantes/Alnso Quijana/Don Quixote off-Broadway in Man of la Mancha in 1965, then in two Broadway revivals, in 1972 and 1977 (I went to the latter, but he was out that day)

Richard Harris, who played King Arthur in the 1967 film version, also played him in the 1981 revival, the HBO adaptation in 1982, and on tour in 1982-3 (where I saw him)

[CalMeacham]

Groucho Marx played Napoleon in a sketch in the Broadway play !'ll Say She Is in 1924. He repeated the role in 1970 for the animated TV special The Mad Mad Mad Comedians – A Broadway performance and a TV show (neither a movie), but still remarkable for a repeat performance after a gap of 46 years.

[CalMeacham]

Michael Forest played Apollo in the Star Trek episode Who Mourns for Adonais in 1967 and played him again in the fan-produced sequel Pilgrim of Eternity in 2013.

it might be fan-made, but the quality of the production, including writing, acting, sets, and effects, are all top-notch. well worth watching.

[CalMeacham]

Michael Sheard had a minor career (in addition to his normal acting career) playing Adolph Hitler. He played him in

Rogue Male (1976) – TV movie

The Tomorrow People (1978) – TV series

The Dirty Dozen: The Next Mission (1985) – TV movie

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

Hitler of the Andes (2003) – TV documentary

Herbert Lom played Napoleon Bonaparte in The Young Mr. Pitt (1942) and War and Peace (1956)

[cochrane]

@fedman1

speaking of Raymond Burr, he played Perry Mason for years, and then came back 20 years later to reprise it and with same Della Street, but otherwise new cast

Already mentioned.

Shows and movies that star the same actors in the same roles decades later

Burke’s Law. 81 episodes in the early 60s. 27 episodes in the mid 90s. Both starring Gene Barry. Perry Mason ran from 1957 to 1966. 30 Perry Mason tv films ran from 1985 to 1995. Cast members Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale returned for those. There were a few more Perry Mason films after Burr died with Hale appearing briefly in some.

[The_Other_Waldo_Pepper]

@CalMeacham

Robert Vaughn played gunman Lee in The Magnificent Seven in 1950. In 1980 he played the gnman Gelt in Battle Beyond the Stars, a science fictionalized remake. You can argue that Gelt isn’t Lee, but if you’ve seen the movie, you know he’s playing the same role. They even re-used some of the dialogue from the earlier film

I don’t think the following counts, but what you wrote reminded me of Jimmy Cagney — who, sure, reprised his role as George Cohan more than a dozen years after YANKEE DOODLE DANDY, but never mind that now; I’m talking about his final role, as TERRIBLE JOE MORAN, an old man in the 1980s who’d been a young prizefighter back in the 1930s, by which I mean back when Cagney was starring as a young prizefighter in WINNER TAKE ALL.

And so, more than half a century later, they simply dusted off clips from the earlier film and said, hey, look: it’s the same guy!

[CalMeacham]

@The_Other_Waldo_Pepper

I don’t think the following counts, but what you wrote reminded me of Jimmy Cagney — who, sure, reprised his role as George Cohan more than a dozen years after YANKEE DOODLE DANDY, but never mind that now; I’m talking about his final role, as TERRIBLE JOE MORAN, an old man in the 1980s who’d been a young prizefighter back in the 1930s, by which I mean back when Cagney was starring as a young prizefighter in WINNER TAKE ALL.

And so, more than half a century later, they simply dusted off clips from the earlier film and said, hey, look: it’s the same guy!

I hadn’t heard of any of his (I knew about Yankee Doodle Dandy, but didn’t know Cagney had played Cohan again in Seven Little Foys), and never even heard of Terrible Joe Moran and Winner Take All. But the Wikipedia for the former affirms that they did use clips from Winner Take All for the TV movie.

But, y’know, it was freakin’ Cagney, a legend, and a guy who had finally returned to acting with Ragtime three years earlier. I’m pretty sure they didn’t choose him for the role because they found old footage of him as a boxer.

[Dropo]

Charles Laughton played King Henry VII in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) and in Young Bess (1953).