# Supporting Cast with Multiple Roles
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supporting-cast-with-multiple-roles/943671
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** tv-shows-scripted
**Created:** [June 5, 2021, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supporting-cast-with-multiple-roles/943671 "2021-06-05T11:59:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2021, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supporting-cast-with-multiple-roles/943671/1 "2021-06-05T11:59:52Z")
Continuing the discussion from [Things that bother me about M asterisk A asterisk S asterisk H (the TV show)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-bother-me-about-m-asterisk-a-asterisk-s-asterisk-h-the-tv-show/943583/46):
> [@Things that bother me about M asterisk A asterisk S asterisk H (the TV show)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-bother-me-about-m-asterisk-a-asterisk-s-asterisk-h-the-tv-show/943583/46):
>
> If that bothered you, Harry Morgan appearing as a loon early on and then returning as a different character to command the whole thing must have really driven you nuts! It bothered me, and I barely watched the show (not because I didn’t like it, but because my academic parents weren’t much for TV and so we didn’t have one for most of my childhood).
I’ve forgotten the term, but there is a term for the kind of actors who are associated with a television program, but not with a particular role, so one week they may play a police informant, one week a detective, and the next week the murder victim, etc.
One of my favorite examples of the amusing nature of this kind of thing ties into the fact that script ideas were often recycled in the early days of TV, when a sitcom might have 39 episodes in a season: There was an episode of the Andy Griffith show in which a gang of bank robbers pretend to be tv producers wanting to make a program about Andy
[TV or Not TV | Mayberry Wiki | Fandom](https://mayberry.fandom.com/wiki/TV_or_Not_TV)
A few months later there was an episode in which real Hollywood producers want to make a program about Andy - and both episodes feature Gavin MacLeod as a producer or a fake producer.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2021, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supporting-cast-with-multiple-roles/943671/2 "2021-06-05T12:23:11Z")
I don’t think it was all that uncommon for actors to play multiple roles in the past, especially in long-running series. Each studio had casting directors who would know which actors were available for what, and they would offer them roles based on past experience. (Example: William Campbell was cast as Klingon Captain Koloth in _ **Star Trek** _’s second season on the strength of his performance as Trelayne, the Squire of Gothos—another “dastardly gentleman”—in the first.) As a rule, of course, the actors were happy to take any parts they were offered, and it was nice to be in demand.
Watching episodes of shows like _ **Mission: Impossible** _ and the original _ **Hawaii Five-O** _, it is remarkable how many actors turned up in different guest star roles in the same series at different times: Diana Muldaur, Loretta Swit, Mark Lenard, Nehemiah Persoff, Malachi Throne, Fritz Weaver, Milton Seltzer, Pernell Roberts, Logan Ramsey, to name a few. Some, like Swit, “got noticed” in this way and moved on to much bigger and better things.
When a series ran for five, six, seven, or more seasons, it was only natural for an actor to be called back many times. (How many actors got to play multiple roles on _ **Gunsmoke** _? That show ran for 20 years!)
How often does this happen today? I really can’t say because I don’t watch many scripted dramas anymore. The last one I followed regularly was _ **NCIS** _, and I haven’t seen an episode since Abby left.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2021, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supporting-cast-with-multiple-roles/943671/3 "2021-06-05T12:36:55Z")
It should also be remembered that the job of an actor is _to act_! They’re expected to be able to take on different roles as often as they change clothes. Some might get “type cast” because of their voice, physical appearance, theatrical training, comedic talents, and so on. But in general, being able and willing to play different roles is their bread and butter.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2021, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supporting-cast-with-multiple-roles/943671/4 "2021-06-05T13:34:19Z")
I think the practice of bringing back the same actor to play a different role was a lot less jarring 40 or 50 years ago than it seems to us now. Now we think of almost all TV shows as a serial narrative. Back then, each episode was considered as more of a complete performance/story. It was more like a stage production where an actor in a minor role might be promoted to a more significant one when another actor left. Nobody in the audience - even those who had seen the play before - would find that strange or disruptive to the story being told.
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### Author:  [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2021, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supporting-cast-with-multiple-roles/943671/5 "2021-06-05T14:07:36Z")
Burt Mustin made a career out of playing various versions of “the old man from Central Casting.”
> **[Burt Mustin - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0615993/)**
>
> Burt Mustin. Actor: The Lusty Men. Burt Mustin was a salesman most of his life, but got his first taste of show business as the host of a weekly radio variety show on KDKA Pittsburgh in 1921. He appeared onstage in "Detective Story" at Sombrero...
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2021, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supporting-cast-with-multiple-roles/943671/6 "2021-06-05T14:17:14Z")
> [@Bootb](#):
>
> Burt Mustin made a career out of playing various versions of “the old man from Central Casting.”
I was gonna say Jon Lormer.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2021, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supporting-cast-with-multiple-roles/943671/7 "2021-06-05T14:23:46Z")
_ **Hogan’s Heroes** _ is an especially interesting case. Actors like Harold Gould and Noam Pitlik could be a Nazi in one episode and a Resistance fighter in another. (And pretty much all of the actors who played Nazis were Jewish.)
_ **Twilight Zone** _ and _ **Alfred Hitchcock Presents** _ were also notorious for having many actors playing different roles at different times. Perhaps the effect was less jarring because those were anthologies
I’ve tried coming up with other actresses who were notable for playing multiple guest roles in different series. So far, I’ve been able to think of Antoinette Bower, Marj Dusay, Joanne Linville, Barbara Babcock, Ruta Lee, and Arlene Martel. How many others were there, I wonder?
Those were the days when you could regularly say “Oh, _that_ guy again!” when you were watching TV!
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### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2021, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supporting-cast-with-multiple-roles/943671/8 "2021-06-05T14:24:35Z")
As a kid, it blew my mind that Charles Gray and Burt Kwouk were in multiple James Bond movies. Did they expect me to not notice that Blofeld looks exactly like Dikko Henderson from MI6?
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### Author:  [@Jay\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Z)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2021, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supporting-cast-with-multiple-roles/943671/9 "2021-06-05T14:27:22Z")
For Law And Order, they were called “repeat offenders.” I don’t know if there is a generic term for all series that covers this sort of actor.
Dragnet was notorious for reusing the same supporting actors as fellow police officers or authority figures, with different names depending on the episode.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2021, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supporting-cast-with-multiple-roles/943671/10 "2021-06-05T14:27:40Z")
How about guys like Rick Nutter and Cec Linder? There was a different Felix Leitner in each Bond film!
Donald Pleasence was the best Blofeld ever.
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### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2021, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supporting-cast-with-multiple-roles/943671/11 "2021-06-05T14:32:12Z")
That’s the opposite case (one role, multiple actors). Not surprisingly, I figured out early that Sean Connery and Roger Moore could share one role.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2021, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supporting-cast-with-multiple-roles/943671/12 "2021-06-05T14:49:58Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#):
>
> I think the practice of bringing back the same actor to play a different role was a lot less jarring 40 or 50 years ago than it seems to us now. Now we think of almost all TV shows as a serial narrative. Back then, each episode was considered as more of a complete performance/story. It was more like a stage production where an actor in a minor role might be promoted to a more significant one when another actor left. Nobody in the audience - even those who had seen the play before - would find that strange or disruptive to the story being told.
This describes TV shows of the past well. Go to any of the old dramas and you’re likely to see one actor playing multiple roles. Sometimes those roles were in just one season, the actor might be contracted for the season or just get called back as a known quantity, other times they might appear through the series.
As an example look at the IMDb full cast page for [The Big Valley](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058791/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_cl_sm). Following the main characters are a number of actors with multiple parts like [Harlan Warde](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058791/characters/nm0911966?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t8) who played 10 different characters in 11 episodes: Arthur Kleeber, Drake, Finletter, Jack Carpenter, Judd Fletcher, Judge Farnum, Judge Lansbury, Mr. Bickers, Mr. Carberry, Peter Doolin, and Will Oakley.
Here’s one someone told me about, [Rob Reiner playing 3 roles on the sitcom Gomer Pyle: USMC.](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057752/characters/nm0001661?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t57)
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### Author:  [@Jay\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Z)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2021, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supporting-cast-with-multiple-roles/943671/13 "2021-06-05T14:56:12Z")
A notorious case was Barnaby Jones. The pilot episode was the trigger for the retired Barnaby to get back into the detective game after the death of his son, also a detective. The son is played by actor Robert Patten, who was not a particularly prominent actor. Meaning that he wasn’t going to be featured in the opening credits as one of the best stars, because he has smaller parts.
Patten has only one scene, his death scene, and it doesn’t feature Buddy Ebsen or Lee Meriweather. Patten is featured four other times in the series in unrelated roles. Guess nobody missed him that much!
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2021, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supporting-cast-with-multiple-roles/943671/14 "2021-06-05T15:00:35Z")
> [@Jay\_Z](#):
>
> For Law And Order, they were called “repeat offenders.”
Not only multiple roles, but L&O loves to give a guest role as a try out for future main cast members. No less a regular than Jerry Orbach showed up as a defense lawyer in his first appearance. Anna Parisse was a stripper, Courtney B Vance was a murderer (twice,I think), S. Epatha was a mother of murdered children.
IIRC, The Nero Wolfe mysteries used the same cast for every episode in different roles, like a theater repertory company.
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### Author:  [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2021, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supporting-cast-with-multiple-roles/943671/15 "2021-06-05T15:01:29Z")
> Neal first appeared on [_Law & Order: SVU_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_%26_Order:_Special_Victims_Unit) as a guest star, playing a rapist in the Season 3 episode “[Ridicule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Law_%26_Order:_Special_Victims_Unit_episodes#ep53)”. Neal first appeared as Assistant District Attorney [Casey Novak](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_Novak) in the show’s fifth season, replacing [Stephanie March](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie_March), who played [Alexandra Cabot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra_Cabot).
> **[Diane Neal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Neal)**
>
> Diane Neal (born November 17, 1976) is an American actress. She is best known for portraying New York Assistant District Attorney Casey Novak in the television series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit from 2003 to 2012. She is also known for portraying Coast Guard Investigative Service (CGIS) Special Agent Abigail Borin in the NCIS franchise.
> Neal was born in Alexandria, Virginia, the youngest of three daughters to Colleen Neal, a math teacher, and Christopher Neal, a federal attorney. She was r...
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### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2021, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supporting-cast-with-multiple-roles/943671/16 "2021-06-05T15:02:25Z")
Just the kind of guy I was thinking of. There were a number of programs where he showed up just to be the random old guy they needed that week.
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#):
>
> I think the practice of bringing back the same actor to play a different role was a lot less jarring 40 or 50 years ago than it seems to us now.
Certainly. And radio programs were the same way. Virginia Gregg played any number of older women on radio shows.
> [@Jay\_Z](#):
>
> For Law And Order, they were called “repeat offenders.” I don’t know if there is a generic term for all series that covers this sort of actor.
Yep. George Martin has been in three different episodes as different characters.
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### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2021, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supporting-cast-with-multiple-roles/943671/17 "2021-06-05T15:05:12Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#):
>
> IIRC, The Nero Wolfe mysteries used the same cast for every episode in different roles, like a theater repertory company.
Repertory company was the phrase I was thinking of. Thanks
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2021, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supporting-cast-with-multiple-roles/943671/18 "2021-06-05T15:12:41Z")
Jennifer Esposito has an interesting background. One of her earliest roles was on a 1996 episode of Law & Order, another part on the show 10 years later in 2006, and since last year she has been a regular cast member of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
We could find some interesting results by sorting through all the actors who have played in any of the shows in the shows in the Law & Order universe.
And then of course is the inversion of the premise where [Richard Belzer has played the same role on 10 or more different shows](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Belzer#Television), depending on how you count an appearance of the character.
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### Author:  [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2021, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supporting-cast-with-multiple-roles/943671/19 "2021-06-05T15:13:49Z")
Not a TV show, but a movie that took this notion and ran with it: Bedazzled. After each wish, the same circle of actors take different roles in the “new reality” segments.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xUnFbyqNr4)
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### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2021, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supporting-cast-with-multiple-roles/943671/20 "2021-06-05T15:26:12Z")
There was a Twilight Zone episode (“Shadow Play” [Shadow Play (The Twilight Zone, 1959) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Play_(The_Twilight_Zone,_1959)) ) that used a similar idea.
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