# 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:** 4\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2021, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supporting-cast-with-multiple-roles/943671/41 "2021-06-06T18:13:17Z")

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> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> 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)

Rob Reiner has said he got a lot of roles early on because he looked like a Hippie but came to work sober with his lines memorized. Unlike many who looked the part at the time.

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**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2021, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supporting-cast-with-multiple-roles/943671/42 "2021-06-06T18:21:55Z")

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A pleasant surprise for me. Sometimes I look up actors to see how old they were in particular roles, and find out that I’m older now than they were then - but Burt Mustin really was old, having been born in 1884.

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**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2021, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supporting-cast-with-multiple-roles/943671/43 "2021-06-06T20:01:24Z")

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_Babylon 5_ had its Alien Corps, a troupe of actors who could emote well in latex that would play Minbari #5 one week and a Drazi assassin the next. The ambassadors on the Advisory Council were a recurrant role for some.

JMS generally had at least (and generally) one role for them without the prosthetics.

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**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2021, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supporting-cast-with-multiple-roles/943671/44 "2021-06-06T20:18:21Z")

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Suzie Plakson did well playing aliens:

She played four characters on various [Star Trek](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek) series: a Vulcan, Doctor Selar, in “[The Schizoid Man](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Schizoid_Man_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation))” ( _[Star Trek: The Next Generation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)_ ); the half-Klingon–half-human Ambassador [K’Ehleyr](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%27Ehleyr) in “[The Emissary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emissary_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation))” ( _Star Trek: The Next Generation_ ) and “[Reunion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reunion_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation))” ( _Star Trek: The Next Generation_ ); the Lady Q in “[The Q and the Grey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Q_and_the_Grey)” ( _[Star Trek: Voyager](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Voyager)_ ); and an Andorian, Tarah, in “[Cease Fire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cease_Fire_(Star_Trek:_Enterprise))” ( _[Star Trek: Enterprise](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Enterprise)_ ).

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