Also, Christopher Meloni, who caused a lot of physical grief for ol’ Vern as a gay sociopath inmate with a murder rap in Oz, to playing a good guy cop on one of the L&O franchise shows. (I think it’s SVU, also.)
A pre-Glee Jane Lynch played Charlie Harper’s therapist on 2 1/2 Men, and Spencer Reid’s psychotic mother on Criminal Minds.
Not on TV, but David Morse played good cop Brutus “Brutal” Howell in the movie The Green Mile, then bad cop Michael Tritter on House.
Neil Patrick Harris as Doogie Howser and then later Barney Stinson
I was going to say that, but it was too long to explain that he played several levels of “George,” including idiot Prince George.
Ted Levine played serial killer Buffalo Bill on Silence of the Lambs and then played Capt. Leland Stottlemeyer on Monk.
StG
Speaking of Hugh Laurie, how about Stephen Fry? From comedy to Jeeves to Dr Gordan Wyatt on Bones.
Rowan Atkinson played the hyper-verbal Blackadder (at least in seasons 2 through 4) and the non-speaking Mr. Bean.
This might be breaking the one-shot rule, but Walter Koenig played the naive/idealistic Checkov and the recurring character Bester on Babylon 5, who was a cynical bureaucrat in a nasty government agency (that bordered on a police state).
Mark Harmon, known for playing good guys Robert Caldwell on St. Elsewhere and Leroy Jethro Gibbs on NCIS, also played Ted Bundy in the TV movie The Deliberate Stranger.
Nancy Marchand played both the aristocratic newspaper owner Margaret Pynchon on Lou Grant, and the coldblooded Mafia mom Livia Soprano on The Sopranos. Two extraordinarily different roles.
He also played Eric Baker, the Governor of Pennsylvania, in a recurring role on The West Wing, and did a good job in the role. It was strongly implied in the series finale that he would become Vice President under President Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits).
He also played a good but very unlucky doctor on St. Elsewhere, and George Washington in the HBO miniseries John Adams.
Wow. I never made the connection until now. Thanks!
It might be argued that his affluent, generous, cynical-but-ultimately-wise dad on *Modern Family *is a polar opposite to his *Married With Children *work.
She’s also the kick-ass heroine Leela from Futurama, so that’s three roles 120 degrees from one another…
I love lifetime movies. Where else can you see stuff like this? Or Kevin Arnold beating on DJ Tanner?
Alan Rachins played humorless conservative laywer Douglas Brachman on LA Law, and hippie burnout Larry Finklestein on Dharma and Greg.
Garret Dillahunt as the disheveled, mentally feeble Jack McCall *and *the intelligent, sociopathic Francis Wolcott on Deadwood.
Johnny Galeki was the cool boyfriend David on Roseanne.
Now he’s the nerdy Leonard on The Big Bang Theory.
Maiyim Bialak was Blossom.
Now she’s Sheldon’s not-girlfriend on The Big Bang Theory.
Sarah Jessica Parker - Square Pegs to Sex in The City.
Steve on Blue Clues played a criminal on Law And Order.
One more;
David Boreanaz as Angel to Bones where he plays a pretty religious FBI agent.
Timothy Omundsun played the effete, clueless Brom Garrett on “Deadwood” and then the bearded town mayor/warlord/asskicker Phil Constantino on “Jericho”
In between I think he played the smarmy yet intelligent Lt. Lassiter on “psych” which did sort of bridge the gap.
David was cool? No he wasn’t. He was a huge dork. Leonard is smarter than David, and science oriented rather than artsy, but they’re pretty close to the same character.
More infamously, he played a man who killed his child and the committed suicide in Homicide. It raised some uproar.