Except the OP is looking for TV actors, not film.
Robin Williams has done a handful of TV shows. I’d be willing to bet at least one of his characters has been the opposite of Mork from Ork.
The OP also specifies continuing roles as opposed to one-shots.
The anarchist Williams played on Law & Order: How Many Ways Can We Exploit Child Molestation was quite distinct from Mork, but as he only appears once he’s not a continuing character. I don’t think Williams has appeared as a regular character on any TV other than his star-making turn on M&M.
Law & Order SVU’s 200th episode of the show featured an engineer, Merritt Rook (Robin Williams) who has been posing as a cop to make people do abnormal things all in the act of trying to convince people to oppose authority. He turns his trial into a media circus and the case gets more complicated when Rook abducts Benson. He tries to make Elliot inflict pain on her by way of a Milgram experiment, but he refuses.
It was a truly chilling performance.
Jason Alexander, best known as Seinfeld’s long suffering George, gave a chilling performance as a serial killer who turns himself in on an episode of Criminal Minds.
James Pickens Jr - he went from being a thorn in the sides of Mulder and Scully at the FBI and all around nefarious guy to being a fairly decent (but not without issues) chief of surgery, who ultimately isn’t the one to eventually snap and shoot any of the whiny self-absorbed doctors working under him at Seattle Grace.
Dick Martin (The Lucy Show) and Dabney Coleman (That Girl) both played solid, sensible best friends/sidekicks before going on to their better known personnas.
And check out the supporting castfrom Mary tyler Moore’s short-lived variety series: Dick Shawn, James Hampton, Michael Keaton and David Letterman, among others!
Add Jake Cutter from Tales of the Gold Monkey, and maybe we have 120 degrees each (I haven’t heard of No Ordinary Family, though).
No mention of John Ritter? From Rev. Matthew Fordwick on The Walton’s to Jack Tripper on Three’s Company is quite a 180 degree turnaround.
Oooh! Oooh! Don’t forget he was also Dennis and Dee’s real father on “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia”.
Kinda like Rev. Camden, except this guy actually spends time helping people.
-Joe
That reminds me, and I hope I’m not wrong here having only seen him so far in one episode of the former, but how’s about John Lithgow as a serial kiddy killer in Dexter vs the high commander in 3rd Rock?
Alexander is a hardcore Trekker, and played an amoral supergenius in an episode of Star Trek Voyager.
Ok then – I had looked on the ImDB and didn’t see a credit for him; perhaps all of his scenes were deleted?
This is the clip on youtube (NSFW; graphic violence)
Never seen any Harry Potter films, but I do like Brendan Gleeson quite a lot.
Wow, that was awesome - thanks! Yes, it looks like it was deleted so he didn’t get the credit for it, but that’s certainly NOT the Doctor.
I cnnsider Lithgow to be one of the most underrated actors today. Not only has he played all types of roles (including transsexual Roberta Maldon in Garp) but he makes it all look so damn easy.
He also dances (he once got a whole Irish dancing line going on 3rd Rock), has a fine Irish tenor singing voice, and is a published author of children’s books.
Quite a talented fellow.
Yeah I remember him, he kept wanting to dunk Mr Walton in the river because he was the only Walton who did not attend services on Sunday.
From what I’ve seen of him; Williams has played the same character in everything he’s done.
The father that Kurtwood Smith played on House was 180 degrees from the father he portrayed on That 70’s Show.
Ben Browder played a slightly crazy, unpredictable astronaut in Farscape, opposite Claudia Black, who played a disciplined, military type.
When that was cancelled, they both joined Stargate, where they more or less swapped characters.
I thought of another one. David Morse spent six years playing an earnest, young doctor in St. Elsewhere. Compare that to the cyncial, bitter detective who chased down House’s drug abuse.
Gavin MacLeod: from snide, milquetoast newswriter Murray Slaughter on Mary Tyler Moore to strong, upstanding captain of the ship on The Love Boat. Sometimes it amazed me that it was the same actor…a credit to his talent, I suppose.