What actor, in your eyes -no matter how many subsequent roles they are in- will always represent a previous character they played?
I don’t watch CSI, but I see the commercials all the time which feature Anthony LaPaglia evidently in the lead role. He makes an occasional appearance in other movies I’ve seen but to me he will always be Simon Moon, Daphne’s dippy over-the-top brother from Frasier.
Also from TV, Dan Hedaya has had a long and varied career but for me he has always been and forever will be Nick Tortelli of Cheers.
Incidentally this isn’t meant to be [another] What Role Will Such-and-Such Actor Always Be Remembered For? as in Louise Fletcher / Nurse Ratched - Anthony Perkins / Norman Bates and many, many more. I was thinking along the lines of what particular actor holds this odd sway over you?
Louise Fletcher. She is a wonderful actress but I can never get over the Nurse Ratched thing. I know she has done wonderful things since then, and won many awards, but I can’t help but see her ass that evil nurse. Sorry.
David Duchovny will always be Fox Mulder. Ted Levine will always be Jame “Buffalo Bill” Gumb. That made Evolution a weird movie. I tried to watch Monk once, but found myself expecting Captain Stottlemeyer to say “Was she a big fat person?”.
Jerry Seinfeld will always be Jerry Seinfeld, the character from Seinfeld.
Mork will always be Mork. He sometimes dresses as a teacher, a doctor, a robot, a psychologist or what have you, but he is always Mork, trying to jerk a tear out of you during a comedy.
And when Ripley dressed as Queen Isabel of Spain in “1492”, I feared for the life of poor Cyrano who now wanted to discover America.
ETA: Oh, and no matter how pointy his ears get, Agent Smith is always Agent Smith.
Heh. I was recently forced to watch Six Days, Seven Nights (or something like that) and my wife got mad at me because I said to the actress on the TV “You fool, you are climbing on a plane piloted by Indiana Jones and Han Solo, what do you think is going to happen?”
Demi Moore will always be the reporter she played on General Hospital (Barbara something). And she still can’t act.
Tom Cruise will always be the hotshot new guy-- I cannot imagine him as the wise old sage.
Cary Elwes will always be Westley. Always.
Ron Livingston will always be Peter from Office Space.
…and happy birthday to Roy Scheider, who to me will always be the captain from SeaQuest DSV. (The French Connection, Jaws, Blue Thunder, and All That Jazz notwithstanding.)
For me, Adam Baldwin will always be Jayne Cobb from Firefly/Serenity. NO matter what I see him in, I blurt, “It’s the man called JAYNE!”
Zachary Quinto will unfortunately always be Sylar from Heroes. I know he is playing young Spock in the next Star Trek movie, but I can only see him as the man who loves braiiiins.
Colm Meaney, an excellent actor, will always be Chief Miles O’Brien from Star Trek. Gary Sinise, to me, is always Lieutenant Dan. And Mandy Patinkin, the only actor who could get away with calling James Caan “Shithead,” will always be George “Sam” Francisco
I love Mandy Patinkin dearly, but when he was tracking down serial killers on Criminal Minds, he was still Inigo Montoya to me. I kept thinking that eventually he would corner some murderous psycho, introduce himself, and say “You killed my father. Prepare to die.”