# What fictional, non-religious character has been portrayed by the most actors?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-non-religious-character-has-been-portrayed-by-the-most-actors/682138
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [February 24, 2014, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-non-religious-character-has-been-portrayed-by-the-most-actors/682138 "2014-02-24T19:24:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2014, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-non-religious-character-has-been-portrayed-by-the-most-actors/682138/1 "2014-02-24T19:24:52Z")
I’ve seen the “character portrayed by the most actors” question here before a few times, and it usually comes down to Lincoln or Jesus. So let’s throw them out, along with Moses, Washington, and the whole Lot. What fictional character, not from religion, has had the most actors portraying him or her? I will leave the question of whether a character from myth like Zeus counts as religious up for discussion.
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### Author:  [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2014, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-non-religious-character-has-been-portrayed-by-the-most-actors/682138/2 "2014-02-24T19:27:29Z")
Sherlock Holmes.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2014, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-non-religious-character-has-been-portrayed-by-the-most-actors/682138/3 "2014-02-24T19:30:12Z")
Ebeneezer Scrooge.
Hamlet is also up there, especially if you count stage actors.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2014, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-non-religious-character-has-been-portrayed-by-the-most-actors/682138/4 "2014-02-24T19:33:50Z")
**bup** beat me to Sherlock Holmes, so put me down for **Tarzan**. There have been a LOT of Tarzans
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### Author:  [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2014, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-non-religious-character-has-been-portrayed-by-the-most-actors/682138/5 "2014-02-24T19:36:24Z")
I would go with Dracula.
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2014, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-non-religious-character-has-been-portrayed-by-the-most-actors/682138/6 "2014-02-24T19:36:52Z")
From [this IMDB page](http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0026631/?ref_=fn_ch_ch_1) listing all portrayals of Sherlock Holmes, I used some tools to extract 169 unique actors.
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2014, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-non-religious-character-has-been-portrayed-by-the-most-actors/682138/7 "2014-02-24T19:44:47Z")
More research:
[Dracula](http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0002561/?ref_=fn_ch_ch_1) 337 (may be higher if they didn’t get all the variations of the name on this page)
[Tarzan](http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0007728/?ref_=fn_ch_ch_1) 75
[Scrooge](http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0000500/?ref_=fn_ch_ch_2) 143
[Hamlet](http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0009777/?ref_=fn_ch_ch_1) 223
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### Author:  [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2014, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-non-religious-character-has-been-portrayed-by-the-most-actors/682138/8 "2014-02-24T19:54:21Z")
If we count stage plays then Romeo & Juliet have got to be up there. Along with MacBeth.
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2014, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-non-religious-character-has-been-portrayed-by-the-most-actors/682138/9 "2014-02-24T20:04:08Z")
How about Santa Claus? Particularly if you include all of the times that a character on a show wore a Santa suit. It’s not something that you can easily quantify, though, unlike the actors appearing as Sherlock Holmes.
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### Author:  [@Elemenopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elemenopy)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2014, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-non-religious-character-has-been-portrayed-by-the-most-actors/682138/10 "2014-02-24T20:06:40Z")
James Bond? I’m sure I wouldn’t find them all, but IMDB lists 256 spoof appearances (a few actors might overlap) and there were 11 [real ones](http://www.007james.com/articles/who_played_james_bond.php?gclid=CLLLw6DH5bwCFY8-MgodrnAAvA).
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### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2014, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-non-religious-character-has-been-portrayed-by-the-most-actors/682138/11 "2014-02-24T20:07:48Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#):
>
> How about Santa Claus? Particularly if you include all of the times that a character on a show wore a Santa suit…
I gotto go with this, if you include all the retail store Santas.
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### Author:  [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2014, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-non-religious-character-has-been-portrayed-by-the-most-actors/682138/12 "2014-02-24T20:55:40Z")
Santa is fictional?
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### Author:  [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2014, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-non-religious-character-has-been-portrayed-by-the-most-actors/682138/13 "2014-02-24T21:09:41Z")
Santa is non-religious?
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2014, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-non-religious-character-has-been-portrayed-by-the-most-actors/682138/14 "2014-02-24T22:29:04Z")
Santa is a character?
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### Author:  [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2014, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-non-religious-character-has-been-portrayed-by-the-most-actors/682138/15 "2014-02-24T22:58:03Z")
Dracula makes sense. Aside from a million versions of the original story, he gets used as a one-off villain or spoof a lot. Much more so then Holmes or Scrooge, I’d say.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2014, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-fictional-non-religious-character-has-been-portrayed-by-the-most-actors/682138/16 "2014-02-25T02:06:13Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#):
>
> More research:
> [Dracula](http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0002561/?ref_=fn_ch_ch_1) 337 (may be higher if they didn’t get all the variations of the name on this page)
>
> [Tarzan](http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0007728/?ref_=fn_ch_ch_1) 75
>
> [Scrooge](http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0000500/?ref_=fn_ch_ch_2) 143
>
> [Hamlet](http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0009777/?ref_=fn_ch_ch_1) 223
Robin Hood got 153 hits.