James Garner is the only Rockford. There was talk of a remake but it was shelved…I like to believe one reason is that they realized no one could fill his shoes.
No Joker who came along later could hold a candle to Cesar Romero. The same is true for Frank Gorshin as the Riddler, Burgess Meredith as the Penguin, and Julie Newmar as the Catwoman. Like Star Trek, the standard for Batman was set in 1966.
In 1963’s Cleopatra, Carroll O’Connor had a brief role as a Roman senator. A few years later, audiences were going “Hey, that’s Archie Bunker!”
Everybody knows “the old woman who spoke Jive” (as my daughter calls her) in 1980’s Airplane! is really Beaver Cleaver’s mom. When I first saw the movie 40 years ago, she got one of the biggest laughs from everybody old enough to remember June Cleaver.
Tarzan: Johnny Weissmuller.
Hell yeah!
BTW, “Hopkins said. ‘It was my idea to give him dark, slicked-back hair.’”
Michael Caine IS Charlie Croker from the Italian Job. Markey-Mark’s later take on the role is an aberration.
THAT’S what everyone thought, and why Jack Nicholson was such a shocker, to be able to excel with his own take on the Clown Prince of Crime. And then Heath Ledger did it again!
Heck, we could have a “Juicy Roles That Many Have Thrived In” discussion…
I typed “Columbo”, and it autocorrected to “Peter Falk”.
Not only is that thinking backward, but it’s absolutely wrong. Both of those actors would give those characters a run!
I agree. That’s the reverse case from that described in the OP. Three different actors with three different takes on the character, but each of them are iconic in their own way.
Even after many decades, I don’t think any actor is more identified with a role as Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s monster, Bela Lugosi as Dracula, or Charles Laughton as the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Basil Rathbone remains the definitive Sherlock Holmes.
Other actors may be very good and have their own takes on certain characters, but there’s always one against whom they are all measured.
Like Raymond Burr as Perry Mason or Jack Lord as Steve McGarrett. Or Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum.
I’m with Colibri on the Joker, and I’d add Mark Hamill, as mentioned upthread. I associate each of those four about equally with the role. Similarly for Batman, I immediately think of Kevin Conroy’s voicework, but I also associate the role with Adam West, Michael Keaton, Christian Bale, and yes, even Ben Affleck.
I think Robert Downey, Jr. was fantastic, but, honestly, I’m not sure he was fantastic as Tony Stark as much as he was a movie star with fantastic screen presence and timing who happened to be called Tony Stark. I think Adrian Pasdar’s voicework as Iron Man was good, and I could easily see him playing the role in live action (or could have, if he were the same age as RDJ when he first took the role). I don’t think he would have the star power of RDJ, but I think he might actually have been a better Tony Stark.
I think Basil Rathbone is, and always will be, the most definitive Shelock Holmes, but I also associate the role with Jeremy Brett and Benedict Cumberbatch.
There are plenty of roles, like Adrian Monk, that I think are and could only be a specific actor, but they’re all roles specifically created for or by that actor.
I’m really having a hard time thinking of an iconic role that could be and has been played by a number of actors, such as a comic book or literary character, that I think of as linked to a specific portrayal by a specific actor.
I think that those three, plus Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America, were perfectly cast, and it’d be very difficult to imagine anyone else playing those characters now.
Frank Gorshin as the Riddler. Jim Carrey had a great performance in Batman Forever, but Gorshin is the one I’ll always associate with the role.
No one but Peter Sellars could play Inspector Clouseau convincingly, although that may fall into the class of the actor who created the role.
George Burns will always be the default personification of God.
No, Ralph Richardson in Time Bandits.
We’ll just have to agree to disagree, but that’s fine too.
Alec Guiness as George Smiley. There have been four others on TV / film, plus voice actors. Gary Oldman’s version was perfectly cromulent, but it just wasn’t ‘our lovely George’ (as his two-timing skank wife called him).
Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins, although Michael Rooker gave it a hell of a try.
I agree