Same Actor/ Different Character(in name only)

[Dick Whitman]

Same actor, Different character only in name. Where an actor is basically playing a very similar role to one they have played in another film.

Arnold Schwarzenegger playing "Kalidor" in the movie Red Sonja. A very thinly veiled Conan.

 

[Canadave]

Bruce Willis. Just in general. I challenge anyone here to come up with a longer list of movies where he doesn't play a bitter\jaded cop than one where he does.

That is to say, off the top of your head. I'm sure it could be done with IMDB.

 

[Myasishchev]

A prototypical example is Robert "Tom/Nick Paris/Locarno" McNeill, of course.

And Tom Cruise plays Tom Cruise pretty well (although usually this is to the movie's benefit).

 

[Aragorn]

Some people think the last time Sean Connery played "James Bond" was in The Rock.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Off the top of my sleepy head: Buster Crabbe played both Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, and Johnny Weissmuller played both Tarzan and Jungle Jim (not too similar, but both jungle adventure characters).

 

[Mr. Sin]

Like I mentioned in the other thread,a lot of direct-to-video/audio stories featuring Who actors were Doctor Who in all but name. Colin Baker's "The Stranger" "The Professor and Ace" "The Mistress and K-9" etc.


Jeff Goldblum always seems to be typecast as the eccentric scientist who nobody believes until it's too late.

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

James Sloyan plays every role exactly the same way. Especially his Trek appearances, but also on the X-Files.

 

[Greg Cox]

This is going to be a tricky category. To my mind, there's a difference between typecasting (so-and-so always plays smarmy villains) and actually having the actor play a thinly-disguised version of his previous character. RED SONJA and THE ROCK are good examples of the latter.

Another example: Bela Lugosi as "Armand Tesla" in RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE and "Count Morla" in MARK OF THE VAMPIRE. He's basically playing Dracula again, in pretty much the same costume, but for different film companies.

 

[Hermiod]

Well, you can call this typecasting if you want, but Jennifer Aniston has pretty much played Rachel in everything she's been in since Friends ended.

 

[Dick Whitman]

This is going to be a tricky category. To my mind, there's a difference between typecasting (so-and-so always plays smarmy villains) and actually having the actor play a thinly-disguised version of his previous character. RED SONJA and THE ROCK are good examples of the latter.

Another example: Bela Lugosi as "Armand Tesla" in RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE and "Count Morla" in MARK OF THE VAMPIRE. He's basically playing Dracula again, in pretty much the same costume, but for different film companies.

Agreed Greg. I was going to post something similar at the start. This is going to be highly subjective category. Ideally I am thinking more than just typed cast actors. Well that can be fun for debate.

Funny enough when I was working yesterday I was thinking about this and Connery in THE ROCK and Lugosi in those two films where the first examples I thought of!!!

 

[Starbreaker]

Nicholas Cage plays the same whacked out character in every other movie.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

Will Ferrel in every lead role.

 

[Lonemagpie]

James Marsters as Spike in Buffy and as Captain John in the first episode of Torchwood season 2 (he returns as Captain John in the last episode of the season as well, but isn't so blatantly playing Spike in that one) - something I'm pretty sure is deliberate on the part of the director as well as the actor...

 

[Greg Cox]

Again, I think we're mostly talking typecasting here, not actual instances of the actors playing the same character under a different name. I don't think every cop played by Clint Eastwood is really the same guy . . . .

On other hand, most of the classic movie comics did just play the same character in different situations. The Marx Brothers, Abbot & Costello, Martin & Lewis, etc. Almost makes you wonder why the screenwriters bothered to name their characters "Chip" or "Don Lewis" or whatever. Aside from some of Groucho's more colorful aliases (Cap'n Spaulding, Rufus T. Firefly, etc), there was really no point. Does anybody actually remember the names of the characters played by Harpo or Chico? Harpo was always Harpo: with the same costume, make-up, and schticks.

Ditto for Abbott and Costello. Even the titles of the films referred to the actors, not the characters they were supposedly playing. "Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein," "Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd," etc. They played the same characters in every movie, just in different locations and eras.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

In the movie Mirrors, Kiefer Sutherland plays a character very reminiscent of his role as Jack Bauer on 24.

 

[Christopher]

Aside from some of Groucho's more colorful aliases (Cap'n Spaulding, Rufus T. Firefly, etc), there was really no point. Does anybody actually remember the names of the characters played by Harpo or Chico? Harpo was always Harpo: with the same costume, make-up, and schticks.

In one of the later movies, Harpo's character was called "Wacky." They weren't even trying by that point.

I think the only movie where all four Marx Brothers used their own stage names as their character names was Horsefeathers (the one on the cruise ship).

 

[Dick Whitman]

Again, I think we're mostly talking typecasting here, not actual instances of the actors playing the same character under a different name. I don't think every cop played by Clint Eastwood is really the same guy . . . .

True but I think it could argued that many of his Western roles are. Not the "Same Guy" in the literal continuity sense but same persona. In his 3 films with Sergio Leone in particular. It was partially because he is referred to by a different name in each film that he became known as "The Man with No Name".

Eastwood deliberately used this persona again n many of his other Westerns. In particular UNFORGIVEN. He has said that part of the weight of the film comes from the fact that William Money could have been an older version of his other western roles.

Side note on that - Eastwood wore the same boots in all these films going back to his tv series RAWHIDE.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Aside from some of Groucho's more colorful aliases (Cap'n Spaulding, Rufus T. Firefly, etc), there was really no point. Does anybody actually remember the names of the characters played by Harpo or Chico? Harpo was always Harpo: with the same costume, make-up, and schticks.

In one of the later movies, Harpo's character was called "Wacky." They weren't even trying by that point.

I think the only movie where all four Marx Brothers used their own stage names as their character names was Horsefeathers (the one on the cruise ship).

I think this was similar to how Disney and Looney Tunes characters were used in animated shorts. Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny would often take on certain roles with different jobs suited to the plot of each short. But really they were playing "themselves". The personality of the character was constant.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I just thought of the irony of someone with the username "Don Draper" starting this thread.

Dick Whitman/Donald Draper

Fans of MAD MEN will understand.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Connery's character in The Rock is so obviously a riff on James Bond.

Tommy Lee Jones' probation officer hunting down Ashley Judd in Double Jeopardy could easily have been Sam Gerard from The Fugitive/ US Marshals

Bill Nighy's washed up rockers in Still Crazy and Love, Actually are well-nigh(y) indistinguishable

Bruce Willis' character in The Last Boy Scout was described by the makers as his Die Hard character John McClane but a bit more beat up and run-down, as if he'd lost his wife and hit the bottle. Ironically, when the next DH movie came out, McClane had lost his wife and hit the bottle!

Joe Pesci's psychotic gangsters in Goodfellas and Casino could well have been the same guy (funnily enough, each was supposed to be a real person)

Jerry Maguire was viewed by many critics as Tom Cruise's character from Risky Business all grown up

Marlon Brando's gangster character in The Freshman was more than just a nod to his Don Corleone from The Godfather

When there were copyright issues to the old B&W version of The Saint with George Sanders, the makers simply changed the title of the movies to The Falcon and continued on more or less identically.

Anyone else think that Jack from Speed could have been re-tooled as Johnny Utah and the movie called Point Break 2? (then again why would you want to make it a sequel?) Coincidentally, Sandra Bullock from Speed got famous when Lori Petty, the female lead from Point Break, got fired from Demolition Man

Clint Eastwood has never been the most diverse of actors, but many felt that The Gauntlet, The Rookie and even Grand Torino could have as easily been Dirty Harry movies.