typecasted actors

powderfinger · #1 07-01-2011, 09:16 AM

After watching SGU, I came to the concusion that there are some actors that after playing a landmark role, really can't pull of anything else without just reminding everyone of the said landmark role.

Ex: Lou Diamond Phillips as Col. Telford on SGU. No matter how hard he tried, or how convincing his acting was... he wasn't Col. Telford. He was Ritchie Valens on a space ship trying to act like a hard core military guy.

Same as anything Mark Hamill has played in. He is Luke Skywalker always.

Any other actors you can think of that firmly attached to a landmark role like the examples above? Actors you can't see as anyone but their landmark role.

TJ55 · #2 07-01-2011, 09:19 AM

Main Seinfeld cast.

I love watching reruns and picking out the old side characters and what they've done since though.

powderfinger · #3 07-01-2011, 09:22 AM

I might be alone with this one.... but no matter how many great films he makes, and no matter how great an actor he is... Sean Penn will always be Spicoli to me. I see Jeff Spicoli everytime I see a Penn movie. Weird, but oh well.

Funky Ghost · #4 07-01-2011, 09:22 AM

Sean Connery, Nicholas Cage and Keanu Reeves play the same character in every film ... does that count?

I keed ... kinda.

For me, Lou Diamond will always be that kid trying ( and succeeding ) to pass the AP exam.

Kevin Bacon -- Footloose. I expected his character in JFK to start cuttin' a rug while Costner interviewed him.

Funky Ghost · #5 07-01-2011, 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by powderfinger

I might be alone with this one.... but no matter how many great films he makes, and no matter how great an actor he is... Sean Penn will always be Spicoli to me. I see Jeff Spicoli everytime I see a Penn movie. Weird, but oh well.

haha see I remember him best from Bad Boys. Pretty rough show. I HATED his portrayal of Django ... he didn't even try to look like he knew how to play .. the movie made me angry every time he had a guitar in his hands.

powderfinger · #6 07-01-2011, 09:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Funky Ghost

Sean Connery, Nicholas Cage and Keanu Reeves play the same character in every film ... does that count?
.

Eh,. sorta... you could say Ben Stiller too. Gaylord Focker is really not much different than his characters in The Heartbreak Kid, Along Came Polly, and others. Jack Nicholson as well.

powderfinger · #7 07-01-2011, 09:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Funky Ghost

haha see I remember him best from Bad Boys. Pretty rough show. I HATED his portrayal of Django ... he didn't even try to look like he knew how to play .. they movie made me angry every time he had a guitar in his hands.

I cant believe someone else has seen Bad Boys. I used to love that movie as a kid. No one else I ever bring it up to has heard of it or seen it.

Fave scene.

"Hey... ugly..."

*Penn turns around and smacks dude with a pillowcase full of soda cans...

**Eric Perry** · #8 07-01-2011, 09:34 AM

Jim from Taxi. Lone Starr from Spaceballs. The Seinfeld cast.

Funky Ghost · #9 07-01-2011, 09:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by powderfinger

I cant believe someone else has seen Bad Boys. I used to love that movie as a kid. No one else I ever bring it up to has heard of it or seen it.

Fave scene.

"Hey... ugly..."

*Penn turns around and smacks dude with a pillowcase full of soda cans...

My fav scene too ! Great movie.

thumpbass1 · #10 07-01-2011, 09:38 AM

I'll be accused of heresy and blasphemy, even though I loved a lot of his movies growing up, but the late and great John Wayne I must nominate for being the king of type casting.

iamlowsound · #11 07-01-2011, 09:59 AM

I am surprised that no one has mentioned William Shatner yet.

lowsound

powderfinger · #12 07-01-2011, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iamlowsound

I am surprised that no one has mentioned William Shatner yet.

lowsound

You know, oddly enough, I can actually get past Shatner as Capt Kirk. You would think he would be firmly typecast in that role, but not to me. I guess its because Trek was so long ago when he was young and handsome then. Yet in Boston Legal he's kinda old and fat and looks nothing like young Shat.

I will say that Patrick Stewart however is always going to be Jean Luc Picard. He never ages. Stewart has looked like a fit 60 year old man for the past 30 years. Leonard Nimoy too... he will always, ALWAYS be Spock.

P. Aaron · #13 07-01-2011, 10:20 AM

Heck, what about Leonard Nimoy?

elgecko · #14 07-01-2011, 10:21 AM

Adam Beach may be the most typecast actor in Hollywood. Him or Tommy Lee Jones.

Pupiit · #15 07-01-2011, 10:22 AM

Paul Reubens.

GregC · #16 07-01-2011, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by powderfinger

I might be alone with this one.... but no matter how many great films he makes, and no matter how great an actor he is... Sean Penn will always be Spicoli to me. I see Jeff Spicoli everytime I see a Penn movie. Weird, but oh well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by powderfinger

You know, oddly enough, I can actually get past Shatner as Capt Kirk. You would think he would be firmly typecast in that role, but not to me. I guess its because Trek was so long ago when he was young and handsome then. Yet in Boston Legal he's kinda old and fat and looks nothing like young Shat.

Looking at these two posts together--really? Really?

powderfinger · #17 07-01-2011, 10:23 AM

James Earl Jones.... ANYTIME I hear that voice, all I hear is Darth Vader..

powderfinger · #18 07-01-2011, 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GregC

Looking at these two posts together--really? Really?

I only say that bc Sean Penn still kinda *looks* like Spicoli... just an older version I guess. To me, the young Shatner and the old Shatner look hardly anything alike.

TJ55 · #19 07-01-2011, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by powderfinger

James Earl Jones.... ANYTIME I hear that voice, all I hear is Darth Vader..

I always hear Terrence Mann from "Field of Dreams". People will come Ray. People will most definitly come.

fhm555 · #20 07-01-2011, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by powderfinger

I cant believe someone else has seen Bad Boys...

Me likie long time...Penn also did major justice to Brad Whitewood Jr. Another underrated Penn film IMO is The Indian Runner. Granted, he's directing and not acting, but it's a pretty powerful piece.

To be honest, with few exceptions, it's hard for me to see most any actor or actress who does not look like themselves pretending to be someone else.

Major exception is Bobby D, he's ALWAYS the character he's playing.

Occasional flashes of acting genius where the actor IS the character...

Will Smith as Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali

Charlize Theron as Aileen Wuornos

Jamie Fox as Ray Charles

Brad Pitt as Early Grace

Ed Norton as Derek Vinyard

Honorable mention to Eugene Levy in A Mighty Wind. The first time we see Mitch Cohen when he's getting off the bus, he looks so much like Jerry Garcia it's unnerving.