Actors who pretty much always play the same character but it doesn't matter because they're really good at that one character

Inspired by Zach Woods of In the Loop/The Office/Silicon Valley.

Gabby Hoffmann (as an adult)

Both are really beautiful.

I would think this thread will focus on older actors.

Robert Downey Jr

Rodney Dangerfield

Fred Willard

Jackie Chan and a host of martial arts actors?

Michael Cera seems like a pretty obvious choice here

has he been good in anything other than Arrested Development?

he's funny in This is the End

He's as good in Superbad and Scott Pilgrim as he is in AD, surely.

he has a very particular set of skills...

He's completely different in Magic Magic.

https://38.media.tumblr.com/afc9e2371c6fb6e131c87f56baaa27bc/tumblr_mij9tqHVIi1qldrydo1_500.gif

I thought his role in This Is The End was weirdly overrated. Superbad is good though yeah

he's gotten increasingly creepy as he's gotten older. Which I guess works for him in Magic Magic

he was a different character in Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus

I thought of saying Nicholson but I don't think that's really true if you take his whole career into account. He has tics he relies on (as all actors do) but Jake Gittes /= Jack Torranace in any meaningful way

Is there a name for a supercut of the same actor bouncing from role to role? I always wondered what it would be like to find a good example of an actor who plays the same character and create a huge megamovie where he is simultaneously living all these different lives.

haha, good god wtf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIponUMI63w

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/2417282407/ezj8bbuigp41fgsr5nfx.jpeg

Harrison ford, though I guess Smirking and Not Smirking could count as different characters

Ford's two poles could also be described as "MY WIFE!" and "lol like I'd have a wife"

Naeem Uzimann C/D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMS4rqqiN20

John Wayne
Eve Arden
Catherine Deneuve
James Stewart
George Segal
Barbra Streisand

Wouldn't almost any oldtime movie star or character actor qualify? Cary Grant, Thomas Mitchell...

Cagney?

Nah

http://i.imgur.com/tlNOKtG.gif

http://i.imgur.com/l3U30vB.gif

I was gonna say

Though he is a little like Joe Pesci - whether he's a wiseguy, a lawyer or Danny Glover's fishing buddy, you always know it's Joe Pesci.

I was gonna say: no one in the thread had mentioned an Old Hollywood actor or actress. It answers the original post.

"Let me ask you a hypothermical question"

http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/23400000/Larry-Fine-three-stooges-23436866-393-500.jpg

Poor Larry suffers so for his art.

Mickey Rourke

Ford's two poles could also be described as "MY WIFE!" and "lol like I'd have a wife"

― da croupier, Friday, May 8, 2015 2:20 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I've always thought that Harrison Ford stopped making any effort when he didn't get an Oscar for Witness and didn't even get a nomination for Mosquito Coast.

Mickey Rourke

this reminded me of Joe Queenan's 'Mickey Rourke For a Day' thing and made me wonder if the same kind of project would work for the other actors mentioned here, perhaps that could be the acid test?

i saw a lil bit of hollywood homicide last night and I gotta admit Harrison Ford didn't seem quite Indiana Working Solo or President Jack Fugitive. Didn't seem much of anything really.

apparently i can buy hollywood homicide in a 2-fer bluray pack with Hudson Hawk, which is a steal for people who love notoriously unsuccessful movies with the initials H.H.

I think there's a difference between actors who always play the same character and actors who don't really act and are just playing themselves in every role

Hulk hogan

Christopher Eccleston

... hold on, what am I saying, the thread title says 'they're really good at that one character'

i was going to revive this with zach woods but it turned out that's who inspired the thread in the first place

zach woods and danny mcbride should team up for a movie where woods plays the loudmouth dummy and mcbride plays the uptight nerd

Hugh Grant

He's really good at it, is he?

At being Hugh Grant-y? I would expect so.

De Niro obv

http://www.gostacykeach.com

stacy keach's website personal website has a bit of a retro aesthetic

Isabelle Huppert.

lance reddick

also shoutout to the previously mentioned danny mcbride who is about to play pretty much the same exact character he always plays in his third HBO series

Have you seen Corporate? Reddick is completely wacky in it.

i love corporate but reddick is essentially playing a spin on the same character in it

oh I don't disagree