This bunch of actors really just couldn't let go of these movie characters...
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00:00From diabolical orderlies returning for an unexpected round two, to actors being so damn
00:06convincing as historical figures that it'd be plain rude to not ask them back for another showing,
00:11here's another bunch of stars who showed up as the same character in separate feature spectacles.
00:17I'm Gareth from WhatCulture.com and here are 10 more actors you didn't know played the same
00:22character in different movies. 10. Michael Sheen, Tony Blair,
00:27The Deal, The Queen, The Special Relationship To many, Michael Sheen is fondly known for his
00:32blockbuster work on the likes of The Underworld and Twilight Flicks. But for those outside of
00:37the vampire-obsessed demographic, the Welsh powerhouse is more intrinsically linked to
00:41folks such as David Frost and Brian Clough, producing mesmerising turns in both Frost,
00:46Nixon and The Damned United, respectively. However, when looking back on the Bafta-nominated
00:51thespian's career, it's hard to look past one role in particular as the one that he was simply
00:56born to play, evidenced in the fact he's played the part on three separate occasions.
01:01Though not classed as directly connected in the traditional sense,
01:05Sheen would play Tony Blair in The Deal, The Queen and The Special Relationship.
01:09Unofficially, this trio of flicks made up the Blair Trilogy, seeing Sheen bring the
01:13former Prime Minister to life in the various stages of his political career.
01:18Rounding out his real-life figure work, Sheen has also strutted his stuff as comedy actor Kenneth
01:22Williams and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire host Chris Tarrant in Kenneth Williams' Fantabulosa
01:28and Quiz, respectively.
01:31Michael Schurd – Adolf Hitler
01:33Five different times. Some folks are born to play the British Prime Minister,
01:38while others are destined to take up the reins of one of the world's most infamous leaders.
01:43That's just show business, I guess. In the case of Scottish actor Michael Schurd,
01:47his most consistently witnessed character came in the form of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
01:53Rocking up as the unmistakable presence on a whopping five different occasions,
01:57Schurd would play the leader of the Nazi Party in TV flicks Rogue Mail and The Dirty Dozen,
02:02Next Mission, TV series The Tomorrow People and Secret History, Hitler of the Andes,
02:07and the big-screen blockbuster that was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
02:11Strangely enough, he'd also play leading Nazi Party member Heinrich Himmler on three occasions,
02:17appearing in The Death of Adolf Hitler, The Bunker, and Space as the historical figure.
02:22Seems Schurd found quite the niche in playing deeply despicable human beings of days gone by.
02:27Stanley B. Herman – Uncle Hank, Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan
02:32Speaking of despicable human beings, Stanley B. Herman had the largely overlooked honour of
02:37bringing a particularly heinous character to the table on two separate occasions,
02:42both of those being helmed by Darren Aronofsky. First showing up in the director's deeply
02:46unsettling and unfiltered psychological drama Requiem for a Dream, as one of the chilling guys
02:51goading Jennifer Connelly's character of Marion to go ass-to-ass in the midst of a sex show,
02:56she was taking part in to raise heroin habit funds. Aronofsky would credit Herman as the pervert
03:01initially. However, after confessing that he felt somewhat bad over hiring the actor to play such a
03:06volatile part for one day only, the director would bring Herman back for Black Swan, after gifting
03:11him with the new moniker of Uncle Hank. Here, playing the same part as he did in Requiem for
03:16a Dream, Herman is seen harassing Natalie Portman's Nina while she's riding the subway.
03:21Weirdly enough, he'd also play a part known as the pervert in Aronofsky's short film Fortune Cookie,
03:26and turned up as Fornicator in Mother 2. Again, quite a niche.
03:31Ben Stiller – Orderly Hal, Happy Gilmore and Hubie Halloween
03:35Though perhaps not the major talking point coming out of Adam Sandler's golfing riot that was Happy
03:40Gilmore, Ben Stiller still made a sizeable impact on those chuckling on when terrorising
03:45the titular character's grandma in her nursing home throughout the flick. In a scene which
03:49unfortunately didn't make it into the theatrical cut, Stiller's orderly Hal ultimately got his
03:54just desserts in the form of being sent flying through a window. But far from forcing him to
03:59change his ways, Gilmore's retaliation seemed to only serve as the catalyst for a career change.
04:04Returning as the devilish handlebar moustache sporting Hal in 2020's Hubie Halloween,
04:10Stiller is seen mocking and abusing what he thinks is a sleeping Ritchie Hartman,
04:14before discovering in the movie opening scene that Ritchie had actually bolted from the bed instead.
04:19It's an unfortunately brief nod to one of Stiller's more volatile but no less hilarious turns,
04:24but one that provided audiences with a sweet laugh and dose of nostalgia before
04:28having to endure the rest of another largely painful comedic Sandler experience.
04:34Ian Hart – John Lennon, The Hours and Times and Backbeat
04:39Playing the part of one of the most influential artists ever to set foot on planet Earth
04:43isn't what you'd class as an easy feat by any stretch of the imagination. But it was clearly
04:47one that Ian Hart didn't see any issue in taking a stab at, on two separate occasions no less.
04:53Years before he'd immortalise himself as the snivelling vessel that Lord Voldemort was
04:57taking residence in, Professor Quirinus Quirrell to you and me, during Harry Potter and the
05:02Philosopher's Stone, Ian Hart was thrown into the spotlight on the back of a deeply convincing
05:07portrayal of the legendary Beatle, John Lennon, in Christopher Munch's The Hours and Times.
05:12Then, following on from the fictionalised telling of what might have gone down between the Beatles
05:16and their manager Brian Epstein, during a holiday in Barcelona in the 60s,
05:21Hart was brought back to play Lennon once again in Ian Sofley's Backbeat three years later.
05:26Portraying a younger version of the imagined creator, when asked whether he was worried
05:30about being oddly typecast, the actor would confess, yes I have played John Lennon twice,
05:35but they were two completely different characters who happened to have the same name. Yeah, sure.
05:415. Thomas Lennon, Nolan Doctor, Memento and The Dark Knight Rises
05:46From one Lennon to another, here's an actor who took it upon himself to join the dots between
05:50two characters from two separate Christopher Nolan entries. And you can't exactly fault his
05:55logic, to be honest. Despite the iconic filmmaker never explicitly saying, or even visually alluding
06:00to the fact over the course of both Memento and The Dark Knight Rises, actor Thomas Lennon
06:05is convinced that he is actually playing the same role in both of those Nolan-helmed features.
06:10Speaking to HuffPost Entertainment around the time of the latter film's release,
06:14Lennon would confess, basically, I guess, I kind of think it's the same character from Memento,
06:19the doctor who's testing Sammy Jankis in that movie. I like to think I'm exactly the same
06:24doctor and it's all happening inside of Guy Pearce's mind. He would later go on to admit
06:28that whether or not that's true is probably for Nolan to say. But it does make for an interesting
06:33theory as to how Nolan's bombastic flicks are all connected as part of an unofficial Nolanverse.
06:38It also remains to be seen whether this doc will be along for another high-octane
06:42ride in the not-too-distant future. 4. Judy Dench, Queen Victoria,
06:47Mrs. Brown and Victoria and Abdul As I've already alluded to over the course of this list,
06:53some actors are simply born to play certain famous faces from the very real past. And in the case of
06:58the formidable Dame Judy Dench, the role of the Queen of England seems to fit her like a regal
07:03glove. Yet while her only Academy Award win to date may have come thanks to her show-stealing
07:08turn as Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love, this isn't actually the Queenie that Dench has
07:14spent the most time bringing to life on a movie screen. After picking up her first Oscar nod for
07:18her work as Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown, playing the monarch after she'd recently become widowed
07:24and exploring her relationship with Scottish servant John Brown, Dench would return to the
07:28role a whopping 20 years later in Victoria and Abdul. This flick would once again delve into
07:33Victoria's relationship with a servant, this time by the name of Abdul Karim. Her return to the role
07:39may not have generated the same buzz as her initial outing, but it still earned Dench an
07:43impressive 12th Golden Globe nomination. Not too shabby. 3. Ian Holm, Napoleon,
07:49Time Bandits and The Emperor's New Clothes Though not completely against returning to a
07:54role within a long-running movie franchise, seen in his triumphant comeback as the legendary Bilbo
07:59Baggins in the Hobbit prequel trilogy, Ian Holm had largely steered clear of going back over
08:04old ground throughout a frankly absurdly varied big-screen career. However, away from stellar
08:09one-and-dones in the form of Aliens' unsettling android Ash and Athletics trainer Sam Massabini
08:15in Chariots of Fire, there is actually another character that the late Force of Nature found
08:20himself in the shoes of on multiple occasions in entirely different projects. After playing
08:25the well-known French political and military leader Napoleon Bonaparte in TV miniseries
08:30Napoleon and Love, Holm was once again drafted into play the infamous figure for Terry Gilliam's
08:35Time Bandits flick. Not content with his time in the Napoleon driving seat, a final outing as the
08:40figure who dominated Europe for over a decade was realised with Alan Taylor's The Emperor's New
08:45Clothes shortly after the turn of the century. 2. Alan Tudyk – Gerhard Weinhardt
08:5128 Days and Transformers Dark of the Moon In another case of an actor filling in his own
08:56blanks and coming to the conclusion that he was actually playing the same role in two largely
09:00different cinematic entries, Alan Tudyk has gone on record to admit that his role of Gerhard
09:05Weinhardt didn't disappear entirely after the events of the Sandra Bullock-starring comedy-drama
09:1028 Days. As Tudyk put it himself upon looking back with Empire at his role as Dutch, Seymour
09:16Simmons' personal assistant in Transformers Dark of the Moon, I decided that it's the same guy.
09:21He had gotten out of rehab, got himself on the right track and then entered the army,
09:26became a specialist, found that he had skills in computers and weapons. Then he got burned
09:30out after too much killing, and just decided to become a valet to Agent Simmons. There's a moment
09:35where he goes crazy, and I say, that's the old me. And that was all based on that BS idea that
09:40it was the same guy. Though at a glance it may seem crazy to suggest that Tudyk's Gerhard theory
09:46carries any real weight. Don't forget that this is the same series that introduced robot dinosaurs
09:51later down the line. So anything's possible, right? 1. Sam Rockwell – Sam Bell – Moon and Mute
09:58When deciding to finally pursue what was ultimately classed as a spiritual sequel to
10:02one of his most acclaimed films to date, that being Moon, it felt like only a matter of time
10:07before that film's leading man made his presence felt in Duncan Jones' Netflix project Mute.
10:12Set within the same universe as that first project, which saw Sam Bell going through a bit
10:17of a drama on the back end of a three-year solo trip mining helium-3 on the far side of the moon,
10:22those wondering when Sam Rockwell would ultimately pop up in the story of a mute
10:26bartender searching for the love of his life were put out of their misery thanks to a brilliant
10:31cameo sequence. Hammering home what would turn out to be Jones' first film's big twist,
10:36that being that Bell had actually been cloned against his own will, Mute sees Sam Bell number
10:41156 taking part in a trial against Lunar Industries, on a TV in a cafe where Alexander
10:47Skarsgard's Leo Baylor is enjoying some toast and a cuppa. As Jones would later go on to add,
10:52if we do ever get a chance to do a third movie, maybe we can tie all of these things together a
10:57little bit more. So we may not have seen the last of the many Sam Bells after all.