Same character, different actors

Daniel Brizuela                                                                                                                                4/26/12

Same character, different actor.

            When it comes to film franchises and series that have gone on for years, even decades, there are numerous things you can expect from the films. One of them is how different actors succeeded in portraying one character from someone else for a number of reasons.

            One of the most famous characters with different portrayals is British secret agent James Bond since 1954 to now. At first he was played by Barry Nelson in the live Climax! special of Casino Royale, then eight years later the first Bond film in the EON series had Sean Connery play Bond. Connery first played Bond in 1962s Dr. No, and reprised his role four more times until 1967 with You Only Live Twice when he decided to retire from the role. George Lazemby replaced Connery as Bond for his only appearance as the suave agent in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service in 1969 and then left thinking the series wouldn’t be as successful in the ‘70s since it would only succeed with Sean in the role, where he was succeeded by Connery two years later for Diamonds are Forever after deciding to have a go one more time. It was Connery’s last as Bond in the EON franchise before playing Bond again in the 1983 non-EON remake of 1965s Thunderball, Never Say Never Again. After Diamonds, Roger Moore, who was two years older than Connery, played Bond for seven films and proved to be a bigger success than Connery. He began with Live and Let Die in 1973 and ended twelve years later with A View to a Kill at 57, and left after that feeling too old for the part. After him was Timothy Dalton with only two films, The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill, before a legal dispute prevented more Bond films for the next six years. When the dispute was settled, Pierce Brosnan was the new Bond for four movies from 1995, with GoldenEye, to 2002, with Die Another Day. The current Bond is Daniel Craig, the first born after the series started, and with him having to reboot the whole franchise with the 2006 and 2008 two-part Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace and this year Skyfall.

            Another famous character to be played by more than one person is the DC comic superhero Batman, since the 1943 serial. At first played by Lewis Wilson, father of the current James Bond producer, then by Robert Lowery in another serial in 1949. He was famously played by Adam West in the late 1960s television show and movie of Batman that was considered campy. In between the show and the 1989 movie, Batman was voiced by several different actors in different animated television shows. In 1989, a new Batman film series began with Michael Keaton playing Batman and then reprising the role once in ’92. The next two Batman films, which were made more lighthearted, had Val Kilmer in 1995 and George Clooney in 1997 in the role. It wasn’t until 2005 when Christian Bale took over the role as the Caped Crusader for Batman Begins and then for the sequels The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises.

            There are as many other characters played by different actors as there for those who’ve only been played by one. Others include Hulk, Sherlock Holmes, Jesus Christ, Godzilla, Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Inspector Clouseau, and many more.