List actors Born to play one role perfectly and never did anyhing of note after (performance wise)

Forgot to put on my first post Hugh Laurie as Dr House.

He latter won a golden Globe for the night manager but I think after House he did very little projects and sadly the other series he did for Hulu where he portrayed a doctor for a second time didn’t do well

Almost every actor who became a star by playing a main character on a long-running TV series. People like Michael J. Fox (Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties for 7 years) and Woody Harrelson (Woody Boyd on Cheers for 8 years) are very much the exception. The vast majority of them never even come close to their former level of success again.

Mark Hamill - Luke Skywalker

I'm not overly familiar with her filmography but is Carrie Fisher a good shout?



I think the horror genre has quite a few notable examples;

Robert Englund has been in quite a few minor horror movies over the years but the only thing he'll ever truly be remembered for is his portrayal of Freddy Krueger in the A Nightmare on Elm Street series.

Doug Bradley as Pinhead in the Hellraiser series.

Tobin Bell as John Kramer/Jigsaw in the Saw series.

Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams in The Evil Dead.

Richard S. Castellano in "The Godfather" was great as Clemenza.

And he was a fine actor with a long career...but Jerry Orbach was born to play Det. Lennie Briscoe in "Law & Order."

Peri Gilpin - Roz Doyle on "Frasier"

Most of the core cast of "Friends" only Aniston had a solid movie career, Courtney had her moments but inconsistent. None of the guys went onto anything better than Friends.

Jerry Seinfeld really has only played himself in Seinfeld and although did a lot of voice over work hasn't done anything of note in terms of live action films or TV since Seinfeld.

Michael Richards never recovered from playing Kramer and his little offence against Wokeness.

Peter Ostrom as Charlie Bucket in Willy Wonka.