MovieChat Forums > Cannon (1971) Discussion > why do some actors come back for diffren...

why do some actors come back for diffrent roles?

posted 17 years ago by PeterBlues
11 replies | jump to latest

now i've seen one actor return not only once, but twice, all 3 episodes as diffrent characters, what's the reason some shows bring back an actor they used previously when he plays another role anyway, why don't they just pick another actor?
i'm not being bothered by it, but i say what i read someone else say somewhere(on another topic than Cannon)- "do they expect the viewers to have a short memory capasity." (only that person spelled it right.)
anyway, incase you wanna know, the actor i'm talking about isn't Sheen this time, but someone else i recognise from alote of diffrent things. in the Cannon episodes he appeared in, he first played a doctor, or someone who was nicked that, who wired phones so they would start fire when someone picked it up on the other line. second time he played a madman who murdered, and wanted to get cought by Cannon, and kept asking for treatment, third time.. well, that one i haven't seen yet, but i got it on tape, so so far into the series, this actor has returned for 3 diffrent roles.

i had my mind and plans all set out,
i was gonna escape this time,
i packed a few things,
said goodbye to how my life used to be,
moving by the road,
expecting nothing less, nothing more,
before my new way of life could even begin,
i was brought back in,
to these bars i got around,
now i've tried and i've tried,
but there is no use,
i just come to realise i'm never going to,
dig out from underneath the bars and walls,
once i was out, i came to realise, i no longer got anyone to see, nowhere to go,
it would be nice to say hello, and hear welcome back,
but it doesn't quite work like that,
and once again those words came calling back to me,
i never can be free.

[–] jayhn1111 17 years ago

Yeah shows like this back then did that a lot. You'll see many more of the same actors appearing in different roles on the show. I'm noticing the same thing on Barnaby jones episodes. Lots of actors appear 3 or 4 times on the show with a different role each time. Mission impossible does it even more. You see some of the same actors appearing 5 or 6 times on the show playing all different characters. It's the guys that play really good villains that usually keep popping up. I"m just starting to watch Hawaii 5-0 and I"m sure I'll see the same thing. Half the villains I'm seeing so far on that show I"ve seen on cannon and barnaby jones and mission impossible. It's like you're seeing all the same actors on all the different shows of the 70's as well

[–] DracenWolfe 17 years ago

Patrick McGoohan was in Columbo four times, and I believe several other actors appeared a couple of times (as a main character).

He who lives by the sword will be shot by those who can't

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] juanmonge69 16 years ago

Why not use the same actors if they are good at their jobs and the directors/producers know that they are pros. Many actors are difficult to work with and don't get the call back. The audience is supposed to know that it is only a television show.

[–] jayhn1111 16 years ago

The only thing I don't like about it sometimes, is when it's kind of a who dunnit or it's supposed to be a surprise who the villain is. If you see somebody on the show that you've seen play a villain on 6 other crime dramas and 3 other episodes on the same show, then it kinda gives away the surprise factor. But not often does that happen

[–] captkirk_4 15 years ago

That's the way the studios worked it back then. The supporting actors must have had some sort of contract that allowed them to get a decent amount of work. I see a lot of these same actors in Star Trek, Mannix, Banachek, etc. You can't make a living in Hollywood if your only role is a quick 5 minute part on one TV show never to be offered anymore roles. Same situation exists for Voice Actors in animation, you notice the same voices over and over again in different shows. Every import from Japan seems to get the English dub over by the same cast.

[–] Tobey 12 years ago

It's been a while since this was posted but ill add my two cents.

I grew up on these shows in the seventies and we tend to forget how different TV was back then. Shows would run a full season with no repeats from about September to May. They would then Rerun throat the summer. You would see each episode once, maybe twice and that was it. Would you remember an actor from a season one episode when they showed up in season three?

Syndication was also different, some of the hours shows would be shown again but they didn't run two or more in a row like they do today. The VCR was a novelty and very few people had them. If you suggested to someone back then that you could sell the series on tape or disc to the general public they would have laughed at you.

Repeating actors still happens today, the Law and Order Franchises are rife with it and not with relative unknowns. Ron Liebman was on the original at least twice. Even Jerry Orbach and S, Empatha Merkeson appeared as different characters before joining the show full time.

[–] ms-zanadu 11 years ago

I actually really liked when these old shows brought back the same actors and actresses for different character roles . It was awesome to see how the actors/actresses would play out the part and as always they did such an excellent job with it too . Thanks PeterBlues for your subject post .

[–] mikepcls 11 years ago

Guest star you're referring to is Anthony Zerbe.

[–] oscarunger 11 years ago

barney miller did it as well

[–] elvimark01 9 years ago

First off, it is indeed Anthony Zerbe that you were referring to in the previous post, as the poster before me has clarified. He first appeared as an arsonist whose nickname was Doc, so I can see how you got confused (that was in my favorite episode, The Torch, BTW). The serial killer episode is the second season Catch Me If You Can, and he came back for the third season in The Limping Man, playing a counterfeiter.

Secondly, this is a Quinn Martin show we're talking about here...watch enough of his shows, and you'll note that he used a LOT of the same actors multiple times in many of his series, in different roles. John Conwell was his casting guy...he was a former actor who knew a lot of actors and used them (Bradford Dillman was an old friend of his...Dillman not only turns up twice on Cannon as different villains, he's also in about five or six FBI's as different villains and five Barnaby Jones as various villains, including the guy who killed Barnaby's son).

Thirdly, I don't think most Cannon fans are really anal about the multiple appearances of actors in varying roles. Now, Law & Order fans were NOTORIOUS for getting up in arms about them bringing back certain actors...when Annie Parisse was brought in as a prosecutor, a lot of people were P.O.'ed because she was a murder defendant in a previous episode. Likewise, a lot of people were angry when Chris Meloni was cast in the L&O spinoff, Law & Order:SVU, because he played a gangster on the main series. Of course, SVU fans quickly warmed up to him and were sad when he left the series.