Entertainment desk
< March 30	<< Feb \| March \| Apr >>	Current desk >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Entertainment Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

March 31[edit]

Are there other TV Larry Hagmen?[edit]

Larry Hagman got to play the good guy, Tony Nelson on I Dream of Jeannie, and the utterly despicable, highly shootable J. R. Ewing on the aforementioned, original Dallas. Who else starred on TV as both heroes and villains? The best I could come up with is Richard O'Sullivan: the nice, if lecherous, Robin Tripp in Man About the House and the annoying Dr. Lawrence Bingham (for Americans, think Frank Burns if he had gone to medical school in Britain) in Doctor at Large. Clarityfiend (talk) 21:11, 31 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia has categories Villains and Heroes, where you might find some crossover. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:26, 31 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

One recent one that comes to mind is Freddie Highmore, who has played both Norman Bates and The Good Doctor.
Bryan Cranston might qualify.
Sebastian Cabot played several good guys, and also played Satan in a Twilight Zone episode.
Delta Burke played mostly comedic roles, but also played a child-snatcher in a TV movie.
Steven Weber (actor) played a comedic role in the Wings series, and played a thoroughly corrupt and murderous mayor in NCIS: New Orleans.

←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:40, 31 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

IMO Cranston is a great example. When this comes up I often think of Kurtwood Smith though he doesn't quite fit C's criteria as his most villainous roles are in film. MarnetteD|Talk 21:49, 31 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

In the last decade David Tennant played the Tenth Doctor in Doctor Who and the very creepy Kilgrave in Jessica Jones MarnetteD|Talk 23:13, 31 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Donald Pleasence in The Adventures of Robin Hood (TV series) (bad guy) and The Changing of the Guard (The Twilight Zone) (good guy). Also from the same TV series (bad guy) is Alan Wheatley and in the first ever TV series of Sherlock Holmes (good guy), and was the first person to be killed by a Dalek. CambridgeBayWeather, Uqaqtuq (talk), Sunasuttuq 02:41, 1 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Angela Lansbury in Murder She Wrote and Sweeney Todd (I think that was a TV production), as well as The Manchurian Candidate (film). ~~— Preceding unsigned comment added by CambridgeBayWeather (talk • contribs) 02:41, 1 April 2018 (UTC)~~ — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tamfang (talk • contribs) 04:16, 1 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Just to pick a nit, per Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street#Productions, the version featuring Lansbury was taped from a production of the stage play in LA and shown on a couple different TV stations. She is marvelous in it. The Manchurian Candidate is another good choice. MarnetteD|Talk 04:35, 1 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Brenda Vaccaro played a cop and an assassin in different episodes of The Streets of San Francisco. —Tamfang (talk) 04:16, 1 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Hulk Hogan spent nine years telling kids to train, say their prayers and eat their vitamins on WWF Superstars and Saturday Night's Main Event. He then led the New World Order in jumping and spraypainting less fortunate talent on WCW Nitro and attempting to murder the one more fortunate actor on WWE Raw. Good or bad, both runs got the highest ratings this genre's ever seen (which might suggest the demographic itself turned heel in 1996). InedibleHulk (talk) 08:29, 1 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I was thinking of main cast members on TV shows, because it's a bit jarring to see them switch sides, so to speak. Thanks all. Clarityfiend (talk) 09:12, 1 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Does this include characters within the same show?:

In I Dream of Jeannie, Barbara Eden played both good Jeannie and Jeannie's evil twin sister: "Jeannie's evil fraternal twin sister, mentioned in a second-season episode (also named Jeannie - since, as Barbara Eden's character explains it, all female genies are named Jeannie -- and also portrayed by Barbara Eden in a brunette wig), proves to have a mean streak starting in the third season (demonstrated in her initial appearance in "Jeannie or the Tiger?" [September 19, 1967]), repeatedly trying to steal Tony for herself, with her as the real "master". Her final attempt in the series comes right after Tony and Jeannie get married, with a ploy involving a man played by Barbara Eden's real-life husband at the time, Michael Ansara (in a kind of in-joke, while Jeannie's sister pretends to be attracted to him, she privately scoffs at him). The evil sister wears a green costume, with a skirt rather than pantaloons."
In Highlander: The Series, Alexandra Vandernoot originally played Tessa Noël, Duncan MacLeod's main love interest. After Tessa was killed-off, Vandernoot returned to the series as "Lisa Halle", a mortal assassin who has had plastic surgery to resemble Tessa. Tessa was a hero, Lisa a villain. Dimadick (talk) 09:25, 1 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Hah, I can beat all those! On The Simpsons, Harry Shearer plays both good-guy extraordinaire Ned Flanders and the evil-incarnate Montgomery Burns. Matt Deres (talk) 12:00, 1 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I'll see Harry Shearer and raise you John Lithgow - who plays his own character, Dick Solomon, and his evil doppelganger in an episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun! --TammyMoet (talk) 18:42, 1 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Ian Richardson was Francis Urquhart and Sherlock Holmes. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 19:34, 1 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Very good Gråbergs Gråa Sång. Trust you to mention Ian :-) He not only played Holmes but also a fictionalized version of the inspiration for Sherlock - Joseph Bell - in Murder Rooms: Mysteries of the Real Sherlock Holmes. MarnetteD|Talk 19:43, 1 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

You know MarnetteD, if they did a british HOC remake (they really shouldn't), Charles Dance could possibly make it work. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 20:04, 1 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

That would be a good choice Gråbergs Gråa Sång but you are right that series doesn't need a UK remake :-) It is worth noting that he is another one who has played both heroes and villains on TV for this list. MarnetteD|Talk 20:59, 1 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Alan Alda was a good guy in M*A*S*H but these days usually plays a sinister scheming senator (in film). -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 21:13, 1 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

And for that matter, on the last season of The West Wing he was a senator who was a political opponent of the regular characters. But not really a "bad guy"; he was an ethical man. --69.159.62.113 (talk) 07:21, 2 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe James Spader for going from good-guy lawyer in Boston Legal to bad guy informant on The Blacklist, though neither character was really "good guys" or "bad guys" in a traditional sense. --Jayron 32 14:21, 2 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Also in the same vein, Michael C. Hall from the good-ish guy in Six Feet Under to the bad-ish antihero in Dexter. --Jayron 32 14:24, 2 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Solofa Fatu played an evil and grunting Samoan savage named Fatu in 1994, then a kid-friendly and fluent English San Franciscan street preacher and shooting survivor (also inexplicably named Fatu) in 1995. In 1996, he was absolutely mute as The Sultan (you knew he was evil because all-American-hero-turned-crazy-old-man-running-for-President Bob Backlund managed him alongside his former foe and by-then-dated Iranian bastard The Iron Sheik.

In 1999, he returned as Rikishi Phatu, a scantily-clad buxom blonde who attempted to right the perceived historical wrongs the WWF booked upon his "hard-headed" people by running down the foul-mouthed alcoholic insubordinate woman-beating ultra-popular working class babyface ruler of the post-nWo Hollywood world with articulate reasonable argument (and a car). Audiences hated his attitude, and he was sentenced to Hell in a Cell at Armageddon 2000, where he was publicly executed in spectacular haytruck fashion by undead-pseudo-Satanic-mortician-cum-warlock-turned-Kid-Rock-and-Limp-Bizkit-blaring-real-life-biker-badass The Undertaker.

When next seen in the next millenium, he quickly rubbed his naked ass in the face of the boss who turned heel by screwing the heel who doubleturned with the face by whom his own ass turned heel by sitting in the aforementioned driver's seat (by order of the the stinkfaced evil boss' future son-in-law and currently-future-evil boss himself, as it turned out) a century ago and all was forgotten and forgiven again.

Kept his fat mouth mostly shut for and instead focused on suggestive movements in darkened room full of confused children to sketchy synthpop that reminded viewers of his happier days shaking that groove thang for the perpetually-high Grandmaster Sexay and sinisterly-mustachioed Scotty Too Hotty. Kept the crowd (and his employers) wildly amused for the next 14 years, which put his own confusing children through their own evil clown/good clown college years and is how he'll be lovingly remembered forever in the WWE Hall of Fame. InedibleHulk (talk) 07:40, 5 April 2018 (UTC) [reply]