"Tom Baker will forever be seen as the fourth Doctor, from the TV series Doctor Who, no matter how much he wants not to (and he really, really doesn't want to)"
This isn't written very well, is it saying Tom Baker doesn't want be remembered as the fourth Doctor?? This may have been true for a while after he left the series (he refused to come back for The Five Doctors) but since then he has completely embraced Doctor Who and its fandom. Not to mention his eccentric public persona crosses over with his Doctor Who persona quite heavily.
But regarding Daibhid C's comment, it is fair to say that nearly everyone who was in Doctor Who (the old series) never became famous for anything else afterwards, even if they still kept working as actors.
Really? Do people still mistake Brent Spiner for Data still. I mean, he barely resembles the character any more! Same with Shatner.
Do you think we should make a section for fictional occurrences of I Am Not Spock? Like how in Batman The Animated Series, Mary Dahl aka Baby Doll went insane because nobody would accept her as anything but lovable, troublesome tot Baby Doll. The fact that she suffered a genetic disorder which kept her from growing or aging certainly didn't help.
Also, do you think this trope is related to Funny Character, Boring Actor and Mean Character, Nice Actor?
Edited by Premonition_45
I'm surprised that you didn't mention The Munsters, expecially Fred Gwynne.
Joe Lando as Sully... even with short hair, the voice comes out and everything is oh so wrong...
I would also put Nathan Fillion as Captain Mal, but I think that is mostly due to Captain Mal and Castle both having quite a lot of Nathan in them (my original thoughts on Castle was "whoa! very Captain Mal-esque character" even though in many ways it is not...
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Also Alan Alda as Hawkeye... I think there are a lot of people who have managed to have a lot of success, but still fall into this because there is that one big (generally tv) role to which they will always be remembered...
Isn't it ridiculous to be having actors being pegged in a role before they have even completed working on that role? On top of that, shoehorning in the guys whose careers have just started before you can detect any typecasting should also stop.
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Pulled some only vaguely relevant info:
- I find that at least one actor managed to take on a rather different role... but, you don't have to take MY word for it.
- Not really, Levar Burton was hosting that WAAAAAAYY before TNG was created.
- Don't forget Brent Spiner's done a handful of other movies. He supposedly has a contract stipulation guaranteeing him a certain ratio of android to non-android roles.
- Brent Spiner's probably got the best hope of all of them aside from Stewart. Despite being released the same year, the differences between him as Data in "First Contact" and as the pseudo-hippie scientist guy in Independence Day was vast.
- Spiner also has gone on record saying he will never play Data again, not because he fears the typecasting, but because his real life aging is making it less and less believable to play an android who is incapable of showing signs of age.
- Never mind the fact that Data was built with the ability to age in appearance (TNG: "Inheritance")Which only got in the dialogue in the first place because Spiner ''was'' aging.
- There was an interview with Spiner where he was asked if he ever felt typecast after Star Trek, the interviewer mentioned Leonard Nimoy's autobiography. Spiner said he didn't but jokingly suggested he might write a book "I am Not Spock Either"
- I find that at least one actor managed to take on a rather different role... but, you don't have to take MY word for it.
The Doctor Who entry (which really needs cleaning up in general) says "Sophie Aldred, Sylvester McCoy, Colin Baker...anyone who becomes an actor on Doctor Who (except, weirdly, for Bonnie Langford) can kiss their careers goodbye, at least for television".
Post-Who, Colin Baker has appeared in Jonathan Creek, Doctors, The Bill, A Dance To The Music Of Time, Dangerfield, Kingdom and Hustle. Sylvester McCoy has been in Still Game, Mayo, Tom Jones (as a regular character), Rab C Nesbitt, Casualty, Doctors The Bill, and Hollyoaks.
Bonnie Langford has appeared in Marple, Hotel Babylon, and Goodnight Sweetheart. She might be on TV more often, but it's mostly As Herself. She's not even been in The Bill!
(Sophie Aldred, meanwhile, continued her pre-Who career as a children's TV presenter, and also moved into voiceover work for animation. She's currently Dennis The Menace UK.)
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