History Main / ActorAllusion

* In an episode of ''MadAboutYou'', Richard Kind says to Paul Reiser, "I feel like there's something in my chest, bursting to get out... did you ever see that movie, ''Illegal Alien'' [sic]?" Reiser is quick to reply, "Just the first one." In the sequel to ''{{Alien}}'', Paul Reiser played a character who ended up eaten by the Aliens.

* The first scene of ''{{Tango and Cash}}'' has Tango saying "[[http://www.agonybooth.com/agonizer/Tango___Cash_1989.aspx Rambo is a pussy.]]" Guess who plays Tango.

* ''{{Glee}}'' has had Lea Michele's character Rachel Berry sing several songs from ''LesMiserables'', in which she played Eponine just prior to being on Glee. The show also acknowledges the resemblance between Michele and Idina Menzel, later revealing their characters to be mother and daughter. They had a duet of "I Dreamed a Dream", also from Les Mis.

** A popular theme in DoctorWho fanfic (especially in ThisTimeRound) is single-gag stories based around confusing or conflating a character with a CrossOver character played by the same actor. A favourite target is [[StephenFry the Minister for Chance]] from ''[[DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse Death Comes To Time]]'', who has referenced or been mistaken for: [[AbsolutePower Charles Prentiss]]; [[{{Blackadder}} Lord Melchett; the Duke of Wellington]]; the {{QI}}Master; [[ThePrisoner Number Two]] (from a ChannelFour parody, ''The Laughing Prisoner''); and the teashop owner from the Twinings ads.

* ''BendItLikeBeckham'' has a very short instance of this, when Juliette's mother explaining it's harder for female jocks to get boyfriends, saying "This is why Sportie Spice is the only one without a boyfriend" - Melanie C (aka Sporty Spice), rewrote her song "Independence Day" so it could be in the film.

** In the episode "The Bob Next Door", Bart thinks their new neighbor is his nemesis, Sideshow Bob in disguise, because he sounds like him. Homer and Marge tell him that lot of people sound like Sideshow Bob, like "Frasier on ''{{Cheers}}'', Frasier on ''{{Frasier}}'', and Lt. Cmdr. Tom Dodge in Down Periscope." Those roles were played by KelseyGrammer, the voice of Sideshow Bob.

* In UweBoll's [[Film/AloneInTheDark Alone in the Dark]] film, a character falls to his death in a spiky pit trap. The actor portraying him was Ho Sung Pak, who portrayed Liu Kang in the first two MortalKombat games, where characters could also meet such a fate. (Perhaps coincidentally, when [[ThatGuyWithTheGlasses The Nostalgia Critic]], [[AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]] and [[TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]] reviewed this film, the character's death prompted a Mortal Kombat joke.)

* In ''[[OceansEleven Ocean's Twelve]]'', several characters comment on how Tess (played by JuliaRoberts) looks a lot like JuliaRoberts. Not content to leave it at that, the film takes this into meta-meta territory in a scene where Tess has to pretend to be... JuliaRoberts. At one point, she even encounters BruceWillis (played by BruceWillis) and has to make small talk about the film industry. The film goes as far as to credit Tess Ocean as having played Julia Roberts in the credits. Even more absurdly, Roberts was pregnant but apparently not showing yet, so Tess had to be made up to appear as pregnant as Roberts would be by the time the film was released. (Although I don't think anyone knew she was carrying twins at the time.)
* In ''[[{{OceansEleven}} Ocean's Thirteen]]'', as Rusty (Brad Pitt) bids goodbye to Danny (George Clooney), he tells him not to gain so much weight in between gigs next time - an allusion to Clooney packing on extra pounds for his role in {{Syriana}}. Danny responds by telling Rusty to settle down and have a couple of kids - a reference to Pitt's relationship with Angelina Jolie and their many adopted/biological children "acquired" in the short period of time between the films 2 and 3 (or Twelve and Thirteen depending on semantics).
* Also from the ''Ocean's'' trilogy, all three films make references to Frank Sinatra either through dialogue or through his music. Frank Sinatra originated the role of Danny Ocean in the original ''Ocean's Eleven''.

* LesMiserables has a history of actors returning to the show to play different roles, sometimes connected to their former ones, as they grow older. For example, Lea Michele started on Broadway as young Cosette, and later played Eponine. Lea Salonga was the first Asian Eponine, and will soon play Fantine in an anniversary show. Nick Jonas (yes, him of the Jonas Brothers) was Gavroche, and just recently played Marius, possibly the youngest actor to play the role at just 17.

** In ''TheSixthDay'', Arnold tells a man to "get out" of his truck, just as the T-1000 did to the helicopter pilot in Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

* In TheIncredibles, Frozone's scene with the cop and getting the drink of water is a direct homage to Samuel L Jackson's scene as Zeus in DieHard With a Vengeance, in which a cop is about to shoot him but he needs to answer a pay phone.

** On another episode, Se?Senior Sr. speaks of chasing someone "'round perdition's flames", in much the same way his voice actor (Ricardo Montalban) did in ''[[StarTrek Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan]]''.

* In ''{{Freakazoid}}'', the title character's butler Professor Jones, voiced by Jonathan Harris, is pretty much a reprisal of Harris' role as Dr. Smith from ''LostInSpace'' - snotty and coward, with some lines directly lifted from ''[=LiS=]''. A RunningGag involves everyone asking Jones if he was "on a show with a robot". Also, Sgt. Cosgrove and the villain Guitierrez resemble their voice actors, Ed Asner and Ricardo Montalb?respectively.

*** The first season's finale is titled "The Wrath of Guitierrez". One gets the impression that the writers ''really'' liked having Ricardo Montalb?on their side.

* Sigourney Weaver's role in ''{{WALL-E}}'' is a deliberate nod to the ''Film/{{Alien}}'' series (and perhaps unintentionally, ''{{Futurama}}'').

* ''{{Shrek}}'' has a good number of these. Remember Antonio Banderas, who voices Puss in Boots, played the main role in ''{{The Mask of Zorro}}''
* In ''StarWarsTheCloneWars'', [[spoiler:we will be introduced to Obi-Wan's love interest the Duchess Satine next season. Ewan McGregor played Obi-Wan in the Star Wars prequels as well as the male lead in Moulin Rouge. His character's love interest was named Satine.]]
* Batman Beyond villain Mad Stan is a psychopathic Luddite who very closely resembles Spider from Johnny Mnemonic, even going so far as to mimic his "information overload" rant (minus the profanity.) Actor [[BlackFlag Henry Rollins]] played both roles, and Stan was probably modeled after Rollins' performance.

* In the CarlBarks classic ''Lost In The Andes'', Donald and his nephews find a hidden people in the Andes that [[ItMakesSenseInContext speaks American English with a typical Southern Drawl accent]]. Donald introduces himself by walking up to one of them and slapping him on the back saying: "Hi! I'm from the South myself! South Burbank!" Disney had an animation studio in South Burbank - where they had made Donald Duck shorts, among other things...

** Ratzenberger also was the spokesperson for Pittney-Bowes Personal Post Office.

* In the newer ''{{The Longest Yard}}'' with Adam Sandler, Burt Reynolds plays the protagonist's mentor in prison. Reynolds played Sandler's role in the original installment.

* In the newer ''The Longest Yard'' with Adam Sandler, Burt Reynolds plays the protagonist's mentor in prison. Reynolds played Sandler's role in the original installment.

* ''{{Reba}}'' tossed in a nod or two to star [[RebaMcEntire Reba [=McEntire=]'s other career as a CountryMusic superstar, the most famous being, in a discussion of how your dreams don't always come true, Reba Hart cracking, "I always wanted to be a professional singer."

* The Reba [=McEntire=] music video "Every Other Weekend" features a divorced couple played by [=JoAnna=] Garcia and Steve Howey, who played Reba's daughter Cheyenne and her husband Van on [[{{Reba}} her sitcom]].

* In ''TheNakedGun 2 1/2'', actor Lloyd Bochner has a small role as a member of a consortium of villains. Towards the end of the film, there's a hysterical crowd scene which features a split-second shot of him holding a large book entitled "ToServeMan", yelling "It's a cookbook!!" This is a reference to a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Serve_Man_(The_Twilight_Zone) famous episode]] of the original ''TwilightZone'' TV series which Bochner starred in.