Celebrities who couldn't get beyond their character...

[WoodStoner1]

Other media version of the wrestling thread.

There's the countless sitcommers who fully embraced their most famous characters: Bob Denver, Jerry Mathers, Donna Douglas, Al Lewis.

I'd also name Jon Bauman for sure. He tried to do something beyond being just Bowzer, primarily when he tried his hand at game show hosting, but it didn't quite work out.

[chrom]

Has Kevin James ever done a character that isn't fat and oafish?

[WoodStoner1]

Jan 5, 2024 21:31:12 GMT -5 chrom said:

Has Kevin James ever done a character that isn't fat and oafish?

Which reminds me: Melissa McCarthy.

I don't hate her. Heck I like her a teensy bit. But she can't get beyond the same Kevin James type tropes.

[Baldobomb-22-OH-MAN!!!]

Jan 5, 2024 21:31:12 GMT -5 chrom said:

Has Kevin James ever done a character that isn't fat and oafish?

He played a neo Nazi prison escapee in that movie Becky, and was surprisingly good at it.

[BlackoutCreature]

After Batman: The Animated Series, Kevin Conroy basically became Batman. You didn't cast him in any VA roles unless it was Batman or you wanted the character to sound like Batman for some reason or another.

[legendkiller1985]

Jaleel white is always gonna be Urkel or Sonic in the 90's cartoons

[nm]

[mcmahonfan85]

[WoodStoner1]

Jan 5, 2024 23:31:24 GMT -5 BlackoutCreature said:

After Batman: The Animated Series, Kevin Conroy basically became Batman. You didn't cast him in any VA roles unless it was Batman or you wanted the character to sound like Batman for some reason or another.

Not his intention, but similarly, every VA job Mark Hamill does since the 90s is basically the Joker.

And if we're talking Batman, how about Adam West? And him not getting beyond Batman somehow bled into his own personality, where he would usually play over the top types. Or BE one, even.

[OGBoardPoster2005]

Jan 5, 2024 21:46:54 GMT -5 Baldobomb-22-OH-MAN!!! said:

Jan 5, 2024 21:31:12 GMT -5 chrom said:

Has Kevin James ever done a character that isn't fat and oafish?

He played a neo Nazi prison escapee in that movie Becky, and was surprisingly good at it.

He's always struck me as someone who has range but doesn't get the opportunities to use it because of typecasting. King of Queens was great for him but you can tell he never ever got past it.

Same for Ed O'Neil after Al Bundy. Ed tried and had range but even Modern Family you get the sense he's playing a more successful alternate timeline version of Al who instead of being a shoe salesman found a better life.

[WoodStoner1]

Jan 6, 2024 9:37:16 GMT -5 OGBoardPoster2005 said:

Jan 5, 2024 21:46:54 GMT -5 Baldobomb-22-OH-MAN!!! said:

He played a neo Nazi prison escapee in that movie Becky, and was surprisingly good at it.

He's always struck me as someone who has range but doesn't get the opportunities to use it because of typecasting. King of Queens was great for him but you can tell he never ever got past it.

Same for Ed O'Neil after Al Bundy. Ed tried and had range but even Modern Family you get the sense he's playing a more successful alternate timeline version of Al who instead of being a shoe salesman found a better life.

Oh I don't know. I didn't necessarily see Al Bundy when I'd watch Jay Pritchett. (kind of like how I could forget Hyacinth when I saw Patricia Routledge as Hetty Wainthropp)

Joanna Lumley had this issue just after Ab Fab, as she did play a Patsy-type character or two in other presentations. We know she can do a lot more though.

[KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!]

Jerry Mathers had a pretty good sense of humor about it though:

[BlackoutCreature]

Jan 6, 2024 9:32:05 GMT -5 WoodStoner1 said:

Jan 5, 2024 23:31:24 GMT -5 BlackoutCreature said:

After Batman: The Animated Series, Kevin Conroy basically became Batman. You didn't cast him in any VA roles unless it was Batman or you wanted the character to sound like Batman for some reason or another.

Not his intention, but similarly, every VA job Mark Hamill does since the 90s is basically the Joker.

I would not include Mark Hamill in this discussion at all. For one thing, he's also Luke Skywalker. For another, Hamill has a huge range when it comes to VA work and has played many many different over the last thirty years that have nothing to do with the Joker. I hear nothing of the Joker in a character like Larry 3000.

[WoodStoner1]

Jan 6, 2024 9:59:09 GMT -5 KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! said:

Jerry Mathers had a pretty good sense of humor about it though:

This episode confused me, as there hadn't been a Match Game PM for like 10 years by then, and I was used to the Ross Shafer version.

[animaniac]

Jan 6, 2024 0:09:56 GMT -5 mcmahonfan85 said:

His guest role on the Nanny was really good. Shame he was typecast so often.

[H-Virus]

I know this isn't really what you mean, but Christopher Walken is someone who I can't even see as a character anymore. Every role he's in, no matter what he's doing, all I can see is Christopher Walken being Christopher Walken. Will Smith is another one where it never feels like he's playing a character, he's just being Will Smith.

[saneiac]

Add Don Knotts to the list of sitcommers who fully embraced their most famous characters. He became Barney Fife in 1960 and played some version of that character for the next 40 years.

[wildojinx]

As much as I love him, Chris Farley. If he was able to somehow survive, get better, and get that Fatty Arbuckle film role (as well as his role as Shrek), things would have been different for him though.

[The Rick Jericho]

Probably the ultimate one.

Between the original run to the college years to the end of the New Class.

That was too much time spent on one character, he could never break the mold ever in his life.

[thechase]

Bit of a subversion, but a celebrity who couldn't go beyond themselves

When he became the defacto showrunner of M.A.S.H, Hawkeye simply became Alan Alda in front of the camera, and everything he did after M.A.S.H was just Alan Alda in front of the camera.