Board 8 > What actor/actress has played the most iconic characters?

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My initial thought was Harrison Ford (Han Solo and Indy), but theres gotta be someone with more that two. The definition of iconic is definitely up for debate

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Do voice actors count? Because it would be a VA for sure

Mike Myers

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Yeah, if you're counting VA's, some English ones like Wendee Lee have voiced literally hundreds of recognizable characters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendee_Lee

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Samuel L. Jackson has three I can think of.

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Marlon Brando?

>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendee_Lee

There was a dub of Dokuro-chan?

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Johnny Depp has Jack Sparrow, Willy Wonka, and The Mad Hatter. Though I don't know anything about Alice in Wonderland so not sure if that is actually an iconic character.

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From: JJH777 | #007
Johnny Depp has Jack Sparrow, Willy Wonka, and The Mad Hatter. Though I don't know anything about Alice in Wonderland so not sure if that is actually an iconic character.

Leaving 'edward scissorhands' off of the Johnny Depp list?

Kids these days...

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From: JJH777 | #007
Johnny Depp has Jack Sparrow, Willy Wonka, and The Mad Hatter. Though I don't know anything about Alice in Wonderland so not sure if that is actually an iconic character.

Depp MADE the Hatter an iconic character, for better or for worse :/

From: Forceful_Dragon | #010
Leaving 'edward scissorhands' off of the Johnny Depp list?

Kids these days...

I was just thinking to be 'iconic' it either had to be multiple movies or based on something really popular.

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From: JJH777 | #007
Johnny Depp has Jack Sparrow, Willy Wonka, and The Mad Hatter. Though I don't know anything about Alice in Wonderland so not sure if that is actually an iconic character.

he has Jack Sparrow and Edward Scissorhands

that's it

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also the correct answer is either Clint Eastwood or Jimmy Stewart, probably

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Megumi Hayashibara

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Robert DeNiro, John Travolta, Al Pacino

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Orochimaru_Fan posted...
From: JJH777 | #007
Johnny Depp has Jack Sparrow, Willy Wonka, and The Mad Hatter. Though I don't know anything about Alice in Wonderland so not sure if that is actually an iconic character.
Depp MADE the Hatter an iconic character, for better or for worse :/

I'm pretty sure Hatter was iconic YEARS before Depp

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CherryCokes posted...
also the correct answer is either Clint Eastwood or Jimmy Stewart, probably


These would be good answers if going for sheer number of roles, or by the actors themselves, but the topic is asking for who has played the most iconic characters, and I'm not really sure either wins out, there.

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Tara Strong as literally everything

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I wanted to say Arnold Schwarzenegger coming in, but beyond the Terminator I'm not so sure how iconic most of his characters are versus the man himself.

I think the best answer I can think of is actually Keanu Reeves

Neo
Ted
Constantine
Johnny Mnemonic
The Police Officer from Speed (I don't know his name but I found the movie memorable largely due to Keanu's character in the movie)
Maybe the Devil's Advocate Guy (ditto to a lesser extent)

I guess the last four are pretty debatable, though.

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Think you have to mention Leonardo DiCaprio on this list

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Schwarzenegger on the other hand has:

The Terminator
Conan
Mr. Freeze
The Dude in the Predator
The Dude in the Running Man
John Quaid
The Eraser
Jack Slater
Detective John Kimbell

I dunno about the last three-four though as far as how iconic they are

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Arnold and I don't think it's close.

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The Terminator
Conan
Mr. Freeze
The Dude in the Predator
The Dude in the Running Man
John Quaid
The Eraser
Jack Slater
Detective John Kimbell

What about John Matrix(Commando)?

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Hmm Anthony Hopkins has a really high amount of iconic roles but besides Hannibal Lecter I never actually picture him when I think of them. He's played Nixon, Hitler, John Quincy Adams, Othello, Hannibal Lecter, Odin, Titus Andronicus, Zorro, Van Helsing, and King Claudius

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Neo
Ted
Constantine
Johnny Mnemonic
The Police Officer from Speed (I don't know his name but I found the movie memorable largely due to Keanu's character in the movie)
Maybe the Devil's Advocate Guy (ditto to a lesser extent)

I guess the last four are pretty debatable, though.

how DARE you forget Johnny Utah

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Arnold, and there is no competition whatsoever. The only ones even worthy of honorable mention after him are Eastwood, Pacino, Hanks, Charlie Chaplain, Brando and Leo. Anyone mentioning Johnny Depp is lol because 100% of his manneurisms are a tribute to Charlie Chaplain and he admits as much.

And sorry to break it to you all, but Robin Williams is literally the only voice actor anyone actually cares about, including Tara Strong. People *know* his VA roles, all other VAs are a dime a dozen and easily replaceable. NO ONE ELSE could have voiced Genie.

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Pretty_Odd posted...
Mike Myers has Wayne Campbell, Austin Powers, The Cat in the Hat, and Shrek. It's Mike Myers.

Man I just cannot figure out why guiga can't find success in his dream of making movies.

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Vinateri was using his god powers on the Pats and then was like "Wait I'm a Colt now lol" and now you have it.

But somebody else DID voice Genie.

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I don't see why it's Arnold. He is iconic but I don't think his roles are. He basically plays the same role in every movie he's in. I can't even think of his characters names in a lot of his movies I've seen.

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Castellaneta did a good job with genie.

But people will always remember him for Homer.

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From: CoolCly | #030
But somebody else DID voice Genie.

Hahaha, yeah. Genie was only voiced by Robin Williams in the first movie IIRC. Dan Castellaneta did him more often I believe, and did a good job. Williams was better but yeah.

And I haven't seen Commando

My bad on Johnny Utah though. Totally deserved a mention over at least The Devil's Advocate Guy I'd say.

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Robin came back for Aladdin 3.

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It's Commando

Thats like where half his top tier quotes come from <_<

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Well I'll put it on the list of movies to see

Actually I'm not sure I haven't seen this movie on second thought. But whatever, probably worth watching again regardless

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From: agesboy | #004
Yeah, if you're counting VA's, some English ones like Wendee Lee have voiced literally hundreds of recognizable characters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendee_Lee

Get this crap out of here. If you're talking about iconic voice actors, you start with Mel Blanc as your baseline, not this loser.

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Robin Williams plays quite a bit

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came in thinking Pacino

Yeah think it would be Mel Blanc if we count voice actors.

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Uma Thurman (Mia Wallace, The Bride, etc)

Peter Cushing (Tarkin from Star Wars, Victor Frankenstein, Dr. Van Helsing, etc)

Christopher Lee (Dracula, Soromon, etc)

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Probably Arnold, but how has no one mentioned Christopher Lloyd?

Dr. Emmett Brown
Judge Doom
Professor Plum
Uncle Festor
The Wizard of Oz from the TV mini series (Yea I know it's just the mini series, but the fact that he was the Wizard is something)

Are all his roles plus more.

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Sean Connery?

From: The Utility Man | #042
Probably Arnold, but how has no one mentioned Christopher Lloyd?

Dr. Emmett Brown
Judge Doom
Professor Plum
Uncle Festor
The Wizard of Oz from the TV mini series (Yea I know it's just the mini series, but the fact that he was the Wizard is something)

Are all his roles plus more.

Don't forget Commander Kruge!

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Tom Hanks:

Woody
Forrest Gump
Capt. John H. Miller
Robert Langdon

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I wanna say Jack Nicholson.

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Tara Strong

Honorable Mentions to Sean Connery and Patrick Stewart.

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Hugh Jackman as Wolverine

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Yeah first thought was Mel Blanc.

Schwarzenegger is actually a pretty good choice, but as other people have pointed out, nobody really remembers much about his individual characters; they're just different iterations of himself.

For non-VA work, if we're looking for someone with a big laundry list of memorable characters, what we need is a "character actor turned leading man" - that's pretty much the textbook definition of Johnny Depp, but he just isn't there yet in volume of characters. Give Depp some time; by the end of his career, he'll probably come close, to be perfectly honest. Yeah, his mannerisms are inspired by Chaplin and Keith Richards, but that wasn't the question. Elvis was "inspired" by black musicians, but that doesn't change the amount of hit songs in his career.

I can't really think of anyone else who hits the "character actor turned leading man" profile that well. Stanley Tucci is a great actor with a lot of very notable performances, but the average viewer probably only knows his face, and only the EXTREMELY film-literate would know more than a few of his characters off hand (and since the bar we're trying to hit for characters is "ICONIC", probably not a single one of them qualifies).

Wallace Shawn also never really shook the "character actor" image. He's a far better example than Tucci for this argument (he played ****ing Vizzini from Princess Bride) - and he's VERY prolific - but again, most of his roles aren't nearly as well known as that.

Somebody mentioned Tom Hanks. That works; Hanks is just "that kind of actor" - he gets leading roles, and he does a very memorable job in those parts as those characters.

But just nobody holds a candle to Mel Blanc imo.

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Snake5555555555 posted...
Hugh Jackman as Wolverine

Hugh Jackman as Wolverine has played the most iconic characters?! That's surprising to me.

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Hugo Weaving

Megatron
Elrond
Agent Smith
Red Skull
V

Hmm...what about...Matt Damon?

Jason Bourne
Ocean's Eleven
The Talented Mr Ripley
Private Ryan (e.g. Saving)
Good Will Hunting

(And a bunch of other roles that I don't necessarily think of as "iconic", but still stand out to me for performance, like Invictus).

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