Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon's Characters

February 1, 2025 10:43 AM

I'm trying to think of actors who have, in different, unconnected works, played characters who knew each other in real life or in canon. Trying to identify the actor with the longest chain.

These are two bad examples because they never happened, but Christian Bale played Dick Cheney in Vice, and dropped out of playing George W. Bush in W. Hailee Steinfeld played Juliet in Romeo & Juliet, and was at one point cast as the lead character in Rosaline (a retelling from the POV of Romeo's first love).

"One man plays" or similar stunts do not count, they have to be separate works.

posted by acidic to Media & Arts (20 answers total)

Carol Burnett played Princess Winnifred in the original Broadway production and the first several television productions of Once Upon a Mattress. In the 2005 TV version she played the evil Queen Aggravain.

I expect there will be lots of similar examples from Shakespearean actors as they age through the various roles in Shakespeare’s plays.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 11:23 AM on February 1 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Michael Sheen has played Tony Blair and Prince Andrew in separate works, that probably counts.
posted by Rhedyn at 11:37 AM on February 1

Martin Sheen played a president's chief of staff in "The American President", and a president in "West Wing", though they obviously didn't know each other as both were fictional
posted by TimHare at 11:39 AM on February 1 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Jumping in to say that multiple productions of essentially the same written work do not count, as that would be too easy with Shakespeare etc.
posted by acidic at 11:48 AM on February 1

What about actors who appear in something playing themselves?
posted by box at 11:51 AM on February 1

Response by poster: Michael Sheen is a perfect example: Chris Tarrant (appeared on TV together with) Kenneth Williams (in an episode presented by) David Frost (who interviewed) Tony Blair (who knows) Prince Andrew. Brian Clough was interviewed by David Frost too but I can't figure out how to make it a single chain. Thanks!
posted by acidic at 12:32 PM on February 1

Ooh here’s a short one: Helena Bonham Carter played Queen Consort Elizabeth (forgive me if I’ve mangled her title) in The King’s Speech, and then Princess Margaret (her daughter) in The Crown.
posted by mochapickle at 2:07 PM on February 1 [6 favorites]

I hear that Robert Downey Jr., who played Iron Man, will be showing up in the next Marvel film as Dr. Doom. (But does that mean that Tony Stark WAS in fact Dr. Doom as well as Iron Man in different universes??)
posted by wisekaren at 2:17 PM on February 1 [2 favorites]

This is sort of cheating but Evan Peters played Pietro Maximoff in the 20th Century Fox X-men film series, and in Marvel’s Wandavision he plays a man named Ralph who is manipulated by Wanda to think he is Wanda’s brother, Pietro Maximoff. But technically he and Pietro never met, he only knew him through Wanda. And you can argue that MCU’s Pietro and X-men’s Pietro are too different to count as the same person.

But he does both play Quicksilver and a man who is not Quicksilver but knows (of) Quicksilver in canon.
posted by brook horse at 3:25 PM on February 1 [2 favorites]

Willem Dafoe played Nosferatu/Max Schreck in Shadow of the Vampire and more recently vampire hunter Professor von Franz in Nosferatu.

Sean Connery played Robin Hood in Robin and Marian and King Richard in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

Rupert Everett has played Charles I in To Kill a King and Charles II in Stage Beauty. He also played George IV in The Madness of King George and the Duke of Wellington, who was the Prime Minister under George IV, in Napoleon. He also played George VI in Royal Night Out, but he never met George IV.
posted by chrisulonic at 4:16 PM on February 1 [8 favorites]

If you scan down the IMDB page for Martin Sheen (again!) you can see that he played JFK, RFK, Lindbergh (who, google reports, met JFK at least once), and Nicholas Katzenbach who worked closely with RFK.

I bet that with a little more effort you could connect this chain up with one of the other Martin Sheen chains already mentioned here.

The game gets easier as you gather more chain links.
posted by metadave at 4:58 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]

Sort of related: Edward Hardwicke played John Watson opposite Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes, and he also played Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in a film called "Photographing Fairies".

Ian Hart also did this, playing Doyle in the movie "Finding Neverland" (with Johnny Depp as J.M. Barrie) and playing Watson opposite two different Sherlocks (Rupert Everett and Richard Roxburgh).
posted by amk at 6:39 PM on February 1

Not sure if this counts, but Ben Affleck has appeared as both himself and a fictional character in the View Askewniverse.
posted by Lemkin at 7:36 PM on February 1

Lisa Kudrow played Ursula on Mad About You and Phoebe, who is revealed to be Ursula's twin on Friends.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:58 PM on February 1 [2 favorites]

Also, i dont know if this counts as separate shows but Sarah Chalke played Becky on Roseanne and then a woman who wants to but Beck's eggs on The Conners.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:03 PM on February 1

Kyle MacLachlan played both FDR (Atlantic Crossing miniseries) and Earl Warren (Miranda’s Victim). Also the Spirit of Cary Grant (Touch of Pink)—did Cary Grant ever meet FDR? Not unlikely!

I bet that with a little more effort you could connect this chain up with one of the other Martin Sheen chains already mentioned here.

(One of the Sheens in question is Michael, though...)
posted by staggernation at 8:51 PM on February 1

ok, here's a ridiculously obscure one that I know only because the actor was a friend of our family:

The late William Devane (probably best known for "Knots Landing") played John F. Kennedy in a 1974 movie, "The Missiles of October," and he played Jackie Kennedy's father in a 1991 miniseries "A Woman Named Jackie."
posted by martin q blank at 9:11 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]

I got to thinking...the answer to the longest chain is surely a Muppet. I think Grover, Kermit, and Miss Piggy have had the most roles.

Looking at Roles Kermit has played, i call your attention in particular to Santa Claus who would know any of the other roles that celebrate Christnas. Reporter Kernit would likely have met many of the fanous-people roles Kernit has played, assuming they were contemporaries.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 11:47 PM on February 1 [3 favorites]

Gary Oldman played Harry Truman in Oppenheimer and Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour. Truman and Churchill met in person many times.
posted by mochapickle at 3:46 AM on February 2

Wait, I just realized that my logic above applies to anyone actor who has ever played Santa Claus. So the longest chain would be whichever actor who played Sabta Claus who had the most other roles who would have been kids who celebrated Christmas.

Then I thought, God! Any actor who has portrayed God in an omniscient God canon would by canon know every other character they played (possibly not including any fantasy works where the laws of physics are different which we can assume is a completely separate reality).

So who has played God and had the most other roles? The answer appears to be Ferdy Mayne who played God in "Night Train to Terror." But I note that IMDB lists "God" as his alternative name which might then be playing himself so I don't know if that counts. If it doesn't count, second place goes to Whoopi Goldberg who played God in "A little bit of Heaven."

Also shout-out to Charlton Heston who played God and also Moses, who in canon knew God back.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 6:24 AM on February 2