TV actors who make you forget their previous roles

I’m planning on tuning in to watch Parenthood tonight on NBC, as I’m still giving it a bit more time to really hook me, despite the fact that I’ve found it uneven. One of the things that has continued to bug me about the freshman drama is that, as much as I absolutely adored Lauren Graham playing Lorelai Gilmore in the Gilmore Girls, I simply cannot stop thinking about Lorelai when I watch Graham’s new character, Sarah Braverman, especially after the writers had Sarah date her teenage daughter’s English teacher, just like Lorelai dated her daughter’s English teacher.

However, I’m not having the same problem with another Parenthood star, Peter Krause, who first gained fame with his character Nate Fisher from HBO’s Six Feet Under. When I watch Krause’s new character, Adam Braverman, Nate doesn’t come to mind at all. Maybe it’s because the characters are incredibly different, Nate being a man-child who loathed having to act like an adult with responsibilities and attachments which would tie him down, while Adam is heavily mired in responsibility and attachment and seems to revel in his role as everybody’s go-to guy.

This got me thinking about actors who become well known for one character who then attempt to re-brand and re-package themselves on another show, trying to make viewers forget the old character which made them famous in the first place (hmmm … could this be like David Boreanaz with his roles as Angel and Booth?). Some actors have succeeded at this, while others have not. Among current TV stars who I think have done this successfully are:

Matthew Fox: He was Charlie Salinger, the twentysomething older brother from Party of Five who got stuck caring for his four younger siblings after their parents were killed in a car crash. He’s now Jack Shephard, a respected spinal surgeon who’s reluctantly leading the Lost castaways in their otherworldly odyssey.

Calista Flockhart: She was Ally McBeal, the sassy, short-skirted, dancing-baby-seeing attorney from the show of the same name. She’s now Kitty Walker McCallister, the former conservative TV pundit-turned-author-turned-candidate’s/senator’s wife-turned candidate on Brothers & Sisters.

Edie Falco: She was Carmela Soprano, the hyper-coiffed Jersey wife of powerful mobster Tony on The Sopranos. She’s now Jackie Peyton, the plain looking, pill-popping, two-timing nurse on Nurse Jackie.

Ray Romano: He was Ray Barone, the goofy sports writer who bickered, non-stop with his wife and mother in Everyone Loves Raymond. He’s now Joe Tranelli, a depressed, divorced father of two, the owner of a party store who has a gambling addiction on Men of a Certain Age.

Kim Delaney: She was Det. Diane Russell, the no nonsense cop on NYPD Blue. She’s now the twin-set-wearing Claudia Joy Holden, wife of an Army general who’s now at the helm of the social scene on South Carolina Army post in Army Wives.

Current TV stars — other than Graham — who have yet to escape their most popular role (at least to me) include: Scott Wolf, who still seems like Bailey Salinger from Party of Five, even when he’s interviewing the head alien on V. Same goes for Wolf’s co-star, Elizabeth Mitchell who still seems like Juliet Burke from Lost, even when she’s staging a clandestine rebellion on V.

Can you think of TV actors who’ve successfully made you forget about their former TV personas, and those who haven’t?

Clacked by Meredith O'Brien
on Apr 20, 2010 @ 16:13 EST5EDT