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People who were in one episode and joined the cast later as another character

cordeliachase said:
I don't know if this counts, but on "Alias Smith and Jones," the man who was the announcer assumed the role of Smith after the death of actor Pete Duell.

His name was Roger Davis.
 
JUST saw this on Green Acres (on CMT). Sid Melton played Ed the plumber and, of course, came back as Alf, 1/2 of the Monroe Brothers the carpenters.
 
KyDXIn said:
Harry Morgan played a racist Colonel on M*A*S*H before becoming Sherman T. Potter.

The character Morgan played before assuming the part of Col. Potter was General Bartford Hamilton Steele, who was insane and was making the 4077th do crazy(er) things, although he did make a couple of comments that could have been considered racist, like asking the black chopper pilot to sing and dance before he testified in a court martial against Hawkeye.
 
therealjm12 said:
JUST saw this on Green Acres (on CMT). Sid Melton played Ed the plumber and, of course, came back as Alf, 1/2 of the Monroe Brothers the carpenters.
Green Acres is on CMT?? Why wasn't I notified???
 
What? No one mentioned the late Paul Lynde? He was in an episode of Bewitched playing a driving instructor (during the black and white era) before landing a permanant role as the wise-cracking practical joking warlock Uncle Arthur during frequent appearances when shown in color until its cancellation in 1972 before landing his own sitcom. He's quite a character.
 
Hawaii Five-O was notorious for recasting actors in different roles before making them regulars on the program (sometimes even after making them regulars):

Herman Wedemeyer played two different HPD lieutenants (one of them twice) and a dispatcher before joining the Five-O team as Duke (he also got demoted to sergeant).

Al Harrington played various roles in five episodes before joining the team as Ben.

Glenn Cannon played three supporting roles before becoming DA John Manicote. Harry Endo had a supporting role in one episode before becoming Che Fong, head of Five-O's crime lab. Al Eben had three guest supporting roles before becoming the coroner/pathologist for Five-O. Bill Edwards and Lyle Betteger had appearances in other roles in addition to take their turns as mysterious State Department official Jonathan Kaye. Sharon Farrell played three other guest roles before joining the team in the final season as its first (and only) female member, Lori Wilson. Even Richard Denning, took time out from being governor, to play another part during the first season.
 
Here's two from British series that aired on US TV:

The Prisoner: In "Many Happy Returns", Patrick Cargill plays "Thorpe", a former superior of Number 6's (Patrick McGoohan"; in the later episode "Hammer Into Anvil", Patrick Cargill plays Number. It is ambiguous whether Cargill plays the same character; it's a matter of some debate among the show's fans.

Doctor Who (this is probably one of many): In the opener of the third series of the show's current run, Freema Agyeman joined the cast as Martha Jones, the Doctor's new companion. Agyeman played a character that died about as soon as she was introduced in an episode in the previous season ("Army Of Ghosts"); the continuity for the series eventually got around to explaining that the dead character was Martha Jones' cousin.

And one that flips the concept on its head (and a spoiler if you've never seen Torchwood, so consider yourself warned):

Torchwood: The premiere episode, and all advance publicity, featured Indira Varma (now on Fox's "Human Target") billed as a regular cast member, so it was that much more of a shock when her character (a.) turned out to be the episode's villain, and (b.) was killed in the final act. Not that that meant it was her last appearance on the show, but that's the way Torchwood works...
 
wbhist said:
Matlock had quite a few instances of this. In the first season, Nancy Stafford appeared in an episode as a call girl, before joining the cast as assistant "Michelle Thomas" from 1987 until 1992. Then Brynn Thayer played a character in a 1991 episode, before she became part of the cast as Matlock's divorced daughter "Leanne MacIntyre" from 1992 through 1994. And Daniel Roebuck played a few one-shot characters over the years before joining the cast starting in 1993.

That was the first instance that came to my mind too. The Brynn Thayer role I am thinking about was as the wife of the murdered tycoon who helped seedy types to burglarize all of the wealthy couples' rich friends around the neighborhood.
 
hubcity said:
...a garbled message

What I meant to say was:

The Prisoner: In "Many Happy Returns", Patrick Cargill plays "Thorpe", a former superior of Number 6's (Patrick McGoohan); in the later episode "Hammer Into Anvil", Patrick Cargill plays Number 2. It is ambiguous whether Cargill plays the same character; it's a matter of some debate among the show's fans.
 
MattParker said:
Even Richard Denning, took time out from being governor, to play another part during the first season.
I often wondered what happened to Denning after he appeared with Lucy on her radio show "My Favorite Husband".
 
KyDXIn said:
MattParker said:
Even Richard Denning, took time out from being governor, to play another part during the first season.
I often wondered what happened to Denning after he appeared with Lucy on her radio show "My Favorite Husband".

He did a husband-wife mystery show called Mr and Mrs. North. And three other series that each ran one season. Then Hawaii Five-O. He'd retired to Maui when offered the role of the Governor. Most week it was one or two days work since he wasn't in a lot of scenes (although those he appeared in were often pivotal to the plot).
 
In one early episode of Car 54..Where Are You?, Al Lewis played the role of a guy who was in a gang of car thieves. It was the episode where a police car was stolen by "accident".

Later on Lewis would become Officer Leo Schnauser. Lewis even played that role in the infamous Car 54 movie in 1994.
 
MattParker said:
J.K. Simmons appeared as news video photographer on Law & Order before he was cast as psychiatrist Dr. Emil Skoda.

In almost same vein, Anthony Anderson had an one-shot episode on Special Victims Unit as a detective (Lucious Blaine) transferring from a Queens to be Eliott Stabler's partner in '06, and then joined the cast of the mothership a couple of years later as Jesse L. Martin's replacement (as Kevin Bernard).

Hell, it would be in a separate topic to even list the cast members from Oz that appeared in some form across the Law & Order universe (Simmons, Chris Meloni, are B.D. Wong are prominent examples).
 
On the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, Pamela Sue Martin appeared as someone who tried setting the building on fire where Nancy Drew was being held captive. She had a blonde wig on.
 
Re: People who were in one episode and joined the cast later as another characte

James Darren on T.J. Hooker. Appeared as one cop in a storyline involving motorcycles in the show's first season, followed by taking on the role of Jim Corrigan beginning with year 3 (or was it late in the second year?).
 
In the "Andy Griffith Show" pilot which aired on "The Danny
Thomas Show" in February 1960, Frances Bavier played a
Mayberry resident named Henrietta Perkins; she didn't start
playing Aunt Bee until the show became a series in October.

In the movie "Girl On The Run," which served as the pilot for
"77 Sunset Strip," Edd Byrnes played a bad guy; at a screening
of the movie at a Los Angeles theater the girls went so wild when
he came on-screen that somebody at Warner Brothers decided he
had to be a regular on the series, and out of that came Kookie.
 
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