TV characters with real-life celebrity names

[ShawnHill1]

Of course, there's Will Smith on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, although there's a slight difference...on TV, he was WILLIAM Smith, and in real life, he's WILLARD Smith. There's also Bernie Mac, who played a fictionalized version of himself on his self-titled sitcom, a la Jack Benny and George Burns. Larry David as well, on Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Firepoint525 also made reference to actors who used their real names (first or last) on their TV shows...What's Happening! was a prime example:

Ernest Thomas: Roger Thomas
Haywood Nelson: Dwayne Nelson
Fred Berry: Fred "Rerun" Stubbs
Shirley Hemphill: Shirley Wilson
Mabel King: Mabel Thomas

Maybe the most prominent example of an actor using his real first name on a series (beside Joey Lawrence on Gimme A Break and Blossom) was Tony Danza, on both Taxi and Who's The Boss? I believe Danza played another "Tony" on a subsequent series, but don't quote me on it.

 

[nightfly61]

The dog's name on "King of the Hill" is Ladybird Johnson".

 

[cd637299]

The dog's name on "King of the Hill" is Ladybird Johnson".

In that vein, there was a cartoon I saw (maybe on CN) where there was a monkey who committed crimes....his boss said something like "Good work, Felonious!" Obviously a play-on-words on the musician Thelonious Monk.

cd

 

[bpatrick]

...then there's the '70s and '80s kayfabe world of professional wrestling, where ring performers often had the same character names as popular singers (Ray Stevens, Sting) and even an evangelist (Billy Graham)...

We had one in Alabama whose kayfabe name was Eddie Sullivan. (And the wrestler Lex Luger's kayfabe name sure sounds like a play on Lex Luthor.)

There was a mention of Seth Rogen; kind of off-topic but I suspect you'll be hearing that name a lot in the next few weeks since he's playing the Green Hornet in the movie of the same name.

 

[Mario500]

Here is an example of a TV character with the name of a character from a separate show:

In an episode of "The Wayans Bros." titled "The Liar's Club", there was a character by the name of Otis Campbell played by Clayton Prince. "The Andy Griffith Show" featured a character named Otis Campbell played by Hal Smith in more than one episode.

 

[anotherguyTN]

There was an episode of Seinfeld where Jerry and George were having to help an old man named Sid Fields, which was the name of a supporting actor in Abbott and Costello's 50's sitcom. Bill Erwin, the actor on Seinfeld who played Mr. Fields, died last month at the age of 96.

 

[firepoint525]

The singer named Daniel Boone, who had the hit "Beautiful Sunday" in the early '70s obviously came along about 200 years too late to be the explorer of the same name.

 

[ixnay]

Would people who either played themselves or at least used their own names for their characters count? That would include Jack Benny, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Jerry Seinfeld, Drew Carey, and George Lopez.

Well, I wasn't really thinking of that when I composed the OP. :-[

ixnay

 

[nightfly61]

There was a Michael J. Fox on WHYT, Detroit but not Alex P. Keaton or Marty McFly.