Ever watch a show and see a character you can't stand...just to find out that they are the nicest person IRL? Or are you enthralled by a character's intellect, just to find out that that actor is a dingbat in the real world?

I could not stand Fonzie on "Happy Days" to save my life. He was cocky, ubiquitous, sexist, etc. But Henry Winkler seems like a nice, down-to-earth man, IMO. I liked his appearances on "Good Day Live" as Steve's replacement. He just fit in perfectly.

Speaking of "Happy Days," I always considered Marion Cunningham to be such a "motherly" type, but I cannot get the image of Marion Ross (the actress) smacking gum like a cow in the archive footage.

Moving on to a different show, in "A Different World," Whitley is also an extremely annoying and ubiquitous character, but Jasmine Guy (from seeing her "Intimate Portait") seems relaxed, nonchalant, and even was worried that Whitley would grate on people's nerves.

Cree Summer (also on "ADW"): love her as Freddie, since she seemed to be full of life and energy. The real Cree, who is also this hippie type, is way, way, way too passive. I saw her in an interview and she looked and seemed stoned as hell. Disappointing. I was also turned off by seeing a picture of her with Lisa Bonet, where she (Cree) was smoking a cigarette. I know people smoke (unfortunately), but it was one of those pictures where she was in the middle of taking a puff, and her cheeks were sucked in and her eyes were in the back of her head. Ew.

That's hilarious. You and I have completely different experiences with the Fonz. As a teen, I thought he was the coolest guy around. Then he came to my high school to present a program for deaf children and I met him afterwards with my one of my friends. She told him she wanted to be an actress and he kissed her cheek. Then I asked him for a cheek kiss too (ok I was 14) and he literally rolled his eyes.

Hated the asshole ever since.

Dag! That sucks. Sorry to hear that. I could talk about my former favorite TV character who treated me like shit in the end...but I want to keep that subject buried.

I'm just embarrassed that he was my favorite in the first place. (embarrassed glance)

I think sometimes we're set up to confuse the actor with the character, depending on the name the character is given. Fonzie is a good example, but a better one is Doogie Howser. If he had been Kenny Howser or any other normal name, he could have left that role in obscurity. But despite seeing him on stage in NYC in at least five productions, I always think of him as Doogie.

Last night on the NYPD Blue retrospective even most of the other actors were saying how surprised they were to find out that Dennis Franz is not much like Andy Sipowicz -- instead he's warm, relaxed, friendly. Dennis said, "You know, I only pretend to be this guy."

OK, RealChic1999, my interest is piqued. Who is this former favourite character of yours? I promise not to pass it on. =)

Carroll O'Connor. (Archie Bunker) In real life, he was the polar opposite of that character.

Jenna Elfman, the hardcore Scientologist, bugs the living crap out of me.

But dammit, I still wanna nail Dharma Finkelstein.

Interesting topic, RealChic.

Definitely gotta throw in Dawson Leery (portrayed by James Van der Beek, of course). No matter what he does or where he goes, I'm going to always refer to him as that nose-flaring, patronizing, moronic asscurl that is our friend Dawson in some way or another.

I hear that he has a new sitcom in the works and I might try to check it out. It's going to be extremely difficult not to say, "Shut up, Dawson" whenever his new character pisses me off.

And RealChic? You can't throw in that former favorite character of yours and not dish the details! Dish! ;)

I think Alyson Hannigan suffers from this a lot too, that she's become so identifiable as "Willow Rosenberg" that it's affected her entire career. I know that I have a hard time imagining her as someone other than perky, cutesy Willow, even when I saw her on Veronica Mars as a very different character. I don't know what she's like in RL, but I know that I've seen comments about her bitchy demeanor in interviews that suggest she isn't really as sweet-natured as the person she played for seven years.

On another note, my opinion of Felicity Huffman has been severely damaged by her annoying turn in Desperate Housewives. Her character, Lynette, pisses me off more every time I see her on screen, to the point where I wish somebody would kill *her* with with a blender, and while I'm sure that FH is a very nice person in real life I hate the person she plays so much that I've begun to hate her by extension. Just...shut up and die, Lynette!

George Costanza. I love him, I relate to him. He's neurotic, self-depreciating, insecure, to quote one of the episodes: "I don't think George has ever felt he was better than anybody."

Jason Alexander, OTOH. Polar opposite. Smug, smarmy, strong superiority complex, thinks he's the funniest person in the world. Can't stand him (yeah) in interviews or in Celebrity Poker Showdown.

The cast of Dallas, especially Larry Hagman.
I watched one of these 'After they were famous' specials on them and it was amazing, not only how nice they were coming across in the interviews, but also how clearly friendly they were with each other. Who'd have thunk it, Bobby and JR, actually good buddies!
It gave me a new respect for the actors abilities on screen.

This phenomenon is a major hassle for people who appear in crime re-enactments for "America's Most Wanted" et al. People see them playing a killer on TV, then see them in public and think "Hey, it's that murderer from that show!"

Please, RealChic, you gotta spill it.

This may not be exactly the same thing, but I remember watching Scott Wolf on the Rosie O'Donnel Show one time. This was right after his character on Party of Five cheated on his girlfriend. Apparently, a couple of his sister's coworkers went up to her at work the next day and said "We hate your brother for what he did to Sarah, and we hate you too." I just want to smack people who are that immature and stupid.

Between playing Dr. Kimberly Shaw on Melrose Place and Bree on Desparate Housewives, I actually find it a relief to know that Marcia Cross is a very down-to-earth person (who I worship).

BlackCorduroy, whenever I watch Seinfeld, JA is George and only George.

When I see JA in anything else he is always the guy from Pretty Woman.

Alan Alda. For years, I have thought of him as Hawkeye - whiny, condescending, attention grabber, self-centered.
When I see him in interviews, etc., he is the opposite. At the Oscars, he looked genuinely thrilled that Morgan Freeman won. Hawkeye would have been pissing and moaning.

Heh, last summer I saw Neal Patrick Harris in Assassins on Broadway, and couldn't get over how Doogie-liscious he was.

This sounds silly, but I always get slightly weirded out when I see Courtney Cox or Matthew Perry with their significant others on tv/magazines- I think, "you're supposed to be with Chandler/Monica!" Those two had such great chemistry on Friends, as if they could pull it off in "real life" as well.

From upthread, it was mentioned Carrol O'Connor, and to expand on that, how about Jean Stapleton? Her Edith Bunker was a dithering ditz with a very grating voice. I remember being very small, and seeing her on a talk show, and her voice was lower and very melodic, and she was smart! It boggled my mind.

Also, Alison Arngrim's Nellie Oleson. Nellie was the biggest prairie bitch there was, but Alison was/is the snarkiest, funniest person.

ETA Nellie or Nelly, make up your mind!

When I saw her on Veronica Mars I kept thinking that every little vocal tick she has was exactly like Michelle, her character in American Pie.

Sarah Jessica Parker. Will she ever get a role where she isn't playing a whiny, indecisive little fashion victim after six years as Carrie Bradshaw?

This is a really bad one, but whenever I see something with Stephen Collins in it I cringe, expecting him to do something stalker-ish like the horrible Reverend Cameron.

-Devon(something?) as "Brian" from: My So-Called Life. I think he played a rapist on Felicity years back, and I was truley scarred for a good 3 months. WTF! Krakow as a rapist? No. Just No.

-Same with Fred Savage. He'll always be Kevin Arnold, no matter how much he's beating the living shit out of DJ (from Full house) on some crappy TV movie.

I often have this problem with actresses who play FBI, police, or other “serious” drama roles. Then you see them on talk shows and they act giggly and bimbo-ish. Ex. Gillian Anderson, many of the L&O franchise women.

The actresses who play bimbos on TV usually seem normal in real life.




L&O: SVU is great for former sitcom/child stars exploring the dark side. Henry Winkler, Michael Gross (the dad from Family Ties), Fred Savage and Mark-Paul Gosselar have guest-starred off the top of my head.

You would have loved his role as Lisa on the L-Word. Brian Krakow as a lesbian-identified man! Whoah.

Great topic, Realchic!

Ceindreadh, there was an interview where Larry Hagman was at an airport and a woman came up and slapped him in the face. She was furious at the way he treated Sue Ellen, and when he tried to tell this person that he was only an actor, she slapped him again. Pretty funny to think about.

David Boreanaz is miles away from his Angel character. Miles away in outer space that is. Angel was a taciturn brooder while Boreanaz seems to be a major goofball who comes up with some bizarre quotes.

I saw Patrick Stewart on a talk show and I was amazed at how different from he is from Picard. He was very charming and relaxed and he told several hilarious anecdotes and he had a great sense of humour overall. Now I liked Picard but the character was reserved and slightly uptight while Stewart seems like great fun altogether. And Stewart is far sexier then Picard if that makes any sense...

Hey all. I didn't want to mention him again because I used to talk about him ad nauseum on these threads (and you can even search Google and find some of my quotes on said person, sadly). It's Joher Coleman, formerly known as Jory Husain, who played Jawaharlal on "Head of the Class." I thought that the character was such a nice, underused character, and I thought he was underused because he was a minority. Come to find out that Joher isn't really 100% Indian (unless you count the one-drop rule), he's a mix of all sorts---but that's not the reason why I despise him now. I got in contact with him, and he is this smug, condescending, sanctimonious (I think he found "God" and every quote out of his mouth is "Peace and Buddha be with you" or something like that) person who thinks that he is the greatest actor in the world and is indignant about his treatment on HOTC. Come to find out (from former classmates, relatives, and whatnot) that Joher's attitude was the reason why he got written off HOTC, not because he's a minority. I used to have a fan site for him (in conjunction with my HOTC one), and he wanted me to make an "identical" one...which was a ruse for him to make me make him a whole separate page. He found so many things wrong with it, it was ridiculous. I've cut contact with him...and got over his ass in due time.

I look back and laugh at what an idiot I was about the whole thing. From that point on I've decided to put time and energy into being a fan of actors with real talent and whose careers are going somewhere.

I read somewhere that Dixie Carter didn't always agree with the contents of her big ol' speeches on [i]Designing Women.[/ii]

I believe his name was Devon Gummersall.



I guess the same could go for someone who has done a herpes or hemorrhoid commmercial. Once a person has done one, everyone will think that that person has one of those "issues." ("Hey, it's the hemorrhoid girl!"---from Just Shoot Me)

I might have read too much into your sentence, but it sounded like you two might have dated. I guess the lesson is: Never date a Hollywood actor. I remember Jawaharlal. When I first saw Fez, the foreigner of That 70's Show, it reminded me of that Jawaharlal character of HOTC. I liked Jawaharlal. I would never have guessed that Jory Husain would turn out to be a Buddha freak.

Anyway, I saw this show about one hit wonders on VH1. One of the singers who was featured was the actor Jaime Walters. His one hit wonder was "How do you talk to an angel". It was the theme song for a short-lived series, The Heights, that he starred in.

Later on, he was on Berverly Hills 90210. He played Ray, a character that was very abusive to his girlfriend Donna (the Tori Spelling character). While he was acting on the show, he also was trying to get his singing career going.

On that VH1 show, JW said that alot of his potential fans confused the abusive character that he played with himself. During his concerts, girls would hold up signs that read "Stop Abusing Donna" and would come up to him and say the same thing. JW attributed his lack of success of his singing career with that misperception. JW says that he is really is a nice guy unlike Ray. However, his potential fans weren't able to distinguish the actor from the character.

On a personal note, I actually bumped into JW once. A few years ago, while I was riding on a public transit light rail train, I saw him there. I was sitting near the door and in came JW. I had to do a double take. But it was him, an actual celebrity taking public transit. (Then again he's probably, at best, a third rate celebrity.) He bumped into my knee and said excuse me. He didn't sit; he just stood. He got off a station or two later. Even though it was a short encounter, he seemed like a decent guy.

Be still, my heart . . .

Whoa...you did. I just had a huge crush on him (we only communicated through e-mail and the phone) and he took advantage of that. Never saw me romantically. Called me "kiddo" (hence the condescension). I'm almost 24, he's almost 37...so there's also an age difference there...but not enough for the "kiddo" crap.

In real life, Larry Linville was a highly intelligent and witty guy. However, he was so indelibly placed in the public conciousness as Frank Burns that his career crashed and burned after he left the show.

I totally agree with those who mentioned Patrick Stewart. I used to hate him because I couldn't stand Picard but then I saw him in a few interviews and he was so much cooler.

If you really want to be blown away by how versatile Patrick Stewart is, rent the movie Jeffery. The character he plays in it is a well-done over the top homosexual. So different from his other roles, you almost can't believe it's the same guy! Given that, I'm not surprised to find out how cool he can be when he needs to for an interview.

On topic: From the interviews I've read and seen, Michael Dorn (from ST:TNG) is a very laid-back, hang-loose kinda of guy, nothing like Worf at all.

WTF? Krakow in drag? Yikes!

I read that the Brady kids had a semi-successful concert and recording career during their hiatuses, but that a lot of the producers wouldn't bother to learn the actors' names, they'd call them by their characters' names.

Susan Oleson, who played Cindy, also complained that the kids at school would tease her because Cindy was a tattletale and talked with a lisp.

Don't soap stars complain about this happening? People thinking they are their characters and going off on them about this and that happening on the show? Or was that just the psycho character Brooke Shields played on Friends?

Patrick Macnee once put it this way: although John Steed is undoubtedly capable of eating spaghetti without getting sauce on his tie, he himself sometimes is not.

He wasn't in drag. He was a regular guy (voice, clothes, etc) who just identified himself as a lesbian and not as a man.

Judging from interviews at the time she was on Cheers, and her "hostessing" of that one awards show (was it the Emmys?), there seems to be very little difference between Shelley Long and Diane Chambers.

Bebe Neuwirth. For me she is and always will be Velma Kelly but everyone she encounters calls her Lilith. So much so that Will and Grace actually did a scene with her spoofing the phenomenon. She talks about people throughout her day just randomly calling her Lilith. Sigh. She's so much more.

And how 'bout Linda Carter? How many times do you think she's heard "Hey Wonder Woman!" I guess the same can be said for Lucy Lawless who probably gets Xena constantly.

They even had an episode of the Simpsons about that. At the end of the episode, Lucy Lawless saves Bart and Lisa and is flying away with them so we get this exchange:

Bart: Hey, Xena can't fly.
Lucy: I told you, I'm not Xena.

There's a funny story about this in "Growing Up Brady" where all the adults are on a plane and Susan Olsen "Cindy" lights up (which isn't allowed) and the stewardess tells Ann B. Davis to make her put it out. Of course, Davis puts her right in her place.

It's always such a pleasant surprise when actors appear on Saturday Night Live and mock their long-standing TV or movie roles.

Sometimes I wish I hadn't, though. Ever since I saw Sam Waterston in the "Old Glory" robot insurance skit, I can't watch him on L&O without wanting to giggle.

I remember seeing Kimberlin Brown on some talk show about 10 years ago. She's a soap actress who played a really evil character named "Sheila" on The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful. She said some crazy woman saw her in an airport bathroom and started beating the crap out of her. I hope she filed charges against that idiot.

One of the saddest stories I've heard is the treatment of Fredi Washington, who starred in the original film version of "Imitation of Life." Her character, Peola, who's name was later changed to Sarah Jane in the Lana Turner version, was ashamed of her black mother and passed as white until her boyfriend discovered her secret.

Unfortunately for Washington, many blacks at the time could not seperate her from this character, assumed that's how she really was and treated her very poorly. Despite the fact that given the chance to "pass," in Hollywood, Washington refused and was an activist for black actors.

Edited because it was off topic to begin with.

I remember seeing a photo of Linville shortly before he died of him posing with a fan. He had a really dumb look on his face (tongue sticking out I think) and he had his hand cupping her breast. I'm hazy on how I saw the photo, but I think there may have been some kind of charges being pressed by her of sexual assault. Perhaps I'm wrong, but that doesn't sound like a highly intelligent or witty guy to me. Please feel free to correct me if you've had personal encounters with the guy.

This is off topic but the last black Senator (prior to Obama's election) was, in fact, Carole Moseley Braun and, before her, Edward Brooke. Adam Clayton Powell was never a Senator, he was a Congressman. [/ot]

I read an interview with Richard Schiff, who talked about being associated with the uber-intelligent Toby Ziegler on The West Wing. It seems like he is having to explain to people that, no, he doesn't have 5 degrees.

When I was a young pup, my parents took me to the shopping center to see my comedy idols, the Three Stooges, doing some kind of promotion. I was expecting wild and whacky Stoogery. Instead, they were sullen and dour, and spent the whole time sitting in chairs, talking to each other, and never once even looked at the fans who came to see them.

Another sad one is David Dukes. It was bad enough he had the same name as a prominent Ku Klux Klan leader, but after playing a guy who attempted to rape Edith during a very famous All in the Family episode, he frequently found himself spit on and derided in the street.

She is/was an active activist as well for women's rights.

Every time I see Sara Gilbert on a talk show (which is rare- I think I last saw her on Ellen), I have to keep telling myself that she is not Darlene. But god, that voice! That was a real shock the first time I saw her on a talk show. Almost as bad as Fran Drescher.

I'm glad to hear it, but I found him a very limited actor, and that may have had more to do with his post-MASH career than anything else. I saw him in an off-Broadway dramatization of Travels with My Aunt and he gave probably the worst performance I've ever seen from a supposedly professional actor.

I guess in general I'm not terribly afflicted with this problem in perceiving actors. I don't know, maybe it comes from my father directing TV commercials for a living, and so we were all used to the idea of people being one thing in real life and another when performing. Even Neil Patrick Harris -- as soon as I'd seen him for a few moments in Sweeney Todd or Assassins, he was that character and no thought of Doogie entered my mind.

Heh, when I saw Neil Patrick Harris on Jack and Bobby, all I could think of was Neil Patrick Harris as Neil Patrick Harris in "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle." You thought it was hard to take Doogie seriously....

He trained as an opera singer. He wrote music. My sister worked with him in one of her first professional jobs as an assistant editor. This was on In the Heat of the Night. He respected her opinion because she was one of the few real southerners on the staff.

More than that, he was introduced to me briefly once. Five months later, I accompanied my sister to the wrap party. He remembered my name and treated me like an honored guest -- a very gracious and lovely man.

As far as Patrick Stewart goes, I was lucky enough to see him play Henry IV in the Shakespeare play back in 1982. He stood center stage and delivered one of Shakespeare's most boring speeches (it's the equivalent of the "Previously on Buffy..." edits) in such an enthralling way that the rest of the play (which had Timothy Dalton as Hotspur) couldn't live up to him. When I found out he'd been chosen to play Picard, I squeed. He is another lovely and gracious man.