Multiple and Dual Film Roles

Often as movie viewers, we little question why a film has one actor playing dual or multiple roles in the same film. We don’t, for example, bother ourselves wondering why Eddie Murphy is playing anywhere from 3 to 8 people in the same film. It may be he thinks he can do a better job than anyone else in the roles. Maybe he wants to showcase his many talents or maybe he’s producing the film and just likes to save money, but we don’t question. We just accept it and marvel at his ability to create so many hilarious characters. Eddie Murphy has played multiple roles in “Coming to America” (1988), “Vampire in Brooklyn (1995), “The Nutty Professor” (1996) and its sequels, and “Norbit” (2007). As it turns out, he was inspired by the inimitable Peter Sellers.

Peter Sellers will always be remembered highly for his brilliance as Dr. Strangelove, Captain Mandrake and President Merkin Muffley in Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” (1964).

Perhaps the classic multiple role movie of all time was “Kind Hearts and Coronets” (1949) starring Alec Guinness (before he was Sir) in 8 roles and a portrait. Guinness plays 7 male roles and one female in this comedic who-dun-it. He is also depicted in a portrait as one of his ancestors in the film. “Kind Hearts and Coronets” still has its place as one of the greatest movies of all time.

Legendary comic genius, Mel Brooks, is another guy who liked to play more than one role in his hilarious comedies, while giving himself some of the most memorable lines. In “History of the World, Part I” (1981), he played Moses, Comicus, Torquemada, Jacques and King Louis XVI. From the King Louis role came the famous line: “It’s good to be King.” In “Spaceballs” (1987), a “Star Wars” spoof, he plays both President Skroob and Yogurt: “Never underestimate the power of the Schwartz.”

If you’ve seen all of them, here are some more you might want to check out:

In 1982’s “Mother Lode”, Charlton Heston had a field day playing twin Scottish miners, Silas and Ian McGee. One of Charlton’s character is as crazy as a bedbug, but gold sometimes has that effect on folks. Kim Basinger makes an appearance in the second film of her career as a woman searching for her lost husband, accompanied by Nick Mancuso. Often overlooked, it is quite entertaining for Heston’s Scottish brogue alone. If you are able to catch it on TV, try not to watch it with a hangover.

“From Dusk Till Dawn” (1996) features some very notable stars: Harvey Keitel, George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino and Juliette Lewis, but they all play only one role. It is comedian, Cheech Marin, who gets to play three: a border guard, a crime lord named Carlos, and the doorman at a strip club with unique employees.

Jean-Claude Van Damme, the “Muscles from Brussels,” fought himself when he played the good guy role of Chad and the bad guy, Alex, in “Double Impact” (1991). Chad and Alex get into it over a woman.

In “The One” (2001), Jet Li thinks he has killed his other universe doppelganger, but that’s only the beginning. He has to tangle with way more doppelgangers than he bargained for.

In “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” (1991), William Shatner (as Captain Kirk) fights Iman, an alien who thinks it a clever idea to morph into a Kirk clone, in an unusual twist on confounding one’s opponent.

“The Devil’s Double” (2010) features English actor Dominic Cooper in the dual role of Latif Yahia and Saddam Hussein’s brutal and dissolute son, Uday. The film is based upon the biographical novel of the real Latif Yahia, body double for Uday Hussein. Latif Yahia is an army lieutenant summoned by Saddam Hussein to fill in for his son. He has to learn to walk, talk and act like Uday. If he refuses, his family will be killed. Dominic Cooper has appeared in, among other films, “Mamma Mia” (2008), “An Education” (2009) and on television in “Sense and Sensibility” and “Preacher” (in the title role).

An oldie but baddie (at least in my opinion) was “A Stolen Life” (1949), a good twin/bad twin vehicle starring Bette Davis. Good Kate falls in love with Bill (Glen Ford) and stinky Pat steals him away. I was really surprised at the good reviews this film got. Seriously, I could think of a bunch of better endings. There was an earlier film (1939) starring Elisabeth Bergner as the twins. Bette Davis played twins again in “Dead Ringer (1964). It was not a remake of “A Stolen Life” and, in my opinion, it was a much better film.

In 1988, Jeremy Irons starred in a film called “Dead Ringers” that had nothing to do with the Bette Davis film. He played twin gynecologists who are way weirder than the creepy little Grady twins (real twins Louise and Lisa Burns) in Kubrick’s “The Shining” (1980).