It doesn't matter what else he or she does, they'll always be...

[checkoutgirl]

Craig Charles = Dave Lister
Jason Alexander = George Costanza
George Wendt = NORM!!

There must be hundreds of these.

[Mr Banlon]

Screech
Carlton
Dirty Den

[zomgmouse]

Peter Boyle = Ray Romano's dad. I think I posted this as a reverse example in the "comedy actors who've gone far", because any time I see him young I still unfortunately just think of Everybody Loves Raymond
James Gandolfini = Tony Soprano
Kurtwood Smith = the dad from That 70s Show
Robert Sean Leonard = Wilson from House

all terribly unfair mind you

[non capisco]

Peter Boyle = Ray Romano's dad. I think I posted this as a reverse example in the "comedy actors who've gone far", because any time I see him young I still unfortunately just think of Everybody Loves Raymond

He'll always be the monster in 'Young Frankenstein' for me. When he pops up in Taxi Driver as one of the other cabbies part of me is waiting for him to go "PUUUUUUUINONNNNNNNARIIIIIIZZZZZZZZ"

[Greg Torso]

Yes I couldn't stop thinking this when watching The VVitcb

"Now hear thee mother, twas not gone last Tuesday that I befound theself up to thine nuts in guts"

Someone on here once pointed out that The VVitch begins with Finchy being told to fuck off, which I found very amusing.

[pigamus]

Screech
Carlton
Dirty Den

Bernard Ingham
Gentle Ben

Hurll
Leggo
Richard Drewett

Strike a pose, there's nothing to it

Vogue

[AsparagusTrevor]

Also Paul McCrane will always be "Dr Romano".

Ooh look, Dr Romano's getting melted by the acid in that film about a robot policeman.

Kurtwood Smith = the dad from That 70s Show

They're both from Robocop for me. Kurtwood is always Clarence Boddicker, and I await him asking people called Bobby if they can fly. Paul is always *mimes a guy melting in toxic waste*

Chuck me on the Benedict Wong = Errol pile too. In the Endgame fight he should've called Thanos "ya... flippin.....sod"

[SteveDave]

Finchy from The Office

He's in "Gunpowder Milkshake" and when he appeared on screen as a big bad American accented crime lord gangster man, all I could think was "Bloody good rep"

[Blinder Data]

Oh! Jim from Neighbours!

Yeah, especially because, unlike the likes of Guy Pearce who have matured since their youthful dalliance with Aussie soaps, Jim from Neighbours has barely changed.

[dissolute ocelot]

Neil Patrick Harris in anything (Smurfs, How I Met Your Mother, ...) should give up and behave like his Harold and Kumar character, because he's not remotely plausible as anything else. Maybe this is one for a list of actors who can't play actual human beings, but his HIMYM character barely qualifies as a human being.

And no matter how good an actor he is, I still can't watch Stephen Graham in anything without thinking of This Is England. Which is really unfair, I know.

[checkoutgirl]

Neil Patrick Harris

...is Dougie Howser. It's very generational this, like this actor is this, because that's where I first saw him. No, I saw him decades earlier as this so he's this. In which case that proves that he's not always going to be associated with one character because there's two already.

I'm confused now.

Can we at least agree that Craig Charles is Lister and nobody gives a fuck about Corrie or Robot Wars?

[Mr Trumpet]

Ian McShane had to move to America to shake off Lovejoy, but back home it's still unavoidable.

[Gurke and Hare]

Lindsay Lohan if she wasn't always known as Lindsay Lohan

Spoiler alert

sincerely think she could be really great in something if it weren't for the tabloid malarkey

[close]

I saw her in Speed the Plow at the theatre in London a few years ago. She was very good, but the play itself was rubbish.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Ian McShane had to move to America to shake off Lovejoy, but back home it's still unavoidable.

I'm sure he's had an inverse reaction to that though. Now everybody in America thinks of him as that bloke off of Deadwood.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I'm sure he's had an inverse reaction to that though. Now everybody in America thinks of him as that bloke off of Deadwood.

Or maybe the bloke off Got.

He's mostly Lovejoy but there's a slice of Teddy Bass in there as well.

Which brings me on to Kingsley, he'll always be Don Logan to me now.

[Dr Rock]

Oh look Ralphie from the Sopranos is double crossing people hooked into the Matrix, what is he like?

Oh look Ralphie from the Sopranos is tricking a man with brain damage to do murders for him.

I reckon this one's actually better if you assume it's all in universe.

For me it's oh look, Guido The Killer Pimp from Risky Business ended up working with Tony Soprano's crew. And he's had a nose job.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5cS0_op1IE

edit - a theory many of the commenters subscribe to also.

[Dr Rock]

dp fuckup

[mothman]

dp fuckup

It's true, whenever I see Sasha Grey since she became a proper actress...

[Dex Sawash]

Cook from Skins (Jack Whatever)

[Dex Sawash]

Just looked it up (Jack O'Connell) and see that Anwar from Skins is now Dev Patel.

Sort of a reverse they'll always be, that one.

[ProvanFan]

About a Boy
Stifler

[ProvanFan]

Him with the ears from Mud

[ProvanFan]

Snowy from Sweat is terrorising Gotham City

[timebug]

The late Geoff Hughes, was always 'Eddie Yates' to my wife and myself. I was told he was later in 'Heartbeat' and 'Keeping Up Appearances' and although I did catch odd ones of both of those, the general comment would be' Oh look,  it's Eddie Yates!'

[holyzombiejesus]

"Dance, Billy!"

[metaltax]

Michael Sheen is always Kenneth Williams to me.

[Icehaven]

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is always The Kid From 3rd Rock From The Sun, but that's quite unfair given he's done loads of higher profile stuff and is largely because I can never remember his name.

[Sebastian Cobb]

About a Boy
Stifler

Yep and Jennifer Coolidge will always be his mum.

[Andy147]

For years me and my sister would say about anything John Simm was in "Oh, look. Kendle's in this" due to his early role as someone called Kendle in completely forgotten sitcom 'Men Of The World'. No memory if 'Men Of The World' was even any good or not or whether Kendle was a particularly noteworthy character

He was one of the two main characters: it was about two travel agents played by Simm and David Threlfall. My very vague memory of it is that it was a reasonably good, fairly whimsical comedy. By Daniel "Do-it-All/Hope it's Chips" Peacock, apparently.

[jamiefairlie]

By Daniel "Do-it-All/Hope it's Chips" Peacock, apparently.

He'll always be that snivelling little shit from Five Go Mad...