10 Actors Who Returned To Famous Roles After A Very Long Time

Once upon a time, it was common practice for an actor to play a character in a movie just the once before moving on to other projects. However, in this new world we find ourselves in, where cinematic universes, sequels, reboots (even rebootquels) rule the box office, the stars of today are being asked to reappear in the same roles over and over again. Many for the first time in years. Decades, even. Last year, for instance, Arnold Schwarzenegger returned to his most famous role as the unstoppable killing machine (now a goofy father figure) in Terminator: Genisys for the first time in 12 years. Going back a little further, Leonard Nimoy turned up in 2009’s Star Trek reboot to pass the torch to the new guys, after a break from the franchise that had lasted 19 years. As crazy as both of those examples may seem, the following 10 actors waited even longer to return to their roles…. 10) Jim Carrey/Jeff Daniels - 20 Years 1994’s Dumb and Dumber was one of the biggest comedy hits of the 90s and solidified the growing success of its two stars, Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. It isn’t surprising, then, the pair didn’t return for the 2003 follow-up, which recast the duo as younger men. However, Carrey and Daniels did reprise the parts of Harry Dunne and Lloyd Christmas in 2014’s Dumb and Dumber To. In case you couldn't tell, that’s a whole 20 years since the first one. As is the way with many latter-day sequels, the movie was not met with the same acclaim that the first one was, and received pretty negative reviews. Oddly enough, though, Dumb and Dumber To was a fairly big box office success. 9) Sylvester Stallone - 20 Years Sylvester Stallone is lucky enough to have played two iconic roles in his time – heavyweight champ Rocky Balboa and Vietnam vet John Rambo. Both are so iconic, in fact, that Stallone reprised both roles in very belated sequels. First, he got back in the ring as Rocky Balboa in the 2006 movie, a hefty 16 years after last appearing in Rocky V in 1990. It was another nine years before he reprised the role again in 2015’s Creed. The bigger gap, though, was the wait between 1988’s Rambo III and the next time that he played the part - 2008’s Rambo. Don’t expect a Rocky-like second return here, however, as Stallone recently confirmed there will be no more Rambo movies. 8) Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Brent Spiner And More - 20 Years The latest throwback movie to come out this summer was Independence Day: Resurgence, Ronald Emmerich’s sequel to his own 1996 alien invasion flick that set the trend for big, explosive blockbusters. Taking place 20 years after the first movie, it regrouped just about all the main players. Jeff Goldblum reprised his role of David Levinson, Bill Pullman was back as (former) President Whitmore, and even Brent Spiner returned as Dr. Brackish Okun, despite apparently dying in the last film. Other familiar faces include Judd Hirsch, Vivaca A. Fox, John Storey and Robert Loggia. The only major player who wasn't involved was, of course, Will Smith, who elected not to return in favour of playing Deadshot in Suicide Squad. Given how much more successful that film proved to be (at the box office, at least), it’s safe to say he made the right choice. 7) B.D. Wong - 22 Years Despite being set in the same continuity as the previous three films, 2015’s Jurassic World was quite a break from the rest of the franchise that was spawned from Steven Spielberg's beloved 1993 original. For one, out went Jeff Goldblum and Sam Neill and in came Chris Pratt in the lead role. In fact, just one actor returned from the first movie – B.D. Wong, who played Dr. Henry Wu as a minor supporting character in Park and as something of an antagonist in World. Wong has stated he was only on set for a single day in the original movie, so it’s safe to safe he didn’t expect to be playing the same character again a whole 22 years later. While it was a nice surprise for the actor, it's a shame they couldn't have got some more familiar faces back as well. Maybe they will for the next two movies in the planned trilogy though? 6) Anthony Perkins - 23 Years After his terrific performance as boyish motel clerk turned mother-murdering serial killer Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, Anthony Perkins naturally never escaped from under the long shadow of his most famous role. Clearly, he accepted this, as the actor returned to play Bates in not one, not two, but three sequels many years later. Psycho II arrived in 1983, a whole 23 years after the 1960 original. Though nowhere near as well remembered as its predecessor, it isn’t a bad follow-up, all things considered. Unfortunately, it was succeeded by two much weaker films in 1986 and 1990. Though he never recaptured the magic of the original, all of Perkins’ performances were, at the very least, far better than Vince Vaughn’s in the needless shot-for-shot 1998 remake. 5) Michael Douglas - 23 Years Wall Street’s Gordon Gekko, with his yuppie sensibilities and dated fashion sense, was such a product of the 1980s that it was a strange idea to resurrect him nearly two and a half decades later. But that’s exactly what director Oliver Stone did, with Michael Douglas back in one of his best known roles. 2010’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps was flawed, but it had a good premise at the heart of it – how would the real-life financial recession affect Gekko? – and Douglas easily slipped back into the role. It also co-starred Shia LaBeouf, back when he was the king of resurrecting 80s properties after featuring in Transformers and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. 4) Paul Newman - 25 Years There's a clear trend with these belated role reprisals where the return is not as successful as the first time around. This isn't true of Paul Newman though and the two times he played conman Fast Eddie Felson. He first played the role in 1961’s The Hustler, which earned nine Academy-Award nominations including Best Actor. In 1986, Newman returned to Fast Eddie in The Color of Money. While the film only got four Oscar nominations this time around (only four!), Newman managed to nab the Best Actor award on this occasion. Thanks to being directed by Martin Scorsese and featuring a fresh from Top Gun Tom Cruise, The Color of Money is probably better known nowadays than the original film. 3) Jeff Bridges And Bruce Boxleitner - 28 Years 2010’s Tron: Legacy was one of the most unlikely Disney projects in recent years. Updating their cult favourite movie Tron with state-of-the-art special effects was a clever idea, but the film was a sizeable 28 years old by the time the sequel arrived. Apart from the visuals, the big draw of Legacy was getting Jeff Bridges back as Flynn. Now an Oscar winner, Bridges gives a much more mature performance here as a more nuanced version of the character. It’s a pity the eerie recreation of his younger face – used for the corrupted Clu program – isn’t so successful. Talk about uncanny valley. Also reappearing from Tron is Bruce Boxleitner, who reprised his role as the titular security program and its creator Alan Bradley. 2) Jack Lemmon And Walter Matthau - 30 Years Talking of unlikely sequels, the incredibly belated follow-up to 1960s classic comedy The Odd Couple was so out of the blue and uncalled for that it was a box office bomb and critical failure upon release. Nevertheless, 1998’s The Odd Couple II is notable for getting both of its stars back after an enormous 30 years. While this sounds impressive on paper, it should be remembered that Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau had become a firm double act since the first movie and had since starred in numerous films together, such as the Grumpy Old Men series earlier that decade. The Odd Couple II also marks the last time the pair played a lead role in a movie, as both sadly passed away in 2000 and 2001, respectively. 1) Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher And Mark Hamill - 32 Years Returning as the iconic trio of Han Solo, Princess (sorry, General) Leia and Luke Skywalker (though without any lines), Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill turned up in 2015’s The Force Awakens a whopping 32 years after their last appearance in a Star Wars movie, and we were thrilled to see them back on screen. Ford, of course, is the unchallenged king of latter-day sequels. Before Force Awakens, he reprised Indiana Jones in 2008’s Kingdom of the Crystal Skull a hefty 19 years after The Last Crusade. Next year, he'll beat his own record when he returns to the role of Rick Deckard in the long-awaited Blade Runner sequel. In case you haven't been keeping count, that will be 35 years after the 1982 sci-fi heavyweight first debuted.