Television historian David Davis started a Facebook thread about actors who played double roles on the same show, which with the help of his followers has taken me down a very fun Memory Lane. Please leave a comment if you think of others and I will add them in! See them all HERE.
“I Dream of Jeannie”: Barbara Eden's Jeannie and her identical sister, Jeannie II
“The Patty Duke Show”" Patty Lane and her identical cousin, Cathy
“Bewitched”: Elizabeth Montgomery's Samantha Stephens and her identical cousin, Serena
“The Brady Bunch”: Christopher Knight's Peter Brady and his doppelgänger, Arthur Owens
“Gilligan’s Island”: Tina Louise's Ginger Grant and her doppelgänger, Eva Grubb
From the comment gallery:
"The Brady Bunch": Ann B. Davis's Alice and her identical cousin, Emma
Ann B. Davis's real-life twin sister, Harriet Norton, is still alive at 94.
"The Munsters": Fred Gwynne's Herman Munster and his identical brother, Charlie Munster
"All in the the Family": Jean Stapleton's Edith Bunker and doppelgänger Judith Klammerstadt, the new German bride of Edith's butcher who had a crush on her
"The Addams Family": Carolyn Jones's Morticia Addams and her identical sister, Ophelia
"The Beverly Hillbillies": Max Baer Jr.'s Jethro Bodine and his twin sister, Jethrine.
"Maude": Conrad Bain's Arthur Harmon had a crazy looklike played by real life twin brother, Bonar Bain
"Friends": Lisa Kudrow's Phoebe met Ursula from "Mad About You"
"Gilligan's Island": Bob Denver's Little Buddy had a Russian double ...
... and Jim Backus's Mr. Howell had an imposter as well!
"Here's Lucy": Lucy Carter meets Lucille Ball
"The Love Boat": Captain Stubing had two brothers, all played by Gavin McCloud (that's Marshall Stubing, above!)
"The Brady Bunch": Florence Henderson and Robert Reed as the grandparents
"I Dream of Jeannie": Larry Hagman played Major Nelson's evil double in a two part episode! Another person noted that Barbara Eden also played Jeannie's mother
"Three's Company": John Ritter played Austin Tripper
"The Bionic Woman": Lindsay Wagner played Jaime Sommers's double, Lisa Galloway
"The Patty Duke Show": Patty Duke also played Patty and Cathy’s other cousin named Betsy.
"Murder, She Wrote": Angela Lansbury's Jessica Fletcher also had an identical cousin, Emma.
"Sanford and Son": Fred Sanford entered a Redd Foxx look alike contest.
"Mork and Mindy": Mork meeting Robin Williams
"Dynasty": Linda Evans as Krystal and Rita
"Martin": Martin Lawrence as neighbor Sheneneh Jenkins
"Alice": In addition to the titular character, Linda Lavin also played Debbie Walden, the wizened and former landlady of Vera
"Deceptions": Stefanie Powers played twin sisters Stephanie and Sabrina in the 1985 miniseries
"Family Matters": Jaleel White was Steve Urkel ... and Myrtle Urkel
"Friends": David Schwimmer was Ross ... and with a little makeup, Russ
"Full House": I'm not sure if this counts -- it seems like it was more about a deal with SAG more than anything -- but I'm told Mary-Kate Olsen played the identical cousin of Michelle Tanner -- played by Ashley -- from Greece!
"Charlie's Angels": Sammy Davis Jr. is involved in an attempted kidnapping during a celebrity look-alike contest -- and guess who plays his lookalike?!
"Twin Peaks": Sheryl Lee played Laura Palmer and her cousin Maddie
"The Monkees": Davy Jones meets his double, the shy Prince Ludlow of Peruvia
"Seinfeld": Well this is bizarre: Just saw the episode where Jerry Stiller's Frank Costanza visits (what he thinks is) his cousin Carlo in Tuscany -- played by ... Jerry Stiller!
"It's a Living": Paul Kreppel doubled his duties on two episodes playing both Sonny Mann and Sonny's father
The opposite twin must have been a popular sit com gimmick- in "Star Trek" there was an episode in which the entire crew had evil doubles
ReplyDeleteI remember my older and more sophisticated sisters pointing out that Samantha and Cousin Serena were played by the same person. I didn't believe them. "But --but one has blond hair and the other has brown hair!" "That's a WIG, dummy!"
ReplyDeleteThere was Ross and Russ on Friends and Steve and Myrtle Urkel on Family Matters.
ReplyDeleteBewitched: It didn't help in my young mind that Serena was listed in the credits as being played by Pandora Spocks.
ReplyDeleteFull House where Michelle Tanner had an identical cousin from Greece
ReplyDeleteSammy Davis Jr. played himself and his impersonator on Charlie's Angels: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0539258/ .
ReplyDeleteSheryl Lee played Laura Palmer and her cousin Maddie on "Twin Peaks".
ReplyDelete"The Monkees", The Prince and the Paupers
ReplyDeletehttps://m.imdb.com/title/tt0650709/