Whether in comedies, tragedies, or somewhere in between, actors have long taken on the challenge of playing multiple roles in the same movie. Usually playing a twin or doppelganger, actors have also played widely different characters in order to show the depths of their talents. Here are six actors who have played two or more characters in the same movie.

1. Ronald Colman in ‘The Prisoner of Zenda’ – 1937

An adaptation of Anthony Hope’s 1894 novel, The Prisoner of Zenda starred Ronald Colman in the dual role of a soon-to-be crowned king who meets his doppelganger prior to falling into a coma. Colman delivered a fine dual performance as King Rudolf V, a prince about to take the throne of a fictional unnamed country in Europe, who meets his distant cousin (Colean), a dead ringer for the crown prince. But when the king is drugged and falls into a coma, his cousin is encouraged to take Rudolf’s place or else the king’s evil brother (Raymond Massey) will be king instead. Remade and re-imagined countless times over the years, Colman’s version of The Prisoner of Zenda remains the best.More »

2. Bette Davis in ‘A Stolen Life’ – 1946

One of two films where she played duals roles, Bette Davis delivered quality turns as twin sisters, Kate and Pat, the former shy and introspective, and the other a manipulative man-eater. When they make the acquaintance of a charming lighthouse engineer (Glenn Ford), Kate falls in love with him. Naturally, he falls for the more enticing Pat and goes on to marry her, leaving Kate bereft and in the company of her artwork. It’s only when a fortuitous accident allows Kate to try and fool Ford by replacing her sister. A Stolen Life was a remake of a 1939 British film starring Michael Redgrave and Elizabeth Bergner in the twin sister role. Twenty years later, Davis again played twin sisters in Paul Henreid’s 1964 thriller, Dead Ringer.More »

3. Peter Sellers in ‘Dr. Strangelove’ – 1961

Peter Sellers was the undisputed champion of multiple roles and he was never more brilliant than he was playing not two, but three characters in Stanley Kubrick’s classic Cold War satire. An hysterical, but frightening examination of the insane nuclear policy of mutually assured destruction, Dr. Strangelove featured Sellers as the bookish President Merkin Muffley, a slightly bumbling RAF officer, Captain Mandrake, and Dr. Strangelove himself, an ex-Nazi scientist bound to a wheelchair and prone to calling the president, “Mein Führer!” While Dr. Strangelove contained great performances all around – particularly from Sterling Hayden as an unhinged Air Force commander and George C. Scott as a jingoistic Army general – it was Sellers who earned the lion’s share of attention, as well as an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in his most widely remembered performance.More »

4. Jerry Lewis in ‘The Nutty Professor’ – 1963

Comedian Jerry Lewis was in top form in this madcap take on the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story. Lewis played bumbling professor Julius Kelp, an addle-minded chemistry instructor at a university whose only capability is routinely blowing up his classroom. After experiencing humiliation at the hands off a football player, Kelp designs a chemical that turns him into a suave nightclub singer named Buddy Love, an alter ego that turns him into a sensation at a local nightclub while finally gaining the attention of the long-desired Stella (Stella Stevens). Of course, the potion hilariously wears off at all the wrong moments, but in the end Kelp manages to accept himself and win the girl anyway. The Nutter Professor was remade decades later into a hugely successful comedy starring Eddie Murphy.More »

5. Dick Van Dyke in ‘Mary Poppins’ – 1964

Even though he wasn’t technically credited, Dick Van Dyke played two distinct roles in one of the most cherished children’s movies of all time. Starring Julie Andrews as the titular Poppins, a prim and proper governess hired to bring order to the wayward Banks children, the film featured Van Dyke as Bert, a Cockney jack-of-all-trades who’s Mary’s best friend and is well aware of her magical abilities. He also appeared later in the movie as the impossibly old Mr. Dawes, Sr., a bank director who quite literally dies laughing from a joke. While most of the attention went to Andrews, who won the Oscar for Best Actress in her debut role, Van Dyke was equally memorable as the high-energy Bert and the geriatric Dawes.More »

6. Lee Marvin in ‘Cat Ballou’ – 1965

While remembered for his tough-as-nails performances in The Dirty Dozen and Point Blank, Lee Marvin delivered an hysterical dual turn in this hybrid musicalWestern comedy. Marvin riffed on his hardboiled persona playing Tim Stawn, a hired killer threatening the ranch owner father (John Marley) of Catherine Ballou (Jane Fonda), a schoolteacher returned to her Wyoming home. Cat hires legendary gunslinger, Kid Shelleen (Marvin), who turns out to be nothing more than a drunken louse. That forces Cat to take matters into her own hands and seeks revenge for her father’s death herself. Marvin was absolutely brilliant as Strawn/Shelleen, which was why the Academy bestowed him with the Oscar for Best Actor – rare acknowledgement for a comedic performance.More »