7 actors who had two massive TV roles

Some actors get one great part in their careers. Others, like Sandra Oh in BBC Three's Killing Eve, get a second shot at telly mega-fame

Most actors would probably be thrilled to land one killer role in a hit TV show during the course of their career.

But, through luck, hard work, and some savvy choices, a select group of actors have managed to land a totally different part in another successful show, winning them a whole new set of fans and further cementing their positions in the pop culture canon.

Canadian actress Sandra Oh is one such actor. She became a huge US TV star by playing Dr Cristina Yang in 10 seasons of Grey's Anatomy - and now she's back with an acclaimed role as an MI5 agent hunting a young female assassin in Killing Eve.

The show has been a huge hit, and has been commissioned for a second season, external. Next week, Oh is up for the Emmy award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series - the first actress, external of Asian descent ever nominated in that category. It's a much-deserved run of success for an actress who had to really hustle, external to secure her second act on TV.

It's also just been announced that Aaron Paul - who played Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad - is joining the cast of Westworld, external for its third season.

It remains to be seen if this part becomes as iconic as Jesse, but the classy pedigree of Westworld gives him a fighting chance to become a 'two-hit-wonder'. Though BoJack Horseman fans, external might argue that Paul - who voices Todd on Netflix's bleakly comic animated series - has already achieved 'second great TV role' status. 

So what other actors have managed to bag more than one iconic TV role? Well, let's start with Paul's Breaking Bad partner in crime.

It has been 10 years since Breaking Bad first hit our screens.

Yet it still blows some people's minds that the same actor who once played goofy dad Hal in US comedy series Malcolm in the Middle could also portray the meth-cooking anti-hero Walter White.

It speaks to Cranston's gigantic talent and versatility that he could pull both of these roles off with equal aplomb - even prompting the odd fan theory that the characters of Hal and Walter are actually connected.

Margulies first found fame as nurse Carol Hathaway in the hit medical drama ER. She played the role for six years, before leaving the show around the same time as her on-screen love interest Doug Ross (played by George Clooney, who vanished after he departed the series and was never heard from again. Lols).

Then, in 2009, Margulies took on the role of Alicia Florrick in the legal drama The Good Wife - and over the next seven years helped to transform the show into a huge hit, external, winning an Emmy award for the role, and taking on extra duties as a producer on the series.

In 2001, Hall took on the role of closeted undertaker David Fisher in the HBO drama series Six Feet Under. By the end of its five-series run, the show had become one of the most acclaimed on television - and 13 years after it wrapped up for good, it remains one of the most well-regarded, external and beloved of modern TV series.

For his follow up role a year after Six Feet Under ended, Hall stayed with the general theme of death - but this time playing the serial killer-hunting serial killer cop in Dexter. It's still one of the most popular, external binge-watch titles of the last few years.

For a certain generation, Hannigan will forever be Willow Rosenberg from Buffy The Vampire Slayer - still one of the most cherished of TV shows 21 years after it first debuted on US TV.

However, a whole new generation will have likely discovered Hannigan thanks to her role as Lily in the long-running US sitcom How I Met Your Mother (2005-2014). 

And for those fans holding out for a HIMYM reunion some day - especially after that divisive final episode, external - Hannigan seems up for it. "I did like 18 American Pie movies, so clearly I'd be fine with revisiting the character," she has joked, external.

Playing the character of Elaine Benes for nine years in '90s comedy series Seinfeld would ensure any actress a prized place in television history.

But then Julia Louis-Dreyfus started playing (fictional) US vice president Selina Meyer in Armando Iannucci's Veep - and six years into its run, Louis-Dreyfus has scored an unprecedented, external six consecutive Emmy wins for the role, and prompted some to proclaim her, external the greatest comedic actor in the history of television.

Who says telly lightning doesn't strike twice? 

Killing Eve is available as a box set on BBC Three iPlayer. 

This article was originally published on 14 September 2018.