Some TV and film performances have become so cemented in popular culture that they have transcended the medium itself. They’ve become examples of an era and elements through which a generation can be identified. Of course, nothing like this could ever be accomplished without an actor’s exceptional performance and their capability to embody a character beyond what a script tells them to do.
However, it isn’t just a matter of a good performance. It is also about a performer becoming an owner of that character. By perfectly embodying every aspect of the character, they become the only ones who can deliver it, and viewers cringe at the very idea of their replacement. In some cases, the only way to keep a series moving forward is to simply retire the character instead of attempting to recast them.
The following is a list of those actors who are irreplaceable in some of their best roles to date.
15 Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice (1989), Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)
In the original Beetlejuice, an innocent couple tragically dies, but they don’t realize it right away. It’s only when they can’t leave their home anymore and a new family moves in that they realize there’s something off. Unaware of how things are in the afterlife, they hire a bio-exorcist to remove the new family from their home. The problem is that this demon, Betelgeuse, will try to do more than the contract stipulates.
Michael Keaton‘s performance as Betelgeuse is memorable, even if it consists of only a few minutes of screen time, à la Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs. The reason he’s irreplaceable is that Keaton adds a perfect balance of comedy and mania that’s displayed through a physically spotless performance. What he did was so remarkable that the idea of a sequel without him was considered absurd, and you can bet he’ll be starring in the long-awaited 2024 follow-up.
14 Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes
Misery (1990)
In Misery, author Paul Sheldon has just finished his latest novel. He sees this as a full-circle act, as he has killed off a major character that has been featured throughout his career. While coming back from his retreat, Sheldon has a horrible accident. Fortunately, Annie Wilkes saves him and starts taking care of him. What Paul doesn’t know is that Wilkes knows who he is, and she’s a fan of the character he has killed.
Rob Reiner’s adaptation of the Stephen King novel of the same name features one of the best villains in all of King’s films. Kathy Bates‘ rendering of Wilkes is more than just a physical manifestation of an idea. In some ways, Bates takes the character and models it to her own physicality, but fortunately, she doesn’t do it to try to make the audience like her. Au contraire, Bates’ approach is that of an extreme version of fandom, and there’s nothing more divisive than toxic fandom. This is one of two performances on this list that earned its performer an Academy Award.
13 Arnold Schwarzenegger as the T-800
The Terminator (1984), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
In the Terminator franchise, Sarah and John Connor are innocent souls whose lives change after a visit from the future. Sarah’s son, John, is a leader of the resistance in the future, where humans are trying to fight against the machines. The machines constantly send a terminator back in time in order to stop John from being born or straight-up kill him when he’s just a child. The T-800 is that lethal and undefeatable machine in the first entry, and ’80s action star Arnold Schwarzenegger gives it life.
But then, in the following film, a reprogrammed version of the T-800 is sent back to protect Sarah and John. It doesn’t matter where you stand on the Terminator franchise, the progression from “bad Arnie” to “good Arnie” is perfectly managed by James Cameron (director of the first two films), who understood the value of making Schwarzenegger a good guy.
Also, parts 1 and 2 are undoubtedly the best Terminator films, and much of that has to do with Schwarzenegger’s almost sacred and graceful depiction of the android who constantly keeps learning.
12 Steve Carell as Michael Scott
The Office (2005 – 2013)
In The Office, the employees of a paper company in Scranton, Pennsylvania, try to survive their boring lives determined by a very mundane office space. Each of them is a cartoonish version of the office environment you may be familiar with, but none of them can top Michael Scott, the manager of Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton office. Michael is a leader so cringe, naive, offensive, and hilarious that it’s hard to find a funnier but riskier character in all of modern television.
Comedian Steve Carell gave life to Michael for most of the run of NBC’s comedy sitcom. And he was the man responsible for making Michael such a contentious TV figure who could make you laugh and cry at the same time. Carell’s work is so good that he gave Michael an identity beyond the cringey jokes. He made sure Michael compiled the best and worst of office leaders, and he expressed the results in unrestricted fashion. Another actor in Carell’s shoes would be a mere shadow.
11 Tom Hiddleston as Loki
Thor (2011), The Avengers (2012), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), Loki (2021 – Present)
Loki is Thor’s adoptive brother and one of the many antagonists to the superhero team known as the Avengers. It’s hard to form a storyline out of something so simple, but considering the impact of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it seems to have worked: Loki started his shenanigans because he was jealous.
Luckily, his story has progressed towards more complicated themes, and now he remains an essential element of the franchise (and one of the few with a genuinely successful TV spin-off).
The MCU has plenty of icons, and Loki is, by far, one of the most important. It’s not that he’s a great “anti-hero.” It’s that the appeal accomplished by Tom Hiddleston is hard to top. In fact, Hiddleston may be the only reason why Loki became so popular and thus, made constant appearances in films he wasn’t supposed to be in.
His ability to come back from the dead is a good narrative device, but when you have an actor with that much charisma, you don’t care how and when. You just want to see that golden and mischievous smile.
10 Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), Dead Man’s Chest (2006), At World’s End (2007), On Stranger Tides (2011), Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017)
In the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Captain Jack Sparrow is an anti-hero with as many secrets as talents. He may seem harmless, but in reality, he’s one of the nine Pirate Lords of the Seven Seas, and all pirates from the beyond are trying to hunt him down. Such a complicated protagonist and anti-hero was only possible by a perfect combination of wit and character propped up by Hollywood legend Johnny Depp.
Depp revealed Sparrow combined The Rolling Stones’ lead guitar Keith Richards and Bugs Bunny, and if you think something so weird can’t be appealing, you clearly weren’t alive in 2003. Everything was about Sparrow. All the kids’ Halloween costumes resembled pirates.
His legacy is undeniable given how Disney has stopped from making a Pirates of the Caribbean film without Depp, but all that may change in the future. If he ever comes back to play Sparrow, it would be one of the most successful returns in Hollywood history.
9 Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump (1994)
In Forrest Gump, a man who always lived with his mother on the outskirts of a small town in Alabama, has all kinds of extraordinary encounters and opportunities that make his life a modern fairy tale. Gump goes to war, saves half his batallion, becomes a ping pong champion, and forms a very successful company. The only thing he can’t seem to do is find love.
Tom Hanks gives life to Gump, the low-IQ genius who teaches Elvis his signature hip moves, and becomes a shrimp mogul after promising this to his best friend. The film was only possible due to Hanks’ appealing depiction of a man whose intelligence isn’t apparent.
Life is like a box of chocolates, and the random surprises of Gump’s journey make the film a perfect comedy-drama in the hands of a truly compelling actor who owns every moment and executes a great version of a “limited” individual. Hanks won an Academy Award for his performance as Forrest Gump, one year after he won for Philadelphia.
8 Hugh Laurie as Dr. Gregory House
House (2004 – 2012)
In the TV show House, Dr. Gregory House is a medical genius who runs the diagnostics department at the Princeton–Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. However, House isn’t a caring and conventional doctor. Instead, he’s a distrusting, foul-mouthed, and eccentric medic who always turns out to be right when trying to guess the cryptic diseases that show up at the hospital. Throughout the entire show, many things changed, but House’s ways never did.
Played masterfully by English thespian Hugh Laurie, House is one of those characters you can’t help but love in the saccharine-tasting universe of medical shows. House is cranky but extremely smart, and the mix of those makes every episode of the show end in dramatic fashion. Laurie thoroughly follows the script, but it’s in his physicality that the secret to playing House lies. He’s so spot-on it’s almost sinful to imagine someone else playing the most famous doctor on television.
7 Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley
Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), Alien Resurrection (1997)
What makes Sigourney Weaver‘s journey as Ellen Ripley so riveting and effective in the Alien franchise is that throughout the course of four films, all made by entirely different filmmakers, the actor was able to fully bring to life a logical arc. In the first film, Ripley is just part of the crew, and her wit and luck make her the sole survivor as a perfect monster ends the lives of the Nostromo crew.
But then the following films all depict a different kind of survivor: the brave and motherly one, the most badass, the trauma-ridden victim, and then the bonkers version of Ripley’s own clone. All great variations of Weaver’s portrayal of the perfect female hero who never surrendered to a monster that was always more physically powerful.
6 Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly
Back to the Future (1985), Back to the Future Part II (1989), Back to the Future Part III (1990)
In the Back to the Future franchise, Marty McFly is a teenager whose friendship with a wacky scientist forces him to go through a fascinating journey through time. The 1950s, the not-so-near future, and the Wild West were some of the eras visited by Marty in one of the most successful trilogies of all time. Michael J. Fox‘s role as Marty is, in itself, a pop culture icon.
The reason why Fox is irreplaceable as Marty has to do with how Zemeckis made sure his character stayed within the boundaries of the genre. Marty is never an action character. Instead, he’s the everyman who can make mistakes and rides a skateboard. He’s not the jock because he isn’t tall enough, but he’s agile enough to defeat the bad guy each time, and make us laugh at the same time. Alongside Doc Brown, they’re the quintessential 1980s movie duo.
5 Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, aka Iron Man
Iron Man (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019)
In what will eventually become the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tony Stark is the man. After a piece of shrapnel is embedded in his chest, Stark is forced to constantly wear a device and fight the bad guys by wearing the coolest suit in the superhero universe. But without the appealing personality of Tony Stark, Iron Man wouldn’t have become the leader of the Avengers. And without Robert Downey Jr.‘s performance as Stark, the punchlines, humor, and snarky comments wouldn’t have been the same.
Downey’s portrayal of the playboy/mogul-turned-superhero progressed from being a thin character to the leader of the supergroup that fought the universe’s deadliest contender. But something that always stayed with him was the humor and honesty that made him a mainstay in MCU movies.
His swansong in Avengers: Endgame was a great way to celebrate the legacy of Downey’s return to stardom by playing a provocative and obnoxious man who always had the best intentions in his decisions. Someone else in the Iron Man suit would have probably fizzled out after a few films, but Downey was trustworthy enough to make every Stark scene a golden piece of modern cinema. We’ll just see how his surprising follow-up as Doctor Doom goes.
4 Pat Morita as Mr. Miyagi
The Karate Kid (1984), The Karate Kid Part II (1986), The Karate Kid Part III (1989), The Next Karate Kid (1994)
The sports drama epic The Karate Kid started a franchise when Daniel LaRusso moved to Los Angeles from the big city, and he started getting bullied in high school. Luckily, the handyman in charge of the building where Daniel and his mother live knows a thing or two about personal defense. Mr. Miyagi, as he has always been addressed, teaches Daniel karate and discipline, marking the beginning of his journey in a franchise that is still going strong to this day.
Pat Morita portrayed Miyagi with so much authenticity that even though all three of the original films essentially featured the same storyline, it was still worth it to watch Mr. Miyagi provide his wisdom and help save the day. Morita’s execution of the concept was integral enough to keep the character on the same note for ten years, and it’s impossible to think of the character without the actor’s signature delivery.
3 Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
The Indiana Jones franchise puts its hero, Indiana Jones, through all kinds of white-knuckle dangerous situations. Jones faces Nazis, but he also faces cults and Soviets who want to get their hands on historical objects that could change the course of history if they fell into the wrong hands. Fortunately, Indiana’s fearless ways save the world over and over in the most iconic action-adventure franchise of all time.
Harrison Ford‘s portrayal of Indiana Jones shot him to even higher stardom after giving life to Han Solo in Star Wars. This time, he played a modern version of those heroes from the movie serials of the early 20th century. He would always win, but Ford’s signature performance was balanced enough to let us see the flaws behind the seemingly flawless improvised acts using nothing but a whip and gun.
Through the magic of Spielberg’s visual storytelling, the idea of Indiana Jones became cemented in popular culture, and today, it’s impossible to picture anyone else wearing the Fedora.
2 Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean
Mr. Bean (1990 – 1995), Bean (1997), Mr. Bean’s Holiday (2007)
Mr. Bean is a British sitcom that introduced worldwide audiences to the strange and clumsy man who always wears a brown jacket, a white shirt, a red tie, brown trousers, and black shoes. Bean lives by himself, and even though he’s self-sufficient, his childish behavior lands him all sorts of issues in everyday situations. All this is portrayed without him speaking a single line of dialogue, by a performer without whom the character would likely be impossible.
Rowan Atkinson gave life to the title character, and it was through his groundbreaking physical performance that he delivered to modern audiences a piece of the type of silent comedy originally made famous by performers like Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and Buster Keaton.
Atkinson’s take on the character is subtle, physically similar to the aforementioned greats but deeper in terms of the context. Mr. Bean mostly takes place in mundane situations, but the comedian’s execution of character makes it hilarious enough to bend any scenario to his will.
1 Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa, aka Black Panther
Captain America: Civil War (2016), Black Panther (2018), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019)
In Black Panther, a stellar entry in the MCU’s beloved phase three, T’Challa is a prince who’s forced to take the role of king after his father is killed. Wakanda is an isolated nation with a secret of their own: they have access to vibranium, a precious metal required by defense systems. But when T’Challa ascends and tries to maintain Wakanda’s traditional values, an enemy arises to challenge him.
After Chadwick Boseman gave life to Black Panther in Captain America: Civil War, it was only a matter of time before Marvel Studios attempted to make a standalone film. The film was a huge success, and it would had a major cultural impact because of the fact it was the first major superhero film with a predominantly black cast.
The result was a celebrated, Academy Award-winning film led by an action star whose portrayal was so good that a difficult decision was made after the actor’s passing: T’Challa/Black Panther would be no more without Boseman to portray him.
