Sometimes, an actor portrays a character so amazingly well that you literally cannot imagine someone else playing the part. Here are 10 TV characters that were perfectly cast.
You can’t talk about perfectly cast TV characters without mentioning James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano in the iconic HBO series The Sopranos. Gandolfini truly became the mob family man and played the character to utter perfection.
Zach Braff as Dr. John “J.D.” Dorian is another example of a perfectly cast TV character. Braff captured the dreamy, neurotic, and self-sabotaging essence of J.D. with complete accuracy.
Another perfectly cast doctor? Dr. Gregory House, portrayed by Hugh Laurie. Hugh Laurie is remarkable as the sardonic but brilliant doctor, and solver of some of the most perplexing, complicated medical mysteries.
Who else could have possibly delivered the deadpan lines of Captain Holt other than the late Andre Brauer? Exactly. No one. Brauer was the perfect fit for the proper but at times petty Captain Raymond Holt of Brooklyn’s 99th precinct. The actor sadly passed away in December 2023.
Leighton Meester played queen bee Blair Waldorf of Gossip Girl with a bitchy precision nobody else could have possibly achieved. Makes enough sense, right? Not everyone can be Blair Waldorf, after all!
Catherine O’Hara nailed the role of Moira Rose in the comedy Schitt’s Creek. O’Hara mastered Moira’s elongated pronunciation and the out-to-lunch demeanor. It’ll be hard to imagine her playing anyone else in the future.
I genuinely can’t think of another actor who could have been Dwight Shrute on The Office other than Rainn Wilson. I genuinely don’t think I can ever separate the actor from his role on the Comedy Central series. He just does such a good job.
“How much is a banana, Michael, $10?” You can literally hear Jessica Walter’s deliver that iconic line, can’t you? The late actress played Lucille Bluth in the comedy Arrested Development. No one else could have done Lucille justice.
The late, great Maggie Smith did a fantastic job in her role as Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham. Violet was notorious for her sharp-tongued wit, dialogue that could only be delivered by Smith. Violet was Smith’s last role of her illustrious career. The actress recently passed away at age 89.
And finally, Jodie Comer as the sociopathic assassin Villanelle in Killing Eve was a superb casting decision. In fact, Comer was so convincing as Villanelle that she even won an Outstanding Lead Actress Emmy Award in 2019 beating out the likes of Viola Davis, costar Sandra Oh, and Laura Linney.
