The Films: From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967), On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), The Man With The Golden Gun (1974), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983), A View To A Kill (1985), The Living Daylights (1987), Licence To Kill (1989), GoldenEye (1995), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), The World Is Not Enough (1999). It shouldnt be surprising to see a Bond alum top this list. With a twenty-fourth film on the way, theres more than enough films to blow any plucky upstart franchise out of the water. But dont let that take away the incredible achievement of Desmond Llewelyn starring in seventeen of the 007 series. Taking over the character of Major Boothroyd from Peter Burton in the second film and becoming known by his much better moniker a year later in Goldfinger, he played Bonds gadget man through until the end of the century, only missing Live And Let Die (hes not in the book either). Always the same balance of proper and eccentric even as the series kept constantly jumping tone, his Q felt like an unending constant throughout all iterations of the super spy. Llewelyn died in a car crash months after the premiere of The World Is Not Enough. Having already set up John Cleese as his successor the series moved on, but the former Python was too of the time, lasting only one more film. The radically reimagined Ben Whishaw version Skyfall, while clearly physically different, is certainly more inkeeping of Llewlyn's performance. This list is far from exhaustive. Let us know of any other actors who played a single character multiple times down in the comments.
