10 Actors You Didn’t Know Played The Same Character In More Than One TV Show

This one is cheating slightly, but the similarities are too strong to ignore.

Obba Babatundé, a character actor with almost 100 credits to his name, appeared in two episodes of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as Gordy Berry. This music executive part was a not-so-subtle nod to legendary Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr., the man who helped launch the careers of The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, and The Jacksons.

Four years after his time with Will Smith, Babatundé would get the chance to play the actual Berry Gordy on a TV mini-series called The Temptations. The show followed the ups and downs of the titular band and saw Babatundé play their manager across two two-hour broadcasts on NBC.

While he's not technically playing the same character, the Gordy Berry character is so clearly inspired by the real man that they may as well be called the same thing.

Also, the fact that Babatundé got to play the fake version of Gordy before the real version is totally bizarre, and it's baffling that he doesn't make a bigger deal out of it.