opus' thread (https://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=480828) about a Swedish hockey player named Felix Unger Sörum made me think of other examples.

Richie Cunnigham - former NFL placekicker
Arnold Jackson - former NFL wide receiver

Do you know anyone with the same name as TV character?

Lonny Anderson was the name of Crystal's Son on Roseanne . And Loni Anderson the actress.

With Barbara and Cooper both being relatively common names, there have been some of those. Here's two, an artist and a politician

https://www.barbaracooperartist.com/

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/articles/Barbara_Cooper_(politician)

In the 60’s, there was an actress named Molly Dodd, and in the late 80’s/early 90’s there was a TV character named Molly Dodd.

I’m digging up my 2 year old post from the MASH board. I think he’s close enough, if I may be frank.

https://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=423328&highlight=LSU

https://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/attachment.php?attachmentid=280489&d=1663534858

Matt Dillon.

I know a few but most wanna use a fake name for some reason??

:confused:

Seinfeld had a character called Rebecca de Mornay. She was a large, angry black woman.

There was Ryan Howard on The Office, I think named after Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies.

Stephanie Mills , All in the family / Archie Bunker's place and Stephanie Mills the singer

Wow I didnt realise that was her real name!! (Stephanie)

I don’t know if this counts or not.

Home Improvements Tim Taylor-Tim Taylor Newscaster WJW TV 8 in Cleveland.

Interesting Topic TJ. Definitely makes you think.

Arnold Jackson - former NFL wide receiver


Doesn’t fit the category, but I thought I’d toss in there’s a college football QB named Jackson Arnold. Just transferred from Oklahoma to Auburn.

https://www.google.com/search?q=jackson+arnold&client=safari&sca_esv=f533b7165605d42e&hl=en-us&ei=LeNuZ4WDFsD-ptQP9o6IuAU&gs_ssp=eJzj4tVP1zc0LLYsTim3yE42YPTiy0pMzi7Oz1NILMrLz0kBAJqBClE&oq=jackson+ar&gs_lp=EhNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwIgpqYWNrc29uIGFyKgIIADIOEC4YgAQYkQIYsQMYigUyDhAAGIAEGJECGLEDGIoFMgUQLhiABDIIEAAYgAQYsQMyChAAGIAEGEMYigUyCBAuGIAEGOUEMgUQABiABDILEAAYgAQYsQMYgwFI319QzApYllFwA3gBkAEAmAG7AaAB8RGqAQQyMS41uAEByAEA-AEBmAIcoALkEqgCHsICChAAGLADGNYEGEfCAgUQKRiABMICBhAAGBYYHsICChApGIAEGEMYigXCAgsQLhiABBjHARivAcICCBAuGIAEGLEDwgIOEC4YgAQYxwEYjgUYrwHCAgsQLhiABBixAxiDAcICEBAuGIAEGLEDGEMYgwEYigXCAgoQLhiABBhDGIoFwgIREC4YgAQYsQMY0QMYgwEYxwHCAgoQKRiwAxjWBBhHwgICECnCAgsQKRiABBixAxiDAcICChAAGAMY6gIYjwHCAgoQLhgDGOoCGI8BwgILEC4YgAQYkQIYigXCAgsQABiABBiRAhiKBcICDhAuGIAEGJECGNQCGIoFwgIREC4YgAQYsQMYgwEYxwEYrwHCAg4QLhiABBixAxjRAxjHAZgDCvEFAl61gbhrWjCIBgGQBgiSBwQyMC44oAeG2wI&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp#ebo=0

I don’t know if this counts or not.

Home Improvements Tim Taylor-Tim Taylor Newscaster WJW TV 8 in Cleveland.

Interesting Topic TJ. Definitely makes you think.

There is also a former hockey player named Tim Taylor.

Taylor was nicknamed "The Toolman" throughout his career due to sharing his name with Tim Allen's character on the TV series Home Improvement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Taylor_(ice_hockey,_born_1969)

Jerry Seinfeld
Ozzie Nelson

Joe Carson = Petticoat Junction character as well as the Country singer.

In 2004 and 2005 I worked in a department of a global financial services company where the department head was named Michael Scott.

A poll I just posted reminded me there was a football coach named Buddy Ryan and also a Night Court character.

Searching around for a photo for a different thread I found an actress named Kimberley Drummond (Dana Plato character on Different Strokes)


https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3712840/

https://www.detroitnews.com/obituaries/det127432

Marge Simpson

https://www.qctonline.com/obituary-frank-cannon-1942-2023/

Frank Cannon

Mike Douglas - character, original eldest son of My Three Sons

Mike Douglas - entertainer, best remembered for his popular '70s talk show

George Foster - former MLB outfielder
George Foster - George Foreman's character in George

I used to work with a guy named Dan Conner.

Why do people use different names??

Why are they afraid??


I mean why hide????

There was a short lived sitcom, mid ‘70s, 8 episodes, called The Texas Wheelers. Jack Elam played Zack Wheeler. Zack Wheeler is currently a top pitcher on the Philadelphia Phillies.

By the way, it’s complete on YouTube
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAkFwZCQjyWxgyvoGUuK0jwjo6I77Icj-&si=lgaPIUTDoUGapc

Mark Hamill is also in it. He’s most famous for playing Schneider’s nephew on One Day At A Time.

Andy Taylor (Duran Duran guitarist)
Andy Taylor (The Andy Griffith Show)

Robert Hogan (Actor)
Col. Robert Hogan (Hogan's Heroes)

Vince Carter (NBA player)
Sgt. Vince Carter (Gomer Pyle: USMC)

Will Smith - Will Smith played a fictionalized version of himself in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Will Smith - Los Angeles Dodgers catcher

Why do people use different names??

Why are they afraid??


I mean why hide????Actors play TV characters with different names all the time, it's hardly hiding or being afraid. The point of this thread is the fictional characters with the same name as an unrelated actor who has that name in real life.

Thank you sweetie :)

One shot character on Happy Days Howdy Doody episode, Marc Summers, who was the host of Double Dare.

MASH. Ok, technically he’s not Frank Burns, but I’m saying close enough.


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With Barbara and Cooper both being relatively common names, there have been some of those. Here's two, an artist and a politician

https://www.barbaracooperartist.com/

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/articles/Barbara_Cooper_(politician)

And everyone’s second favorite sister, who’s also a real life composer

https://i.scdn.co/image/ab67616d0000b27322bf37181680c030ad69f4e9

Melinda McGraw is an actress with several roles including The X-Files. According to my primetime directory, Melinda McGraw was a character on Dan Akroyd's Soul Man sitcom played by Bridgette Collins. But this looks to be a rare time my directory is wrong. There is a real Bridgette Collins actress, but she just started acting in the last decade. The real Melinda is credited as playing Bridgette online for one episode in Soul Man.

There is an actor named Zack Morris, the name of Mark-Paul Gosselaar's character from "Saved by the Bell".

I saw someone mention a TV show called Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja. There was also an NFL quarterback named Randall Cunningham.

There was a short lived sitcom, mid ‘70s, 8 episodes, called The Texas Wheelers. Jack Elam played Zack Wheeler. Zack Wheeler is currently a top pitcher on the Philadelphia Phillies.


I jinxed him :(

Phillies' Zack Wheeler needs another surgery, out 6-8 months (https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/mlb/2025/08/23/philadelphia-phillies-ace-zack-wheeler-needs-another-surgery-out-6-8-months/85800581007/)

Jody Davis - character on Family Affair

Jody Davis - former professional baseball player, MLB

Stumbled across this one today. Mark Royer is the assistant baseball coach at the University of Pennsylvania. Mark Royer also married Barbara Cooper on One Day At A Time.

Which one is luckier?

Meg Griffin is a real DJ on the Beatles' SiriusXM channel and a character on Family Guy.

So weird I should see this today. I was just watching a rerun of an episode of Law & Order last night, and the murder victim was a woman named Sarah Purcell. If anybody remembers the TV series from the late 70s and early 80s named Real People, one of the show's cohosts was a woman named Sarah Purcell. I've seen this episode of Law & Order before and have wondered if the character was named for the real life Sarah Purcell from Real People, but I can't think of a reason why she would be so I'm fairly certain that she isn't and it's just coincidental.

Ed.

Actor Edward Norton.
Tv character - Ed Norton of The Honeymooners.

They shot at Jim, they shot at Parsons. -a line from today's Ironside

There was a Stone family living not far from my neighborhood when I was growing up. The younger son was named Clint. His brother, born prior to the debut of The Flintstones, I was told had the legal given name of Flint. I can't recall if he changed it, I have only a very vague memory of him, but there you go: Flint Stone...!

Speaking of The Flintstones, I remember Michigan State's basketball team had a group of players nicknamed the Flintstones.

The Flintstones were a group of three basketball players from Flint, Michigan, who helped lead the Michigan State Spartans to the 2000 NCAA Division I Men's National Championship.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flintstones_(basketball)

Ray Romano’s wife is Anna. Is Anna Romano close enough for ODAAT’s Ann Romano?

Looks like there was a Brian Williams (real life news guy) on Green Acres

https://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=499228

Will Smith - Will Smith played a fictionalized version of himself in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Will Smith - Los Angeles Dodgers catcher

Will Smith - San Jose Sharks hockey player

famous decorator..joe martin...and dr joe martin was long,long,long,long (decades and many decades) running character ......on soap..opera.....serial.....that was named......all my children...taken off air..........and actor that played joe played twins...evil and angel....on crime soap opera...the edge of night.....the background of edge of nite....soap daily introduction is said to be the city (cincy,oh/ohio).

In the early to mid 80s when I was in middle school and the beginning of high school for a few years I knew of a boy in the grade behind me named Michael Knight, he was an Air Force kid if I remember so he was only around for a few years and then his family moved away, I knew of him but I was never friends with him. And this was about the time that Knight Rider (with David Hasselhoff as the character Michael Knight started on TV), so obviously the Michael Knight I knew had been born several years before the TV show was ever around, so it's an interesting coincidence. And also, there's the actor Michael Knight who played Thad Martin on the daytime soap opera All My Children for several years.

Ed.

Real life (Democrat:thumbsdowpuke:) politician Adam Schiff shares his name with a Law & Order character, head New York City prosecuting district attorney Adam Schiff, who was on the series for several years.

Ed.

And also, there's the actor Michael Knight who played Thad Martin on the daytime soap opera All My Children for several years.

My mother and sister attend a lot of soap fan events and Michael E. Knight said at one of these fan events that his agent had booked him a meet-and-greet appearance at a random car dealership in the 1980s where 1000's of fans turned up.

They were all disappointed and thought that they were going to be meeting David Hasselhoff with the iconic car from Knight Rider. He said nobody there knew who he was and, to this date, it was his biggest turn-out.

My mother and sister attend a lot of soap fan events and Michael E. Knight said at one of these fan events that his agent had booked him a meet-and-greet appearance at a random car dealership in the 1980s where 1000's of fans turned up.

They were all disappointed and thought that they were going to be meeting David Hasselhoff with the iconic car from Knight Rider. He said nobody there knew who he was and, to this date, it was his biggest turn-out.

Oh man! That's kind of funny and sad all at the same time!:lol:

Ed.

Will Smith - Will Smith played a fictionalized version of himself in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Will Smith - Los Angeles Dodgers catcher


Will Smith - San Jose Sharks hockey player

Another sports guy if “junior” counts


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One that relates personally only to me. There's an actor named Nathan Anderson, I only know him for guest starring in the Star Trek: Voyager episode Nemesis. And coincidentally one of my nephews is also named Nathan Anderson. :cool:

Ed.

Actor Henry Haber (Matlock 2024), which is the name of a character from Bob's Burgers.

I just remembered this one a little while ago. There's actor Matt Dillon and then there's the character Marshall Matt Dillon from the long running western TV series Gunsmoke. But I don't know if the actor was named after James Arness's character.

Ed.

There’s a basketball player on Vanderbilt named Chandler Bing

Vanderbilt basketball commit Chandler Bing explains origin of name, ‘Friends’ (https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/college/vanderbilt/2025/05/02/vanderbilt-basketball-chandler-bing-friends-matthew-perry/83390431007/?gnt-cfr=1&gca-cat=p&gca-uir=true&gca-epti=z113726p001050c001050d00----v113726d--56--b--56--&gca-ft=179&gca-ds=sophi)

The center for the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team is Tony Nelson, as in I Dream Of Jeannie

Jack McGee - a tabloid newspaper reporter (played by Jack Colvin) tracking Hulk's trail on The Incredible Hulk
Jack McGee - television and film character actor

Max Horvath was a One Day At A Time character

92K pounds of drugs seized in Florida raid

According to the sheriff, Maxwell Horvath is in custody. (https://fox8.com/news/breaking-bad-on-steroids-92k-lbs-of-drugs-seized-in-florida-raid/)

Bob Hartley - Dr. Robert "Bob" Hartley is a psychologist and the main character of The Bob Newhart Show.
Bob Hartley - Former NHL head coach of the Colorado Avalanche, Atlanta Thrashers and Calgary Flames. Current head coach for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).

Ok, the name sounded vaguely TV-ish familiar, but I did have to look it up. Turned out to be My Three Sons


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