Tweet Parent - Child Dual Roles

Watching THE FAITHFUL HEART (1932) in which Edna Best plays both mother and daughter, I wondered what the earliest example of this kind of dual role was. Of course we have BRATS (1930) and LITTLE NELLIE KELLY (1940), but there must be quite a tradition of these. Another choice one is in ASK A POLICEMAN (1939) where Moore Marriott not only plays Jeremiah Harbottle but his Dad as well! I'm sure more will come to mind, but it might amuse you to dredge up a few...

There's La Pickford playing mother and son in Little Lord Fauntleroy.

Bob

Was thinking of that, but wasn't 100% as not seen yet...

Jessie Matthews in Evergreen.

There was quite a fashion for dual roles in the early 1920s, though they tended to be twins or uncanny lookalikes whose similarity played a part in the storyline (for example Norma Shearer in Lady of the Night (1926) or Mary Pickford in Stella Maris (1919) ). My guess is that as technology advanced in the late 1910s, studios and actors were interested in showing off their extra skills.

One that comes to mind where the dual characters were family members - Lon Chaney plays a grandfather and his grandchild in Mr Wu (1927). I'm sure Pola Negri played a role of this kind early in her career, but I can't recall the name.

Rudy in THE SON OF THE SHEIK.

One that comes to mind where the dual characters were family members - Lon Chaney plays a grandfather and his grandchild in Mr Wu (1927). I'm sure Pola Negri played a role of this kind early in her career, but I can't recall the name.

It was The Yellow Ticket (1918), aka Der Gelbe Schein, aka The Devil's Pawn. I misremembered; it's another film where she plays a lookalike and not a mother and child. There was an article about it some time ago on Roger Ebert.com - http://www.rogerebert.com/far-flung-correspondents/the-yellow-ticket.

Norma Talmadge in 1918's Forbiden City plays both mother and daughter, albeit never on screen together.

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Douglas Fairbanks plays both Zorro and Don Q, Son of Zorro (1926).

Norma Talmadge in 1918's Forbiden City plays both mother and daughter, albeit never on screen together.

And in Smiling Through she plays an aunt and niece. She's also a mother and daughter in The Law of Compensation. She also played the aforementioned random lookalikes in Ghosts of Yesterday and Yes or No. In De Luxe Annie she played the same person who got konked on the head and got a new and different personality.

greta

Smilin' Through also features a dual father/son role played by Harrison "Not That Harrison Ford" Ford.

Smilin' Through also features a dual father/son role played by Harrison "Not That Harrison Ford" Ford.

And of course one gets more of the same via Norma Shearer and Jeanette MacDonald...

On stage, Norma Terris played both mother (Magnolia) and daughter (Kim) in SHOW BOAT (1927)

Very interesting topic. On a slightly different note, was THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR the only time an actor's real parent played the same part on screen (Ginger & Lela Rogers)?

The then newly created C. Dodge Dunning matting process permitted Ruth Chatterton to play both mother Naomi Kellogg and daughter Brook Evans in the same shots of THE RIGHT TO LOVE (1930) which was restored in 2009. Some who attended the restoration said it was creaky, but any film with Chatterton is a must see for me.

Very interesting topic. On a slightly different note, was THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR the only time an actor's real parent played the same part on screen (Ginger & Lela Rogers)?

Liza Minnelli appears briefly at the end of In The Good Old Summertime (1949), playing Judy Garland's daughter.

Didn't Maureen O'Sullivan play Mia Farrow's mother in Hannah and her Sisters?

And on the recent Sherlock Holmes series, Benedict Cumberbatch's parents played Sherlock and Mycroft's parents.

Clara Kimball Young's father Edward Kimball played her father in several films, including A Vitagraph Romance, which the Eye has up on youTube.

greta

... which reminded me that Maurice Costello appeared alongside Dolores and Helene Costello in numerous early pictures, frequently as their father or another relative.

Dolores plays Maurice's daughter in Her Grandchild (1912) and The Hindoo Charm (1913). Helene plays Maurice's son in Auld Lang Syne (1911) and his daughter in Wanted - A Grandmother (1912) and The Mysterious Lodger (1914). Both appear as their father's daughters in The Meeting of the Ways (1912) and Fellow Voyagers (1913). There are probably others, too.

I believe that Buster Keaton's baby son played his character's son in OUR HOSPITALITY (1923).

John Barrymore played father and son in DON JUAN (1926) and again in GENERAL CRACK (1930).

George Arliss played father and son, Meyer and Nathan, in THE HOUSE OF ROTHSCHILD (1934). It prompted the wisecrack that ROTHSCHILD was such a huge production that Arliss had to play two parts. Mr. A played twin brothers in HIS LORDSHIP (1936).

I believe that Buster Keaton's baby son played his character's son in OUR HOSPITALITY (1923).

No, Buster's real-world son plays his screen character as a baby in the prologue. So this is actually the opposite twist of most of the films mentioned so far: an actor and his child playing the same movie character.

Douglas Fairbanks plays men from three or four generations of the same family in The Mollycoddle, though unlike Don Q they don't share screen time.

I don't think anybody mentioned that Charleston Heston's son Fraser played baby Moses in THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1956).

Two come to mind...Richard Dix in THE CONQUERORS, Norman Wisdom in PRESS FOR TIME.

Many B westerns had parent-child roles. A few examples: Ray 'Crash' Corrigan and John 'Dusty' King in TUMBLEDOWN RANCH IN ARIZONA; Gene Autry in RIM OF THE CANYON; Johnny Carpenter in SON OF THE RENEGADE; Allan Lane in CORPUS CHRISTI BANDITS; Dave 'Tex' O'Brien in TRAIL OF TERROR; Fred Scott in TWO GUN TROUBADOUR; Tim McCoy in BULLDOG COURAGE; Nick Stuart in GUNSMOKE. There were also many twin brother and lookalikes plots and real life fathers and sons: Jack and Tim Holt in ARIZONA RANGER and Fred Kohler Sr and Jr in LAWLESS VALLEY.

Very interesting topic. On a slightly different note, was THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR the only time an actor's real parent played the same part on screen (Ginger & Lela Rogers)?

Liza Minelli played Judy Garland's baby in In the Good Old Summertime.

Bob

Jose Ferrer plays both painter Toulouse-Lautrec and his father, Count Alphonse de Toulouse-Lautrec in John Houston's Moulin Rouge (1952).

Malcolm Keen and Geoffrey Keen played Old Abercrombie and Young Abercrombie respectively in SHE PLAYED WITH FIRE (1957).