Actors most famous roles which lead into each one other.

bonerm

I was thinking about this topic just now and it seems to happen a lot in movies. An actor does a role that they become well known for and then in a subsequent important role they will reference the earlier role right at the start of the movie before veering off in a different direction (often even for a roll that becomes synonymous for.)

Here's some examples.

Daniel Day Lewis plays Christy Brown in the movie "My Left Foot" and spends the movie unable to use his body apart from the aforementioned left foot. Fast forward 18 years and at the beginning of There will Be Blood Day Lewis BREAKS his left leg and has to scooch himself into town using everything but his left limb.

Jeff Bridges in his Oscar Winning role in Crazy Heart plays his first gig in a bowling alley (clearly referencing The Big Lebowski).

Some lesser examples:
Matthew Broderick plays a computer hacker in the movie Wargames. Three years later goes onto to play his most famous role "Ferris Bueller" in which during an early and unlikely scene for the character shows off his hacking skills.

Glen Hansard : Ends The Commitments busking on Grafton St. Starts "Once" .... busking on Grafton St.

Anyway if you can think of more feel free to add them.

Brendog

The Expendables....In a church is Arnie, Stallone Bruce Willis.
Bruce offers a job for either one of them to take.
They all reference their films and personal lives.

Arnie: I'm not going to work for you! maybe you could give the job to my friend here, he LOVES running around in the jungle.
Bruce Willis: What the **** is his problem?
Stallone: He wants to be President.

krudler

A lot of those are more coincidence than deliberate though. Like Day Lewis playing an IRA member in In The Name of The Father, then a staunch anti-Irish character in Gangs Of New York.

fun thread though must try think of some more.

deman

Tom Cruise plays an arrogant prick in Top Gun. Roll on many years later, and many roles later, and he still plays an arrogant prick.

On a more serious side, Dominic Monaghan talked to trees in Lord of the Rings. Then when he played Charlie in Lost, he asked John Locke if he'd deen talking to trees again.

Brendog

You can say that about any film...

Its called a genre. The actors have their own genre in which they work.

Brad Pitt - Hero, ladies man.
George Clooney - Mentor, leader
Ben Stiller - Accident prone, down on his luck
Will Ferrel - Slacker, unfortunate guy

You can't say an actor is making reference to a famous film he was in if he is playing a character with the same personality.
If that were the case then we could say every sex scene Sean Connery has been in was a reference to James Bond.

There are very few films that can be reference and be recognised the world over, most notably Steven Speilberg films.

Cup of water shaking - Jurrasic Park
Something shooting across the sky and leaving a rainbow - E.T
Domdomdomdomdomdomdomdom - Jaws

Films are going to run into each other whether they mean to or not.

komodosp

To be fair to bonerm, none of his examples are simply a case of being the same genre. I haven't seen Crazy Heart, but of the others, Wargames is a completely different genre to Ferris Buller, as is My Left Foot to There Will Be Blood. The Commitments and Once may both be about music, but I wouldn't really say Glen Hansard is the star of the busking-on-grafton-street genre...