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Tarzan. Quite a few people forget that Tarzan films reached theaters regularly from 1918 to 1968, and a live-action film came out as late as 1998. For obvious reasons (i.e. he barely wears clothes, so the aging of the actors received maximum attention), the part of Tarzan underwent constant recasting. Elmo Lincoln, Johnny Weissmuller, Lex Barker, Gordon Scott, and Mike Henry among others played the role. In 1998, Casper Van Dien played Tarzan in the last live-action Tarzan film to reach theaters.
The same is true for Jane and their son Boy - both had to be replaced. Justified with Boy, as they didn't want him getting too old.
However, the fact that Blofeld doesn't at first recognize him when he pretends to be Hilary Bray suggests that a plot element was carried over from the initial draft of the screenplay, in which Bond was explained to have undergone plastic surgery.
The Bond films also include many other characters having a change of actor, such as Bond's nemesis Blofeld, his American ally Felix Leiter (who appeared in nine of the films and was played by seven different actors) and Moneypenny. The character of M is, on the other hand, not really an example of this (despite even changing gender) since M is the character's title, not name. M is therefore an example of No Name Given and Legacy Character.
This may be justified in Blofeld's case: Even in the original novels, his appearance changes radically through the wonders of plastic surgery.
Actor Bernard Lee died after Moonraker and so M was absent in For Your Eyes Only. Actor Robert Brown plays M up Licence to Kill. It is not clear whether or not this is meant to be the Lee M or his successor, though Brown played a Navy admiral in The Spy Who Loved Me and may be this character promoted. Given this and his different attitude, most fans take this to be a different M.
The character Harvey Dent/Two-Face was played by Billy Dee Williams in Batman and Tommy Lee Jones in Batman Forever. Williams appeared solely as "Harvey Dent", pre-Two-Face, but took the role with the expectation of returning to play the villain in a sequel; when he was replaced for Batman Forever he ended up getting paid in compensation.
In the sequels of Back to The Future, Jennifer is played by Elisabeth Shue as Claudia Wells was unavailable. The opening shot of Back To The Future Part II was the closing shot of the original reshot meticulously with Elisabeth Shue instead. (See a comparison.)
Also, Crispin Glover declined to appear as George McFly, so he was made into a Fake Shemp.
Jeffrey Weissman became the Other Darrin for George McFly.
Kirk Douglas played the dual roles of Harrison and his brother Spur in The Man from Snowy River. When the sequel Return to Snowy River was filmed six years later, the role of Harrison was played by Brian Dennehy, and Spur was said to have died between the events of the two films, making it both The Other Darrin and a Bus Crash.
The youth of most of the cast of the X-Men movies, as well as their easily identifiable powers, made it a simple matter for them to be replaced. The character of Kitty Pryde only became a major character in the third film, and was played by different actresses in both of her prior appearances. For the record, it went Sumela Kay, Katie Stuart, Ellen Page.
Tyler Mane played Sabretooth in X-Men. He was replaced by Liev Schreiber for the prequel, X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Professor Moriarty, nemesis of Sherlock Holmes, was played by Lionel Atwill in Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon and by Henry Daniell in The Woman in Green. (He was also played by George Zucco in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, but this film doesn't share the same continuity as the others, despite featuring the same actors in the roles of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.)
Extremely common in direct-to-video sequels that feature the same characters from their theatrically-released predecessors. Just a few examples of many include Cruel Intentions 2 and 3, Darkman II and III, Dracula II and III, The Scorpion King 2, Universal Soldier III, and Van Wilder: Freshman Year. (Direct-to-video sequels that feature the same lead actor are rare, but they exist, like Starship Troopers 3, The Art of War II, and The Prophecy II.)
Lieutenant Saavik was played by Kirstie Alley in Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan and by Robin Curtis in the following two movies.
In addition, an earlier script for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country featured Saavik as a bridge officer, with Kim Cattrall cast to play her. Cattrall objected to being the third attress to portray Saavik (and Roddenberry objected to Saavik being a traitor), but then accepted when the character was rewritten to being a previously unknown Vulcan.
Terrence Howard was replaced by Don Cheadle for the Iron Man sequel. Given a funny Lampshade Hanging in his first appearance, when Rhodes testifies against Tony in a senate hearing. Tony says "I didn't expect to see you here" and Rhodes replies "Well, it's me, so just drop it, okay?"
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films had Judith Hoag play April O'Neil in the first film and Paige Turco play her in the last two. Likewise, Donatello was voiced by Corey Feldman in the first and third movies but was unavailable in the second due to a stint in rehab and was voiced by Adam Carl. Raphael had three different voice actors in the movie.
Terminator Salvation has the recasting of all returning roles (except Sarah Connor, the taperecorded voice is still Linda Hamilton).
Each of the Terminator sequels have a different actor portray John Connor (not counting Timeshifted Actors): Edward Furlong, Nick Stahl, and Christian Bale. Thomas Dekker played him in the series.
In The Empire Strikes Back, Palpatine was portrayed by Elaine Baker in prosthetic makeup, and voiced by Clive Revill. Ian McDiarmid replaced him (them?) in Return of the Jedi and the prequels, and then George Lucas put him in the DVDs for ESB for continuity's sake.
The original Anakin/Darth Vader ghost -- played by Sebastian Shaw -- from the '83 RotJ was controversially replaced by Hayden Christensen in the remastered edition.
In A New Hope, Wedge's voice was dubbed in by David Ankrum, but in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, they used the voice of the actual actor, Denis Lawson, complete with his native Scottish accent in the latter.
Boba Fett was portrayed by Jeremy Bulloch in Episodes V and VI (and voiced by Jason Wingreen), but in II, it's established that the character is a clone of Jango Fett, played by Temuera Morrison. Similar to Palpatine's appearance, Morisson's voice is re-dubbed over Wingreen's dialogue in the special edition DVD release of V.
Anne Cusack replaces Courtney Cox in Ace Ventura Jr.
Plan 9 from Outer Space is probably the most ignoble example: after Bela Lugosi died in the middle of filming, he was replaced by Tom Mason, Ed Wood's chiropractor, who had to hold a cape in front of his face to cover up the fact that he looked nothing like Lugosi. He was also much taller than Lugosi, so he spent the film hunched over.
Lampshaded in the second George of the Jungle, when the narrator stops to ask who the title character is, to which he replies, "Me New George. Producers too cheap to get Brendan Fraser." Other references to Fraser appear throughout the movie.
In The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, the role of Evy O'Connell is played by Rachel Weisz. However, in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, her role was taken over by Maria Bello when Weisz declined. Her first scene shows her at a book reading/signing event with several discrete camera angles showing an arm, her downturned head, etc. Eventually, one of her audience members asks her if it's true that the main character was based on her own experience. In the greatest Lampshade Hanging since The Oracle's explanation for her new appearance, the camera zooms in on Evy's face for the first time as she says, "Honestly, I can truly say she's a completely different person."
Always done with Clark Griswold's children Rusty and Audrey in the National Lampoon's Vacation series, always fluctuating in age and appearance, to the point that Vegas Vacationhung one on this when Clark remarked during their first appearance that he hardly recognises them anymore. Christmas Vacation 2 had no Rusty (nor Clark nor Ellen, for that matter, as this one stars Cousin Eddie), but the Audrey from the original Vacation does return.
Omar Epps replaced Wesley Snipes as Willie "Mays" Hayes in Major League 2.
Jack Ryan, in the movie versions of the Tom Clancy Ryanverse novels, has been played by three different actors, none of whom look anything like the other.
The third film of The Addams Family did this to most of the cast who played the family due to various reasons: Raul Julia (Gomez) had died, the actor and actress who played Pugsley and Wednesday were now considered too old (they had turned 18 at the time) and the actresses who played Morticia and Grandmama declined. Only Lurch and Thing retain the same actors.
Clerks features the character of Willam Black, played by Scott Mosier. Mallrats, which takes place the day before Clerks, also features the character--except now he's Ethan Suplee. We're left to assume that over the course of a night this guy lost a good fifty pounds and grew in a decent-sized beard. (The character also appears in Scott form in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.)
Mother Firefly is played by Karen Black in House of 1000 Corpses and Leslie Easterbrook in The Devils Rejects. Grandpa Hugo was played by Dennis Fimple in the first movie but wasn't included in the sequel at all because Fimple passed away.
Three of the four main cast in Another Gay Movie were replaced for Another Gay Sequel -- Lampshaded by the mother at the beginning of the movie.
Dave Robicheaux is played by Alec Baldwin in Heaven's Prisoners and by Tommy Lee Jones in In the Electric Mist.
Liz Frasier played Mrs. Pike in The Movie of Dads Army rather than Janet Davies at the order of Columbia Pictures.
Children of Dune, the sequel to the Sci-Fi channel mini-series, features a new Stilgar, a new Jessica and a new Duncan Idaho.
Similarly, in the classic Universal horror series, Frankenstein's Monster was played by no fewer than four actors: Boris Karloff (3 films), Lon Chaney Jr. (1 film), Bela Lugosi (1 film), and Glenn Strange (3 films).
Luis Buñuel's film That Obscure Object of Desire features two actresses, Carole Bouquet and Angela Molina, in the single role of Conchita. Who Conchita is played by changes from scene to scene, and sometimes even from shot to shot. It's unclear whether this is a comment on Conchita's mercurial nature, a comment on Mathieu's failure to see her for who she really is, or if it's just weird for the sake of weird.
In the teen romantic comedy The Prince and Me, the Prince's fiancee Paige is played by Julia Stiles. In the film's direct-to-video sequel The Prince and Me II: The Royal Wedding, Paige is played by Kam Heskin instead, who went on to play the part in the next two movies as well. Luke Mably played the the titular prince in the first two films, but declined to return for more. Chris Geere took over for the next two movies.
The sequel to The Neverending Story was almost completely recast; only one actor reprised his role (Thomas Hill as Mr. Koreander). The sequel's sequel was completely recast.
Perry Mason was originally played by Warren William in a series of 1930s movies. After four movies, William left; two more movies were made, with Ricardo Cortez and Donald Woods playing Mason in each of them. Then the character went to television, with Raymond Burr becoming the definitive Mason.
And before Barbara Hale played Mason's secretary Della Street on TV, no fewer than 5 actresses took turns playing the role in the above-mentioned film series; only Claire Dodd played Street in more than one movie.
This trope was done several times for artistic effect in Palindromes.
In the first Hellboy, Abe is played by Doug Jones with his voice dubbed over by David Hyde-Pierce. However, after seeing the film, Hyde-Pierce was so impressed by Jones' performance that he refused to be credited and convinced the producers that the character did not need a separate voice actor. In the sequel and two animated films that followed, Jones supplies his own voice, which is surprisingly similar to Hyde-Pierce's.
Perhaps the most extreme example of this trope is the character of Allen in Happiness and its sequel, Life During Wartime. The character was played by white actor, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and then black actor, Michael K. Williams, without any explanation for the complete change of the character's race. Of course, all of the characters in Life During Wartime were played by different actors than in previous Todd Solondz' films, but Allen is the most noticeable difference.
Rachelle Lefèvre played vampire villainess Victoria in Twilight and New Moon. Due to scheduling conflicts, she was replaced by Bryce Dallas Howard for Eclipse.
The Halloweentown Disney Channel movies had this happen with the lead character, Marnie Piper, who was played by Kimberly J. Brown for the first three movies, and Sara Paxton for the fourth. Apparently Brown was being screwed by Disney because not even she knows why she was replaced! It's usually speculated that Disney wanted a younger actress for the 4th film to keep the franchise fresh (Brown was 22 at the time wheres Paxton was 19).
In addition, Benny's voice was recast from Rino Romano in the first movie to Richard Side in the second, but for his brief appearance in the fourth movie, he was voiced by another, uncredited voice actor.
The Live Action Adaptations of Asterix suffer this a lot. Gerard Depardieu as Obelix is the only actor to have stayed in all movies so far, while the rest of the main cast has been constantly changed: Asterix has been the same only in the first two movies and Caesar has been played by a different actor every time. The fourth movie, coming in October 2012, will feature two different actors as Asterix and Caesar, again.
In the first Critters film, Sheriff Harv is played by M. Emmet Walsh. In the sequel, he's portrayed by Barry Corbin.
In the Subspecies series, Laura Tate plays Michelle in the first film, Denise Duff in the three sequels.
A slight variation occured in The Lion King with Scar. Scar was normally voiced by Jeremy Irons, but the ending portion of the song "Be Prepared" (starting with the verse "You Won't Get A Sniff Without Me") was done by Jim Cummings (who is Ed's voice actor) instead of Irons due to Irons blowing out his voice during recording sessions. It also led to a Throw It In moment when Ed was uncharacteristically sang a verse from the song (most of the time, Ed is either silent, or communicates via insane laughter).
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