Hawkman, Falcon, Black Widow, Iron Fist and Captain Britain - how about characters whose appearances radically changed? Earth-2's Hawkman in his last Golden Age appearances (All-Star 57) looked quite different from Katar Hol. Falcon, Black Widow, and Captain Britain's original outfits were rather radically different from later versions. Iron Fist... well, that one evades me, but the theme seems to match.

Dove (Dawn), Starman (Will), Hal Jordan, Wasp (Jan), Firestorm (Ronnie): Super heroes who had more than one identity? Dawn was Don Hall; Starman was Ted Knight; Green Lantern was... okay, too many for me to name; Wasp was Hank Pym; and Firestorm was originally Martin Stein and Ronnie Raymond; then, others were replacing in the matrix - Mikhail Arkadin, Jason Rusch, Black Lantern Firestorm/Deathstorm, and even Jefferson Jackson from "DC's Legends of Tomorrow."

Did I get close?

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Is this something to do with actors playing different nationalities?

English James Mason playing Indian Captain Nemo

Irish Patrick McGoohan playing the British Prisoner

Doctor Who I don't know... Scottish Sylvester McCoy playing a role usually played by Englishmen? English William Hartnell playing a Gallifreyan?

Scottish Sean Connery playing (originally) English Bond

Israeli Topol playing Russian Tevye

American Brad Pitt playing Greek Achilles.

Lois Lane, Dr. Fate, Zatanna, Black Lightning, Ragman, Richard Dragon, and the Guardians of the Universe.

The answer is that the characters have been played by the same actor in two unrelated productions.

Christopher Lee is famous for playing Dracula for Hammer. But he also played Dracula in a 1970 film (non-Hammer) directed by Jesus Franco.

Sean Connery is famous for playing Bond in the EON series of films, but famously also came back to the role in Never Say Never Again, a rival production to the official EON series.

Anthony Hopkins won an Oscar for his role as Hannibal Lecter in one of Orion Pictures' last films before it went into financial meltdown, Silence of the Lambs. Though Dino De Laurentis owned the rights to Lecter, he had given the rights to Orion for that one film. After its success, he ploughed on with the film Hannibal, also starring Hopkin, through his own production company, with Ridley Scott at the helm, distributing the film through MGM and Universal. So ostensibly a sequel, but in reality a completely different, unrelated production.

Ian Hart played John Lennon first in The Hours and Times, an hour-long black and white film made in 1991. He then played the role again in the 1994 film Backbeat.

Steven Culp played RFK in the 1996 HBO TVM Norma Jean & Marilyn. He then played the role again in the 2000 feature film Thirteen Days.

Damon Herriman played Charles Manson this year on Netflix's Mindhunter and the same role in Tarantino's latest Once Upon A Time in Hollywood.

So, all played the same role, but in unrelated productions.

Dave Phelps wrote: "Well, they all appeared with Batman in Brave and the Bold..."

Re: Dove, Starman, Hal Jordan, Wasp, & Firestorm- Characters killed in crossover events or major storylines? Dove (Don)-Crisis, Dove (Dawn) Armageddon 2001, Starman (Will)- Eclipso: The Darkness Within, Hal Jordan- Final Night, Wasp- Secret Invasion, Firestorm- Identity Crisis

Characters with changing, disputed backstories? (And that list could be a very long one...)