Actors who always use the same entourage

[Ash]

I noticed that there a few actors out there such as Adam Sandler & Kevin Smith who always seem to include the same people in their films.

I wonder what reasons they have for doing this because when you think about it...it is a rare thing.
Not many actors do that...only a small handful.

What other actors can you think of that always have the same entourage of people in their films?

[Dave:Blackeye15]

Chris Farley and David Spade worked on the same movies often.

-the first rule of fat club-

[AndyC]

I'd have called Farley and Spade a team. Although, just about every time somebody from SNL makes a movie, it's almost guaranteed to have a bunch of other SNLers appearing in it.

[Brock]

Soderbergh has kind of a posse, what with Clooney and all.  And Clooney comes with a posse of his own that kinds of overlaps into Soderbergh's.  And the Coen Brothers have Frances McDormand at least, and also Clooney, now.

[Brock]

P.T. Anderson used a lot of the same people in his movies - Julianne Moore, William H. Macy, John C. Reilly, Philip Seymour Hoffman, etc.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Jackie Chan likes to use a lot of the same guys in some of his films.  Members of his stunt team are usually henchmen (MARS in particular) or buddies.  

Robert Rodriguez has a thing for Antonio Banderas.

That's about all I can think of off the top of my head.

Nick

[The Burgomaster]

In addition to actors having entourages, I think that a lot of directors have them:

Woody Allen uses many of the same actors in his films, although his cast of "regulars" has changed over the years.

Martin Scorsese has used his mother, his father, Harvey Keitel, and Robert DeNiro in various films.

George Romero has his little troupe of regulars, including his wife, John Amplas, Tom Savini, etc.

John Carpenter used a lot of familiar faces in several movies.

I think they gravitate toward people that they enjoy working with, or who seem to "fit" their movies.

[Fearless Freep]

Sam Raimi and Bruce Cambell?

[Bmeansgood]

Clint Eastwood in the 70's and 80's.  My wife refuses to watch any movie where his (former) real life girlfriend (that blonde chick) plays opposite Clint as some sort of love interest.  

He is always surrounded by the same bad guys/good guys.  I only wish the orangutan's could have been in more movies.

[yaddo42]

John Ford had his "stage company" of actors he used over and over, John Wayne inherited it when Ford retired, and added people of his own. But Wayne also used actors like Jim Davis, Hank Worden, John Agar, and Chris Mitchum many times, in addition to using members of his family like Patrick Wayne many times.

Arnold Schwarzenegger used people like Bill Duke in lots of his movies.

Jeff Bridges put some of his friends in his movies. He was buddies with the late Joe Spinell and got him roles in "Winter Kills" and "Rancho Deluxe".

Besides Sondra Locke while they were dating, Eastwood has his own stable of actors he turns to many times like Geoffrey Lewis and Albert Popwell.

[AndyC]

Yeah, I remember Bill Duke appearing in Arnie pictures. Sven Ole Thorsen appeared in a few as well, and Jesse Ventura was in at least a couple.

[dean]

I think that all these people work together because they have a lot of fun making movies with their friends.  [i'm mainly referring to the SNL crew and View Askew] They all look like they had a ball making their films [which means, mainly for Adam Sandler, that we don't get their jokes, because they all think its funny, but many times, we don't quite get it]

But then you have people like De Niro and Scorsese, are they actually good friends or do they just click together well creatively?