*Double Casting Same Actor* - Obscure Western Reference?

In Django Unchained the actor James Remar plays two characters (Ace Speck and Butch Pooch). The first of which gets shot in the first couple of minutes of the movie. This is not the first incident of such startling a casting decision I've seen in a modern Western-themed piece of entertainment. I observed this oddity in Deadwood as well, where-in Garret Dillahunt plays two different characters (Jack McCall and Francis Wolcott - the first of which gets shot at the end of season one, the second role pops up right after, at the beginning of season 2).

I find it hard to believe that these wierd instances of *double casting* the same actor for two roles in the same piece are anything but willfully intended. Especially when an über-referential pop culture nerd like Quentin Tarantino does it. The question remains... why?

Anybody got a clue?

There are a variety of reasons for it, but it's nothing too unusual. Peter Sellers played, as I recall, three separate roles in Dr. Strangelove, all of whom are completely different characters. It's easy to buy Sellers in three roles because he was both an incredibly gifted actor and a talented costume and makeup team were adept at disguising him.

Then there's the Austin Power series, where Mike Myers played Austin, Dr. Evil, Fat Bastard, and Goldmember. Mostly because it's his film franchise and these characters were all written to what types Myers is capable of playing.

@seppli: It's indeed a Tarantino thing to do and most likely a reference to the kinds of movies you mentioned. Your initial spoiler block does nothing to hide the spoiler though XD.

Of course I'm aware of the aforementioned precendents in absurdist entertainment. However, these precendents don't account for such a thing to occur in a Western. As far as Western references go, neither of those movies are Westerns. It has to be Western-specific. I doubt Quentin Tarantino does such a thing on a whim, it simply has to be in tribute to some obscure movie or circumstance of early film works.

Really? I would have guessed it was just that.

Yeah, as meticulous as Tarantino is in picking out references to throw into a blender, his decision to cast an actor in two different roles isn't necessarily a reference to anything.

Tarantino did cast Gordon Liu in two roles in Kill Bill, one as the head of the Crazy 88s in the first volume and then as Pai Mei in the second. It's not technically a western, so maybe it's not a western-specific thing?