If you say 'He appeared in several films' it implies that he doesn't act in films any more. Remember that the past simple always refers to a FINISHED period of time. If you say, for example, 'He appeared in several films last year', the finished period would clearly be 2016. But if you don't add a time marker like 'last year', we would assume that what is finished is his film career. By contrast, if you say 'He has appeared in several films', this means that the period is still continuing. He is still making films, and you expect him to appear in more films in the future. I hope that makes sense.

hi. 'My brother is an actor'( He is still an actor now.) If you say 'he appeared in several films' it suggests that his acting career was in the past and is a finished action and the listener might assume he is not working and is now unsuccessful. Because your brother is still an actor we want to link the past with the present and use the present perfect which we also use to talk about experience. 'He has appeared in several films' suggests a past experience with a connection with the present. eh...he is still an actor.

Hi there, here is my explanation I hope this helps! In this case the use of the present perfect suggests that your brother may appear in more films. For any repeating event e.g. appearing in many films or visiting a country many times, we use the present perfect to say there is a possibility that the event may happen again. Even if the opportunity is only very small we still use the present perfect. This only becomes past tense when there is absolutely no chance of the event happening again. In the case of your sentence, you can only use the past tense once your brother is retired from acting, because that means he will never act in any films again. Here are some more examples: 'Italy have won 3 world cups' - There will be many world cups in the future so they could win another one 'West Germany won 2 world cups' - West Germany doesn't exist as a country any more so there is no chance they will win another one 'I have been to Greece twice before and I didn't really like it' - There is still a chance I could go there again even though I didn't really like it. 'I went to those old offices in my previous job' - There is no chance you will go to those old offices again because you don't work there. 'Rihanna has released several albums' - She is still making music so she could make some more 'The Beatles released many albums' - The Beatles don't make music any more so past tense is necessary Let me know if you have any questions!

When you say "he has appeared", there is a tendency for him to appear in films in the near future too. If you said that "he was an actor", you could have written "he had appeared in several films".

When you say "he has appeared", there is a tendency for him to appear in films in the near future too. If you said that "he was an actor", you could have written "he had appeared in several films".