History Main / InventedIndividual

* In ''Literature/TheHypnotists Trilogy'' by Creator/GordonKorman, Jax spends part of ''Memory Maze'' looking for his long-lost brother Liam, only to learn there is no Liam and he was hypnotized into thinking otherwise so Liam would be bait for a trap.

* When the comedian Ronnie Barker wanted to try writing for ''The Frost Report'' (the sketch show he was appearing in at the time), he decided to write under a pseudonym -- he wanted his work to be judged on its own merits, not as something that got on the air simply because a cast member wrote it. The ruse worked and 'Gerald Wiley' became one of the most highly regarded writers of the show. The cast and crew speculated as to who he really was (names such as Alan Ayckbourn and Tom Stoppard were suggested). Ronnie Barker kept up the pretense, occasionally criticizing the quality of the writing and at one point when Ronnie Corbett tried to buy the rights to one sketch, telling Corbett that the price 'Wiley' was asking was far too high. Eventually, he revealed he was Wiley ... but for the rest of his career, Barker never used his real name in the writing credits of a show he was working on, using a number of different pseudonyms over the years.

* The ''Series/{{Monk}}'' novel ''Mr. Monk Is Open For Business'' has a bald-headed financial manager named Wyatt S. Noone go on an office rampage at a furniture importing business, killing three of his coworkers and injuring the fourth, Sarabeth Willow, then apparently managing to slip out of the building undetected by the police. Monk discovers very early on that "Wyatt Noone" is a phony name ("Wyatt is no one"). Then eventually in the end, it turns out "Wyatt" isn't even a real person: the other four workers "he" shot invented him to be their nonexistent financial manager. The reason they did so was to skim a little bonus money from their boss who wasn't giving them pay raises. The one survivor of the shooting, Sarabeth, began embezzling a bigger cut to pay for her husband's cancer treatments, which the others weren't happy about. Wearing a bald wig, she shot her fellow three co-workers, and shot herself non-fatally as well, and planted evidence to frame "Wyatt" for murder.

* ''ComicBook/TheMazeAgency'' #16 involves a mysterious, reclusive author of a series of best-selling romance novels named Desiree Brandywine. It turns out that Desiree Brandywine is a pseudonym for a group of writers from one particular publishing house. Bored a company retreat, they took turns writing chapters in a deliberately trashy romance novel. The novel was published and became a surprise hit, so they kept writing. Then someone starts murdering members of the writing group...

* Rod's "girlfriend who lives in Canada" in ''Theatre/AvenueQ''

* In Bernerd Engel's "Operation Mewkow" the unnamed narrator creates a fellow seaman calleed George Mewkow - at first as a joke, with the later hope of collecting his Navy salary at the end of the eight-month tour of duty. When he realizes in the last few days that it would be impossible without cutting someone else in on the deal, he puts in a leave slip for "George", throws the kit bag purchased in his name overboard and is arrested for murder. The charge is eventually changed to falsifying records.

* In Nancy Atherton's ''Aunt Dimity and the Duke'' Duke Grayson Penford and several trusted associates create a fake rock star named Lex Rex to earn enough to pay for the restoration of Penford Hall. Once everyone involved has amassed a pretty tidy sum, they stage the death by drowning of Lex and his band.

* In one Anatole France story, an imaginary friend blamed for childish misdeeds ends up as the scapegoat for local crime including seducing and impregnating a maid.

* In 'Literature/TheHypnotists Trilogy'' by Creator/GordonKorman, Jax spends part of ''Memory Maze'' looking for his long-lost brother Liam, only to learn there is no Liam and he was hypnotized into thinking otherwise so Liam would be bait for a trap.

* ''AudioPlay/ThirtySixQuestions'' is about a husband and wife who's relationship falls apart when the husband finds out that his wife has been lying about her identity for the past two years.

[[folder:Film]]

*** From the point of view of Patton's superiors, it had the additional advantage that a man they considered to be an AxCrazy [[LeeroyJankins loose cannon]] wouldn't be in a position of key importance during D-Day.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_P._Burdell George P. Burdell]]. In 1927 Georgia Tech student Ed Smith received two enrollment forms. For the next several years Smith did all schoolwork twice, altering it slightly, and attended all exams twice. Burdell received his bachelor's in 1930 and his master's some years later. During World War II his name appeared on various fronts and he was listed as a B-17 pilot, flying twelve missions from England. He's in three yearbooks, was registered for every single course in every semester when Georgia Tech computerized its registration, had his marriage announced in a paper in the 1950s, got a mention of his 50th anniversary in the 2000s, and ''MAD Magazine'' listed him on the board of directors for about twelve years.
* In 1974, George "Punch" Imlach, general manager of the NHL's Buffalo Sabres, drafted [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taro_Tsujimoto Taro Tsujimoto]], supposed "star player" for the Tokyo Katanas of the JHL. While the league did exist, the team and player did not, and it was a prank to protest the NHL's drafting rules, which had been changed in response to the upstart World Hockey Association. When Imlach revealed the stunt weeks later, the league office was not amused, though aside from invalidating the pick, the team suffered no sanctions.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mincemeat Operation Mincemeat]]. In 1943 a ruse was conducted to trick the Germans into believing the invasion of southern Europe would start with Greece instead of Sicily. A homeless man's corpse was given the fictional identity of a Royal Marine named Major William Martin, his body was planted with fake documents detailing the planned invasion of Greece and he was dropped off near the Spanish coast. The Germans were completely taken in and redirected vital military units from Sicily to Greece, ensuring the success of the Sicilian Invasion. The subterfuge was extremely detailed; "Major Martin's" body was planted with fake letters from his 'fiancee' (one of the department secretaries contributed a photograph of herself) and 'father', as well as facsimile concert stubs, restaurant receipts, an unpaid jeweler's invoice for an engagement ring, a overdraft notice from his bank, and other assorted pocket-clutter designed to create the illusion of a slightly forgetful and occasionally careless man. This personality was concocted in order to provide an explanation of why the official document case was handcuffed to the body - which was necessary to ensure that body and case would wash up together, but not normal practice for military couriers. The story later became a book and a movie, under the name ''Film/TheManWhoNeverWas''; more recently, a detailed investigative account was written by Ben [=MacIntyre=], which uncovered, among other things, the fact that [[CrazyPrepared someone had gone to the trouble]] of inserting a fake entry in an inn's registration book, to make it appear that the equally fictional father of "Martin" had been staying there during the period when one of the fake personal letters was written.
** Operation Fortitude. The idea here was to fool the Germans into thinking the Invasion of Europe (D-Day) would happen at Calais and NOT Normandy. To this end the Allies invented an entire ARMY and put actual General George S. Patton in charge of it. The ruse worked very well as the Nazis kept A LOT of equipment away from Normandy and even thought NORMANDY was a ruse to distract them from the REAL invasion yet to come at Calais.
*** From the point of view of Patton's superiors, it had the additional advantage that a man they considered to be an AxCrazy loose cannon wouldn't be in a position of key importance during D-Day.
** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Pujol_Garcia Joan Pujol Garcia]], known to the British as agent Garbo, and to the Nazis as Arabel, was a [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII WWII]] spy... well, sorta. You see, he never did any 'real' espionage. With the aid of his British handler, Tomás Harris, he made up an almost entirely fictitious spy ring with 27 fake people and one real one (Joan). Joan tried to get hired by the British, 3 times in fact. This didn't work so he went to the Nazis to (supposedly) work for them and became agent Arabel. He then gave the Nazis useful but publicly available information, thereby gaining their trust, and while there were some mistakes, they weren't noticed. And then he was finally able to get hired by the British as what is known as a "walk-in" (basically someone who goes to a country, embassy or the like and asks to be a spy for them). Before he did that, they thought his information was legit (they intercepted at least some of it) and launched a spy hunt. After they hired him, he was used to [[FeedTheMole feed the Nazis information]], as he'd wanted from the start. Sometimes they needed to give legit information for trust reasons, which was done with care; for example, one of his imaginary spies 'sent him' useful information, but due to an 'unfortunate and entirely coincidental' mail mishap, it arrived too late for the Nazis to use it. Or, in the case of the true location for freakin' ''D-Day'', due to finding out entirely too late. Agent Arabel even got an Iron Cross Second Class (which requires the Führer's personal authorization) for his contribution to the war effort, which would have been been bestowed upon him personally by Hitler himself if it wouldn't have blown his cover - this, coupled with being awarded the MBE for his work as a double-agent, makes him the only known person to win an award from ''both sides'' of World War II. One of his fictitious subordinates was too well placed, so they killed him and put his name in the obituary of a British newspaper. He told the Nazis of the 'tragedy', who then proceeded to ''send the imaginary widow flowers''. Said imaginary spy was replaced by his imaginary wife. His cover lasted so long that Hitler died not knowing his favored spy Agent Arabel was a double agent, let alone disloyal from the start. You can read about this amazing tale (including some of the fake spies) in several places, one of which is [[https://www.mi5.gov.uk/home/mi5-history/world-war-ii/agent-garbo.html here]].

* A prank at Brown University several years ago played with this trope. A club dedicated to practical jokes (or something like that) picked a random freshman at the beginning of the year and began posting on school forums and message boards about how amazed and excited they were that he actually went to their school: "omg, can you believe it?", "I think I saw him in the lunchline!", "it's so cool, he goes here", etc, etc, etc. After only a month or two, practically everyone at the school knew the guy's name and face and that he was famous (though nobody was ever quite sure for what). The freshman target himself was probably the most confused by the whole thing until he finally ran into one of the perpetrators who explained what had been going on months later, but enjoyed the attention and minor acclaim for most of his time in college none-the-less.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Tate Nat Tate]], supposedly a famous artist who destroyed most of his work before killing himself, whose "biography" was written by William Boyd. In reality, Boyd seems to have just wanted to make fun of art critics, and was assisted by Creator/GoreVidal and ''Creator/DavidBowie''. Only one editor at the book's launch party realized it was a hoax; he realized something was off when [[FlockOfWolves everyone]] ''[[FlockOfWolves except]]'' [[FlockOfWolves him]] claimed that yes, of course they were familiar with Tate and his work.

* [[http://www.deadspin.com/5976517/manti-teos-dead-girlfriend-the-most-heartbreaking-and-inspirational-story-of-the-college-football-season-is-a-hoax Lennay Kekua]], "dead girlfriend" of former [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball Notre Dame linebacker]] Manti Te'o, was invented by an acquaintance of Te'o's.
* Kozma Prutkov, a fake XIX century Russian writer, author of satire and {{Ice Cream Koan}}s. He was a collective pen name of several Russian writers, including A.K.Tolstoy and the Zhemchuzhnikov Brothers.

* Musician [[http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/07/17/423612001/can-you-have-an-album-on-itunes-if-you-dont-exist?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20150720 Lucia Cole]] had an album on [=iTunes=] and 64,000 Twitter followers, was interviewed in a few web publications, and was endorsed by Shaquille O'Neal. But the consensus is that her entire existence was an elaborate hoax: her supposed label, Republic Records, said no one was signed with them under that name, photographs posted to her official site turned out to be pictures of a model named Reese Cromwell, and her album consisted entirely of old, slightly re-titled Music/JessicaSimpson recordings. Following these revelations, Cole's only album ''Innocence'' was quickly pulled from all digital platforms - it's not exactly a LostEpisode because, again, it consisted entirely of re-labeled Jessica Simpson songs. Later, a different Lucia Cole's music appeared on Tidal, apparently this time an [[AnonymousBand anonymous musician]] who named themself in reference to the invented individual: Their album, consisting of original InstrumentalHipHop, is significantly titled ''Catfish'', and has a stylized, faceless portrait of Reese Cromwell as cover art.

* It is very likely that Creator/{{Homer}}, the Greek historian who told the tales of ''Literature/TheIliad'' and ''Literature/TheOdyssey'', was not a real person at all. The root of this theory is that the stories had their roots in oral retellings which were passed from town to town, the details changing along the way like a game of telephone. Many historians believe that Homer was invented to give the cobbled together tales a source of origin. There's three base elements to this theory: 1) Homeric epic shares many stylistic characteristics with known oral traditions; 2) Thanks to the sophistication and mnemonic power of the formulaic system in Homeric poetry, it is entirely possible for epics as large as the Iliad and Odyssey to have been created in an oral tradition, 3) many curious features that offended the ancient Alexandrians and the Analysts are most probably symptomatic of the poems' evolution through oral transmission and, within limits, poets re-inventing them in performance, and 4) various continuity errors within the work.

* In 1987, the IRS started requiring the Social Security numbers for children over the age of 5 who were claimed as dependents on tax returns. The result? [[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-12-11-me-33-story.html The number of children claimed as dependents went from 77 million to 70 million]], meaning that 7 million children had been invented for the purpose of paying less taxes.

* Spiders Georg is the memetic creation of a Tumblr user explaining that the idea of eating spiders (usually in your sleep) with an average of three per year is a myth (which is true), [[RightForTheWrongReasons and is in fact caused by]] including the titular cave-dwelling Spiders Georg in the calculation. This has resulted in several other specialized Georgs, such as [[https://misbehavingmaiar.tumblr.com/post/141229577819/sebastian-bond-but-the-library-of-alexandria Linguistics Georg.]]

* Dean Andrew, the lawyer hired to defend Lee Harvey Oswald before he was murdered, described a meeting with a "Clay Bertrand" who got him the job. Despite Andrew being a notorious fibber and later admitting the story was a lie, when Jim Garrison launched his investigation of the assassination, he latched onto the idea that the name was an alias of businessman Clay Shaw, pretty much entirely because of the first name and Shaw being homosexual. [[Creator/OliverStone Oliver Stone's]] ''Film/{{JFK}}'' takes the idea and runs with it, making many assassination buffs cry.

* This is the origin of the term "John Doe" (and Jane Doe and other such variants) being used as a placeholder name for unidentified persons. According to English Common Law at least two witnesses were needed for criminal proceedings, so prosecutors would occasionally put the name on the books for unimportant trials. There was also a complicated procedure in housing law that was simplified if both sides were acting for third parties; if there were no third parties, they'd claim to be acting on behalf of John Doe and Richard Roe.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Tate Nat Tate]], supposedly a famous artist who destroyed most of his work before killing himself, whose "biography" was written by William Boyd. In reality, Boyd seems to have just wanted to make fun of art critics, and was assisted by Creator/GoreVidal and ''Creator/DavidBowie''. Only one editor at the book's launch party realized it was a hoax; he realized something was off when everyone ''except'' him claimed that yes, of course they were familiar with Tate and his work.

* It is very likely that Homer, the Greek historian who told the tales of ''Literature/TheIliad'' and ''Literature/TheOdyssey'', was not a real person at all. The root of this theory is that the stories had their roots in oral retellings which were passed from town to town, the details changing along the way like a game of telephone. Many historians believe that Homer was invented to give the cobbled together tales a source of origin. There's three base elements to this theory: 1) Homeric epic shares many stylistic characteristics with known oral traditions; 2) Thanks to the sophistication and mnemonic power of the formulaic system in Homeric poetry, it is entirely possible for epics as large as the Iliad and Odyssey to have been created in an oral tradition, 3) many curious features that offended the ancient Alexandrians and the Analysts are most probably symptomatic of the poems' evolution through oral transmission and, within limits, poets re-inventing them in performance, and 4) various continuity errors within the work.

-->'''Norm''': I ''am'' Norm Peterson and I can prove it! (to bar) [[CatchPhrase Afternoon, everybody!]]\\

* In ''Film/Angel1984'', Molly claims to be living with her invalid mother, and uses this as an excuse not be involved in any extracurricular activities. However, [[ParentalAbandonment her mother actually abandoned her]] when she 12, and there is no else besides Molly living in the apartment.

-->'''Hawkeye:''' We can all be comforted by the thought that he's not really gone - that there's a little Tuttle left in all of us. In fact, you might say that all of us together [[IncrediblyLamePun made up Tuttle]].

* In ''Series/TheWire'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG0aTzyz7GE Herc and Carver lose a very expensive listening device]], hidden inside a tennis ball. Since the thing cost $1,500, they try to cover up the loss by crediting what information they did gain to a fictitious informant. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GJa1_u-VLE They have Herc's cousin Bernard pose as a confidential informant named]] [[IncrediblyLamePun "Fuzzy Dunlop"]] ([[DontExplainTheJoke "Fuzzy" for the felt material on the surface of the]] ''[[DontExplainTheJoke Dunlop]]'' [[DontExplainTheJoke tennis ball]]). When Carver hands the informant registration to Daniels, it's pretty obvious that Daniels isn't buying it.

* In ''Film/NorthByNorthwest'', Cary Grant stumbles into the identity of CIA Agent George Kaplan. It turns out Kaplan does not exist; he's a phony agent who attracts attention away from real operatives.

* In ''Series/TheWire'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG0aTzyz7GE Herc and Carver lose a very expensive listening device]], hidden inside a tennis ball. Since the thing cost $1,500, they try to cover up the loss by crediting what information they did gain to a fictitious informant. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GJa1_u-VLE They have Herc's cousin Bernard pose as a confidential informant named]] [[IncrediblyLamePun "Fuzzy Dunlop"]] ([[DontExplainTheJoke "Fuzzy" for the felt material on the surface of the ''Dunlop'' tennis ball]]). When Carver hands the informant registration to Daniels, it's pretty obvious that Daniels isn't buying it.

** Herc later uses the Fuzzy Dunlop identity in season 4 to try to cover up his misplacement of an expensive camera with the new MCU boss [[TyrantTakesTheHelm Charles Marimow]].

Supertrope to AmalgamatedIndividual.

->'''Red''': Andy, you can't just make a person up!\\
'''Andy''': Sure you can, if you know how the system works, where the cracks are. It's amazing what you can accomplish by mail.

* Musician [[http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/07/17/423612001/can-you-have-an-album-on-itunes-if-you-dont-exist?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20150720 Lucia Cole]] had an album on [=iTunes=] and 64,000 Twitter followers, was interviewed in a few web publications, and was endorsed by Shaquille O'Neal. But the consensus is that her entire existence was an elaborate hoax: her supposed label, Republic Records, said no one was signed with them under that name, photographs posted to her official site turned out to be pictures of a model named Reese Cromwell, and her album consisted entirely of old, slightly re-titled Music/JessicaSimpson recordings. Following these revelations, Cole's only album ''Innocence'' was quickly pulled from all digital platforms - it's not exactly a LostEpisode because, again, it consisted entirely of re-labeled Jessica Simpson songs.

* In the 1970's TV movie ''Film/PaperMan1970'', a group of post-grad students create a fake person in the college computer to back up a mistakenly issued credit card. By the time they try to kill off the fake person, the fake person is apparently killing them off.

* In the 70's, Creator/DanAykroyd was asked to fill out a form for ''Who's Who''. As a joke, he made up a wife named Maureen Lewis and three children with her. Surprisingly, this information was published in the book without being verified. Aykroyd would later get married in 1982 to Donna Dixon, who does actually exist.

* In ''Literature/{{Safehold}}'', Merlin uses his shapeshifter gifts to create a plethora of fictional ''seijins'', the main purpose being to enable Merlin to act in places he shouldn't be seen because by Safehold's standards, he shouldn't be able to be there so quickly. There are at least five different identities he's using, and it [[UpToEleven multiplies]] when Owl starts to send its reports to the Charisian spymaster, varying the style and writing to create [=CIAs=] worth of ''seijins''.

** Take UpToEleven later in the war with Operation Fortitude. The idea here was to fool the Germans into thinking the Invasion of Europe (D-Day) would happen at Calais and NOT Normandy. To this end the Allies invented an entire ARMY and put actual General George S. Patton in charge of it. The ruse worked very well as the Nazis kept A LOT of equipment away from Normandy and even thought NORMANDY was a ruse to distract them from the REAL invasion yet to come at Calais.