History Main / MyGrandsonMyself

* In ''Literature/TheBelgariad'', Tolnedrans don't believe in Belgarath and Polgara's immortality, and think it's actually a dynasty of sorts.

* In the backstory of Creator/CharlesSheffield's novel ''The Ganymede Club'', a spaceship crew ran into something that apparently made them immortal. They cover this up by occasionally faking their deaths and starting over with new identities (this is [[ConvenientlyUnverifiableCoverstory made easier]] by a massively destructive Earth-Belt war between the incident and the time of the story).

* ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'': Captain Jack Harkness, in the episodes "Small Worlds" and "[[Series/TorchwoodMiracleDay The New World]]".

* In Georgia (the Eurasian one, not the North American one) men would pretend to be their fathers in order to dodge being drafted into the Russian army in the bad old days. This created the myth that Georgians had unusually long lifespans, regularly having official ages of over one hundred.

A special case of IdenticalGrandson where they are actually the same character. Not to be confused with MyOwnGrampa.

* In ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow2'', Zobek hides [[LateArrivalSpoiler his true nature]] by claiming to be a descendant of [[AsYouKnow the original Zobek, who helped found the Brotherhood of Light]]. Anyone who played the first game, [[CaptainObvious well, first]], would know that they're the same person. An interesting detail is that he's been using his modern identity for just over a century by the time Gabriel awakens.

* In the ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' episode "Saving Private Leo", Leo Wyatt poses as his own grandson to attend a 60th-anniversary reunion of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII veterans.

->'''Willow''': Wow! Like father like son.
->'''Oz''': How 'bout exact same guy like exact same guy.

* One issue of ''ComicStrip/ThePhantom'' was about a queen who had achieved eternal youth (with the caveat that she never fall in love). She would regularly marry (strict convenience, no love), then have a 'daughter' during the honey moon who would be raised and schooled abroad. A few decades down the line (before she got old enough that her lack of aging would make people suspicious), she'd go on a journey abroad, 'die' mysteriously, and her identical 'daughter' would return to claim the throne.

* ''Literature/TheMisenchantedSword'' by Creator/LawrenceWattEvans gives the main character immortality. Once he solves the problems with it, he does just this by telling all his friends he's leaving his business to a long lost relative. Then he gets himself youthened and comes back as the relative.
* [[spoiler:The all-mighty High Priest Dios]] in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Pyramids'' is an interesting case of this: not only has he been [[spoiler: the high priest and chief adviser to the pharaohs of Djelibeybi for over seven thousand years by abusing a pyramid's age-reversing effects]], he has ''[[StableTimeLoop always]]'' been that way (or at least for untold tens of thousands of years) as a result of [[spoiler:being brought back to the moment of Djelibeybi's founding [[LaserGuidedAmnesia with all of his religious knowledge but no memory of his past, leading him to repeat the experience over and over]]]]. As far as we know, he never actually ''pretends'' to be his own descendant - people just assume.
** It's more a matter of people trying very hard not to think about it too much, as being fed to crocodiles often offends.
* Lazarus Long mentions doing this in Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/TimeEnoughForLove''. Since he effectively doesn't age, he uses makeup to make himself slowly look older over time. After he's been in an area for long enough, he comes back without the makeup as his "son."

* In the ''Literature/{{Belgariad}}'', Tolnedrans don't believe in Belgarath and Polgara's immortality, and think it's actually a dynasty of sorts.
* Inverted in Jasper Fforde's ''[[Literature/ThursdayNext The Eyre Affair]].'' Thursday meets a member of the Chronoguard, the time-traveling police, who introduces himself as the grandfather of an ex-boyfriend of hers. However, after the man dies, Thursday learns that the man actually ''was'' her ex-boyfriend, who due to an accident in the timestream had been aged over sixty years. Not bearing that Thursday should meet him like that, he took on a false identity.
* In Creator/PoulAnderson's ''The Boat of a Million Years'' several characters do this.
* ''Literature/TuckEverlasting''
* In the third book of ''Literature/ThePendragonAdventure'', Bobby claims to be his own grandson when [[spoiler:he meets the surviving gangster from First Earth, who returns his Traveler ring]].
* In Barry Hughart's ''Literature/BridgeOfBirds'', [[spoiler:the current Duke is revealed to be the same man as his alleged "ancestor" who became emperor many centuries ago]].

* In the short story "Bargain with the Wind" by Sharon Shinn, narrator and OldRetainer Nettie is revealed at the end to be an earth spirit whose job is to serve the masters of the house. When a new family moves in and offers to let her retire, she suggest as her replacement her "niece", Norah, and then changes her form to that of a young girl so she can continue to serve the new owners.
* The main character in ''Saturn's Race'' by Creator/LarryNiven and Steven Barnes undergoes a top secret rejuvenation process, and ends up assuming the identity of a grandson.
* Short-term variant: In ''[[Literature/TheVampireFiles Bloodlist]]'', Jack Fleming rises as a vampire looking a decade younger than his real age, so poses as his own near-identical younger brother while pursuing the gangsters who murdered him.
* Done by the BigBad in Creator/KevinJAnderson's ''Literature/{{Blindfold}}'', who uses a cryopod to become a HumanPopsicle for a few years before re-emerging to see how things are progressing. Naturally, he uses this trick to fool everybody else, especially since [[spoiler:the frequent freezings have rendered him sterile]]. It's also revealed that he is actually [[spoiler:one of the original command crew of the first colony ship on Atlas]].

* Seti Ashgad presents himself as Seti Ashgad Jr. in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' novel ''[[Literature/TheCallistaTrilogy Planet of Twilight]]''.

* Some of the immortals in ''Literature/TheSecretsOfTheImmortalNicholasFlamel'' are mentioned as doing this at least once in their immortal lives.
* In the backstory of Creator/CharlesSheffield's novel ''The Ganymede Club'', a spaceship crew ran into something that apparently made them immortal. They cover this up by occasionally faking their deaths and starting over with new identities (this is [[ConvenientlyUnverifiableCoverstory made easier]] by a massively destructive Earth-Belt war between the incident and the time of the story).
* [[spoiler:Ferris Renfrow]] in Creator/GlenCook's ''The Instrumentalities of the Night'' takes the form of the "old" [[spoiler:Ferris Renfrow]]'s son over and over, though nobody remembers him being young.
* In ''Literature/AnnoDracula: Ten Thousand Monsters'', Geneviève's backstory mentions that in the days when vampires hid their true natures, they would sometimes do this, generally if they were the sort who wanted to retain an aristocratic title. (Geneviève herself simply moved around a lot and tried to avoid being someone people would remember.) Eventually, someone would notice that the gallery of identical all-male ancestors who chose to have their portrait painted at exactly the same age was a bit suspicious and the trouble would start.

* Captain Jack Harkness in the ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' episodes "Small Worlds" and "[[Series/TorchwoodMiracleDay The New World]]".

* In the ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' episode "Saving Private Leo," Leo Wyatt poses as his own grandson to attend a 60th-anniversary reunion of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII veterans.
* The Trill ambassador in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' poses as his own son to avoid letting the Federation know that the Trill are a race of {{Puppeteer Parasite}}s.
** The classic ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'' episode "Requiem for Methuselah" deals with one Mr. Flint, who was born in ancient Mesopotamia. He went to war and was killed on the battlefield, but didn't die. By the 23rd century [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy he claimed to have been]] [[JuliusBeethovenDaVinci King Solomon, Alexander the Great, Leonardo da Vinci, and other famous and not-so-famous figures]], and to have known Moses, Jesus, and Galileo.
* The Doctor in the ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' is occasionally referenced as doing this so he can continually visit places he likes. Of course, he has the advantage that he [[TheNthDoctor doesn't look the same every time]].

* In one of the canonical ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' graphic novels, Adam Monroe, an immortal man who's nearly 400 years old, states that during one of his innumerable marriages, he and his wife, to hide the fact that he's staying the same age and she's aging normally, first introduce him as her husband, then eventually their son, then grandson.
* An episode of ''TheTwilightZone1959'' had a woman who did this, and claimed that the old woman living with her was her elderly mother when it was really her ''daughter''. [[spoiler:And it turns out she was actually [[HistoricalDomainCharacter Cleopatra]] and had discovered an ancient Egyptian magic that enabled her to stay immortal by sucking the youth out of people using scarabs]].

* Mick St. John tries this trick in an episode of ''Series/{{Moonlight}}'', although he is actually pretty young by vampire standards (only 90). The only reason he does this is because a criminal he helped put away decades before (and revealed his GameFace to) has been released on parole and is out for revenge (having brushed up on his vampire lore in prison). When Beth mentions that Mick's name came up in relation to the criminal, Mick claims it was his late father, Mick St. John, Sr. Later on, Beth interviews a retired blind cop who personally knew Mick back in the day (and still does, as Mick still visits him) and mentions Mick's "late father". The cop is confused, as the Mick he knows is alive and well... and never had children. By next episode, though, this is no longer necessary, as Beth knows the truth.
* In the original ''Series/DarkShadows'' series, Barnabas Collins did this when he was first released, and during his travels through time.
* The ''Series/{{Alias}}'' episode "Time Will Tell" features an unnaturally long-lived Renaissance clockmaker who, in the present day, pretends to be his own distant descendant.

* In ''Literature/AnnoDracula: Ten Thousand Monsters'', Geneviève's backstory mentions that in the days when vampires hid their true natures, they would sometimes do this, generally if they were the sort who wanted to retain an aristocratic title. Eventually, someone would notice that the gallery of identical all-male ancestors who chose to have their portrait painted at exactly the same age was a bit suspicious and the trouble would start.

* One issue of ''ComicBook/ThePhantom'' was about a queen who had achieved eternal youth (with the caveat that she never fall in love). She would regularly marry (strict convenience, no love), then have a 'daughter' during the honey moon who would be raised and schooled abroad. A few decades down the line (before she got old enough that her lack of aging would make people suspicious), she'd go on a journey abroad, 'die' mysteriously, and her identical 'daughter' would return to claim the throne.

* A variant in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'': After Talia invites Bruce to use the [[FountainOfYouth Lazarus Pit]], it is revealed [[spoiler:she is actually Ra's Al Ghul, who had [[FamilialBodySnatcher transferred his mind into her body]], and now plans to take over Bruce's body and claim Bruce's fortune as his son.]]

* Hob Gadling/Sir Robert Gadling/Bobby Gadling in ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' mentions he has done this several times. He actually mentions that this has gotten more difficult since the invention of photography. He has to conceal old family photographs to make sure nobody notices that he looks EXACTLY like his uncle or grandfather did fifty years ago. Although he also talks authoritatively about the past when confronted with TheThemeParkVersion and never seems to notice that he's talking about it firsthand.
** The ''Hobs Leviathan'' chapter implies that this is a fairly common practice among immortals in the Sandman mythos

* In ''TabletopGame/FreedomCity'', Daniel Daedalus, a GadgeteerGenius who is a member of the modern day Freedom League under the name Daedalus, allows people to believe he's the son of the Daedalus who was a member of the [[TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] Freedom League. It's simpler than explaining he's ''actually Daedalus''.

* Short-term variant: In ''[[TheVampireFiles Bloodlist]]'', Jack Fleming rises as a vampire looking a decade younger than his real age, so poses as his own near-identical younger brother while pursuing the gangsters who murdered him.

* A variant in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'': After Talia invites Bruce to use the [[FountainOfYouth Lazarus Pit]], it is revealed [[spoiler:she is actually Ra's Al Ghul, who had [[GrandTheftMe transferred his mind into her body]], and now plans to take over Bruce's body and claim Bruce's fortune as his son.]]

* As in [[Franchise/TheDCU the comics]], Vandal Savage in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague''.

[[folder:Tabletop RPGs]]

* Hob Gadling/Sir Robert Gadling/Bobby Gadling in ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' mentions he has done this several times. He actually mentions that this has gotten more difficult since the invention of photography. He has to conceal old family photographs to make sure nobody notices that he looks EXACTLY like his uncle or grandfather did fifty years ago.

* The main character in ''Saturn's Race'' by Creator/LarryNiven's and Steven Barnes undergoes a top secret rejuvenation process, and ends up assuming the identity of a grandson.

* In ''ShadowOfDestiny'', it is implied that [[spoiler:the main character, Eike, has been this, though without his knowledge]].

* In the ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' episode "Saving Private Leo," Leo Wyatt poses as his own grandson to attend a 60th-anniversary reunion of WorldWarII veterans.

** His adopted sister Suprema, aka Sally Crane, who looks all of nineteen despite being a schoolgirl at the outbreak of World War 2, is currently using the identity of Saly Crane II, Ethan Sr's daughter and her own niece.

* Both Creator/NicolasCage and Creator/KeanuReeves are known to have had ancestors who looked remarkably similar to them, which has lead fans to (jokingly) speculate that they're actually immortal. It helps that [[OlderThanTheyLook neither of them have aged very visibly in the decades since their movie careers started]]. Hmm...

* ''{{Film/Highlander}}'': Connor faked his own death, left his estate to fake sons and took their identities repeatedly.