History Main / MyGrandsonMyself

** ''ComicBook/{{Icon}}'': The title character started off as "Augustus Freeman" in Civil-War-Era America and as a result of actually being an Alien with a longer lifespan than humans, has been forced into doing this in order to avoid suspicion. By the time the comic started in the late 20th century, he is Augustus Freeman IV the great grandson of his original persona.

%%** ComicBook/VandalSavage
* ''ComicBook/{{Icon}}'': The title character started off as "Augustus Freeman" in Civil-War-Era America and as a result of actually being an Alien with a longer lifespan than humans, has been forced into doing this in order to avoid suspicion. By the time the comic started in the late 20th century, he is Augustus Freeman IV the great grandson of his original persona.

* Also inverted in the DC/Marvel ''[[ComicBook/AmalgamUniverse All Access]]'' crossover series. That old drifter who started helping Axel with his powers? Not so much.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'' has the Cabot family, who became immortal after their father discovered a ruin in the Middle East built by AncientAstronauts, and found therein a ClingyMacguffin that made him immortal (and also [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity crazy and telekinetic]]), at which point his son made a serum from his blood that prevents or reverses aging as long as you take it regularly.For the next 200 years or so they regularly left the country for a decade or two, "died", and came back as their cousins and heirs. They stopped having to do this [[AfterTheEnd after the bombs fell]], and are thus pretty much the only people in existence whose lives were made more convenient by a nuclear apocalypse.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': Gold dragons often take on humanoid guises to blend into other species' societies; however, since most dragons will outlive even the most long-lived elves by millennia, they generally need to at least put on a pretense of aging. While golds will generally fake their own deaths once their "lifetimes" are up, ones particularly attached to their guises will pose as their own children, grandchildren and so on. While this tends to work fine at first, [[RealityEnsues their neighbors tend to catch wise to there being something fishy going on after a few generations of single people suddenly producing grown children out of nowhere]].

* ''ComicBook/{{Icon}}'': The title character started off as "Augustus Freeman" in Civil-War-Era America and as a result of actually being an Alien with a longer lifespan than humans, has been forced into doing this in order to avoid suspicion. By the time the comic started in the late 20th century, he is Augustus Freeman IV the great great grandson of his original persona.

* ''ComicBook/{{Icon}}'': The title character started off as "Augustus Freeman" in Civil-War-Era America and made a habit of this sort of identity change. By the time the comic started in the late 20th century, he was Augustus Freeman IV.

* ''Literature/{{Deverry}}'': Nevyn was a close adviser to the first King in Cerrmorr and the last King in Cerrrmor over the course of a century long civil war. When his second King's wife remarks on the coincidence of his name (Nevyn is ''not'' a common name, as it means No One), Nevyn claims that the Nevyn who served as adviser to Glyn I was his grandfather. Of course, Neyvn made a point of spending the decades between the death of Glyn I and the crowning of Maryn I a long way away from Cerrmor, to keep people from realizing that he didn't age.

* ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'': Implied by the AltText of [[http://xkcd.com/950/ this]] Implied by the AltText of [[http://xkcd.com/950/ this]] strip, which claims that "Jimmy Hoffa currently heads the Teamsters Union -- he just started going by 'James'." (Jimmy Hoffa's son James P. Hoffa is the actual current head of the Teamsters Union.)

** ComicBook/{{Hawkman}} started doing this after the Golden Age Hawkman from the 1940s was retconned into being the same character as the currently active Hawkman.

* Also inverted in the DC/Marvel ''[[ComicBook/AmalgamUniverse All Access]]'' crossover series. That old drifter who started helping Axel with his powers? Not so much.
* ''ComicBook/{{Icon}}'': The title character started off as "Augustus Freeman" in Civil-War-Era America and made a habit of this sort of identity change. By the time the comic started in the late 20th century, he was Augustus Freeman IV.

* In ''Comicbook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'', Mina Harker and Allan Quartermain drink from the FountainOfYouth, restoring both to their late-20s selves. Mina lives on as herself and is noted to be "remarkably well-preserved," while Allan invokes this trope and poses as "Allan Quartermain Jr."
* ''ComicBook/ClanDestine'': Many of the Destines have done this. In the first volume, Kay has to establish her new [[BodySurf host body]] as the daughter of the same name as her old one -- somewhat complicated by the fact that she hadn't planned on the switch and therefore never mentioned having a daughter. The sequel miniseries establishes that Walter has also been repeatedly posing as his own son (under the same name), and a villain discovers that the family has a suspicious pattern of births and deaths in out of the way locales with conveniently poor documentation.
* ''ComicStrip/ThePhantom'': One issue is 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 honeymoon 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.
* In the IDW ''ComicBook/BackToTheFuture'' comic, one storyline saw Marty travel to 1972 to figure out why his Uncle Joey ended up in jail. He runs afoul of Biff Tannen and his gang, who notice how similar he looks to "Calvin Klein" from [[Film/BackToTheFuture the fifties]], which Marty explains by claiming to be Calvin's son Kevin Klein, whose parents had to leave Hill Valley when they got pregnant out of wedlock.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Silverblade}}'', aging reclusive actor Jonathan Lord gains the power to become any character he has portrayed on the silver screen. He uses this ability to appear as he did in his early twenties when he was portraying his most famous role of Silverblade, and makes a grand return to Hollywood as Jonathan Lord, Jr.

* In ''Film/Dracula2000'', Dr. Abraham Van Helsing uses Dracula's blood to keep himself immortal, in order to continue research on how to kill the vampire king for good. In the modern day, he passes himself as his grandson, "Matthew Van Helsing". This has the side effect of [[spoiler:allowing Dracula to track down his daughter, who has some of his blood within her]].
* ''Film/DarkShadows'': Angelique has been pulling this trick for at least 200 years to be able to continue running her fishery.
* ''{{Film/Highlander}}'': Connor faked his own death, left his estate to fake sons and took their identities repeatedly so he could cover up being immortal.
* ''Film/CountessDracula'': Elisabeth passes her youthful self off as her own daughter. Some people do acknowledge that they remembered Ilona differently.

* 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 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 [[http://kitfox-crimson.deviantart.com/gallery/10893673/Restored-Generation-Part-1 Restored Generation]] Rena claims to be her daughter "Becky" when she meets the other characters from the prequel comic [[http://stolengen.smackjeeves.com/ Stolen Generation]] for the first time in 17 years and looks no different. And what's more, she introduced her son, Seth, as [[FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo her brother]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003'': Utrom Shredder pretends to be his own descendants, all named Oroku Saki.
* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': Vandal Savage, as in [[Franchise/TheDCU the comics]]. The League first encounter him after getting sent back in time to World War II; when he shows Martian Manhunter a video of himself from the future, J'onn can only remark how gracefully he aged -- Savage remarks, "You have no idea." In another episode, they run into him in the present, and it's mentioned that his "grandfather" was a Nazi war criminal, before his immortality is explained.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'': A variant. After Talia invites Bruce to use the [[FountainOfYouth Lazarus Pit]], it is revealed that [[spoiler:she is actually Ra's Al Ghul, who had [[FamilialBodySnatcher transferred his mind into her body]]. He plans to take over Bruce's body and pass himself off as the previously unknown son of Bruce and Talia, claiming both the al-Ghul and Wayne fortunes]].

* In ''ComicBook/{{Silverblade}}'', aging reclusive actor Jonathan gains the power to become any character he has portrayed on the silver screen. He uses this ability to appear as he did in his early twenties when he was portraying his most famous role of Silverblade, and makes a grand return to Hollywood as Jonathan Lord, Jr.

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

Bonus points if you keep the same name - so John Smith becomes John Smith Jr, becomes John Smith III, etc. Bonus [[IdiotBall idiocy-points]] if you've ever allowed someone to paint your portrait or take your photograph while pursuing this strategy, as it ''will'' be discovered and [[ExpositionOfImmortality expose your deception in future decades.]]

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': [[spoiler:The all-mighty High Priest Dios]] in ''Discworld/{{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, and the Djelibeybian tradition of feeding boat-rockers to crocodiles also discourages extensive inquiries into his genealogy.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': One episode 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:As 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.]]

[[folder:Comicbooks]]

** The "Hob's Leviathan" chapter implies that this is a fairly common practice among immortals in the ''Sandman'' mythos

[[folder:Film]]

* Creator/ChelseaQuinnYarbro's immortal vampire Saint-Germain would leave an area for a time (decades, usually, though he does this more quickly in ''The Palace''), and then return under a new identity as the nephew of his previous identity to claim his "inheritance". He might not use the exact same name, but would re-shuffle his usual ones (justifiable, as noble families often have traditional names that get re-used).
* ''Literature/ChakonaSpace'': Contributing author Allen Fessler gives us the ''Tales of the Folly'' series. The ''Folly's'' captain, Neil Foster is somewhere north of 200 and due to his teleporters having been TouchedByVorlons, he gets occasional "fountain of youth" makeovers and is able to pull off this trope convincingly. Other characters assume that the older version of foster they knew / see pictures of and the one they now see are grandfather and grandson respectively. At least one non-human character is convinced it's the same man.

* ''Series/GoodOmens2019'': It’s implied that Crowley pulled this with Shadwell to disguise his immortality over the 50 years of their acquaintance— in a throwaway line in Episode 3, Shadwell inquires after Crowley’s “father”, and says “you resemble him very much, you know”.

[[folder:Videogames]]

* ''ComicBook/TheSandman':
** Hob Gadling/Sir Robert Gadling/Bobby Gadling' 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, no one ever seems to notice that he's talking about it firsthand.

* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'': Pride, aka [[spoiler:Selim Bradley]], does a variation in that he's pretended to be [[spoiler:the adopted son of an important government official ever since the founding of Amestris]]. What better way to innocuously keep tabs on what the government is doing?

* Subverted in ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'' -- as part of the original 1711 contract, all immortals are rendered incapable of establishing long-term false identities, which means all of them will eventually have to give that awkward explanation as to why their passport claims they're six or seven times older than they look. According to [[spoiler: Ronnie]] in the prologue of ''[[AllThereInTheManual The Rolling Bootlegs]]'', there's a mental block against setting false [=IDs=]:

* The ex-geisha [[TomboyishName Mamekishi]] from ''Manga/DanceInTheVampireBund'' managed to reside in the same Tokyo [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire neighborhood]] for centuries using this trick. As she did not venture out in the daylight it was by her account easy to feign aging for a few decades with acting and minimal cosmetics before she 'died' and 'her granddaughter' moved in.

* Rin from ''Anime/{{Mnemosyne}}'' uses this during a visit to an old acquaintance from WWII when the latter recognizes her.

* [[MindScrew Played With]] in ''Manga/PandoraHearts''. [[spoiler:The immortal Jack Vessalius ages in a cycle, growing to adulthood and becoming a child again about every hundred years. His body ended up being taken over by part of Oz' soul, so while Oz believed Jack to be his anscestor the body was actually Jack's all along.]]
* Ernst von Boem in ''Anime/RahXephon''.
* In ''Anime/{{Superbook}}'' this is how our time-traveling protagonists explain still looking like children when they meet Rebecca again, in an adventure set at least forty years after they last saw her.

* ComicBook/VandalSavage in Franchise/TheDCU.
* ComicBook/LexLuthor, dying from radiation poisoning ('cause it turned out kryptonite was just like any other radioactive substance to humans), [[FakingTheDead faked his death]] by plane crash then had his brain transferred to a clone body, introducing himself to the world as his own son. After the reveal (which involved clone degeneration and him levelling Metropolis), he pulled a KarmaHoudini by selling his soul for a cure and then blaming everything on an [[FromACertainPointOfView insane clone that faked his death and took his place]].
* 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, no one ever seems to notice that he's talking about it firsthand.

* Creator/MilestoneComics ''ComicBook/{{Icon}}'' series. The title character started off as "Augustus Freeman" in Civil-War-Era America and made a habit of this sort of identity change. By the time the comic started in the late 20th century, he was Augustus Freeman IV.
* The title character of ''ComicBook/{{Supreme}}'', [[ClarkKenting aka Ethan Crane]], due to his powers, ages very slowly, and, despite being born in 1920, [[OlderThanTheyLook looks to be in his early-to-mid thirties]]. When he met the universe's now elderly {{Expy}} of Lana Lang [[spoiler: inhabited by the spirit of the ComicBook/LexLuthor {{Expy}}]], in the late 90s, she briefly recognises him as her old friend Ethan Crane, but then assumes he must be Ethan Crane's son since Ethan couldn't possibly look the same as he did decades ago. For the rest of the series he goes by the name "Ethan Crane Jr.", [[ThrowItIn posing as his own son]]. It's helped by the fact that Supreme, and therefore "Ethan Crane Sr." disappeared into space in the late 60s, and only returned over twenty years later. Although we later learn he never bothered to make up a name for his mother.

* ComicBook/{{Hawkman}} started doing this after the Golden Age Hawkman from the 1940s was retconned into being the same character as the currently active Hawkman.

* Many of the Destines from ''ComicBook/ClanDestine'' have done this. In the first volume, Kay has to establish her new [[BodySurf host body]] as the daughter of the same name as her old one- somewhat complicated by the fact that she hadn't planned on the switch and therefore never mentioned having a daughter. The sequel miniseries establishes that Walter has also been repeatedly posing as his own son (under the same name), and a villain discovers that the family has a suspicious pattern of births and deaths in out of the way locales with conveniently poor documentation.
* 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 honeymoon 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.

* John in ''Film/TheManFromEarth'' claims that he has passed himself off as his own son multiple times.
* In ''Film/{{Dracula 2000}}'', Dr. Abraham Van Helsing uses Dracula's blood to keep himself immortal, in order to continue research on how to kill the vampire king for good. In the modern day, he passes himself as his grandson, "Matthew Van Helsing". This has the side effect of [[spoiler:allowing Dracula to track down his daughter, who has some of his blood within her]].

* In ''Literature/TheBelgariad'', many Tolnedrans don't believe in Belgarath and Polgara's immortality (or at least, act like they don't on principle - their God, Nedra, is peculiarly secular), and think it's actually a dynasty of sorts, with Polgara observing in her prequel that there's apparently a major sub-section of the History faculty at the University of Tol Honeth in Tolnedra dedicated to their exploits and sorting out which 'member' of this 'dynasty' did what and where. She theorises that they're now probably up to 'Polgara the 113th'.
* 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]].

* 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]].
* A minor but long-lived villain in Creator/HPLovecraft's ''Literature/TheCaseOfCharlesDexterWard'', a sorcerer named Simon, writes a letter to the main villain, explaining a ChekhovsGun detail (Simon's disappearance) that's dropped fairly early on: "In this Community a Man may not live too long, and you knowe my Plan by which I came back as my Son."
* In the ''{{Literature/Deverry}}'' novels, Nevyn was a close adviser to the first King in Cerrmorr and the last King in Cerrrmor over the course of a century long civil war. When his second King's wife remarks on the coincidence of his name (Nevyn is ''not'' a common name, as it means No One), Nevyn claims that the Nevyn who served as adviser to Glyn I was his grandfather. Of course, Neyvn made a point of spending the decades between the death of Glyn I and the crowning of Maryn I a long way away from Cerrmor, to keep people from realizing that he didn't age.
* [[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.
* 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 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 the Creator/LoisDuncan novel ''Locked In Time'', the character of Lisette Berge occasionally explains that the reason older people seem to know her is that she looks exactly like her mother, who was also named Lisette Berge. Lisette's stepdaughter Nora, however, realizes that this can't be the case because "Berge" was supposed to have been Lisette's name from her first marriage, so her mother would have had a different one.

* 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]].

* 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.
* Some of the immortals in ''Literature/TheSecretsOfTheImmortalNicholasFlamel'' are mentioned as doing this at least once in their immortal lives.

* In Creator/PamelaDean's ''Tam Lin'', there are a couple of references that indicate that Professor Medeous, aka the Queen of Faerie, has done this at least once.
* Jasper Fforde's ''Literature/ThursdayNext'': Inverted in ''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.
* 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".

* Mayor Richard Wilkins III (aka Mayor Richard Wilkins and Mayor Richard Wilkins Jr.) in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''.
* In the ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' episode "Saving Private Leo", Leo Wyatt poses as his own grandson to attend a 60th-anniversary reunion of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII veterans.
* In the original ''Series/DarkShadows'' series, Barnabas Collins did this when he was first released, and during his travels through 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.
* Duncan [=MacLeod=] from ''Series/{{Highlander}}: The Series'' sometimes has to resort to doing this when mortals from his past think they recognize him - naturally they tend to suggest this themselves once they get over the stunning likeness.
** Duncan pretended to be his own lookalike son when meeting the aged leader of a French Resistance cell he worked with in WW II.
** [=MacLeod=] also at one point claims to be his own grandson to access a bank account he'd set up in the previous century. Naturally, he had collected quite a bit of interest over the years.
** In the 18th century, Duncan befriends a samurai in Japan, forced to take his own life for honor. Duncan vows that the man's family will always know that if any of them ever needs help, they can come to Duncan [=MacLeod=]. Two hundred years later, the samurai's female descendant comes to Duncan and is surprised he knows of "the family legend." She doesn't expect him to honor a promise made by his "ancestor" but of course, Duncan insists on helping.
** Immortal Katya states that as her adoptive daughter grew, Katya went from the girl's mother to her older sister to her younger sister.
*** The original movie has what could be the page quote: "So what we're dealing with here is a guy who's been around since at least the year 1585, pretending to kick it every once in a while, then leaving all his money to some kid who's been a corpse for decades and taking their identity."
* 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.

* 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.
* Subverted in the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode "Everybody Loves a Clown": Dean and Sam think the circus leader may be a Rakshasa because he looks just like a picture of his father. As it turns out, it wasn't him.

* An episode of ''Series/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]].
* A variant is used in ''Series/{{Ultraviolet}}'', where the death of a real grandson allows a code 5 to re-enter society using the deceased's identity.
* Stefan and Damon Salvatore of ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'' pretend to be descendants of "the original Salvatore brothers" from Mystic Falls' founding families. However, when Elena discovers that both Stefan Salvatores are identical, she realizes the truth.

[[folder:Tabletop [=RPGs=]]]

* King Kaius III in the ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'' campaign setting is really his great-grandfather (and secret vampire) King Kaius I. Kaius II (and the real Kaius III) were really themselves, and it's strongly hinted that the latter [[ManInTheIronMask has been locked up somewhere]].
* Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun the Elder in the ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' campaign setting, who took on the identity of his actual grandson Khelben "Ravencloak" Arunsun the Younger.
* Strahd von Zarovich, the ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' setting's most infamous vampire, has been pulling off this gambit for the past eleven generations, feigning his own death and leaving rulership of Barovia to his identical "son".
* Itohiro Nakami in ''TabletopGame/DarkMatter'' setting of ''TabletopGame/{{Alternity}} / TabletopGame/D20Modern''. He pretends to be his own ''son'' to transfer the leadership position of Hoffman Institute without becoming suspicious, being a Grey / Fraal and all that who uses illusions to appear as a human.
* Sebastiao dos Prazeres in ''TabletopGame/UnknownArmies'' is a variant. His body actually ''is'' that of his grandson Joao, whose identity he is using, thanks to a permanent GrandTheftMe.
* A stock tactic for _players_ in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' 3, 3.5, and Pathfinder when epic levels are reached. Somewhere between level 12 and level 25 it goes from being possible to become immortal to being essentially inevitable, whether you just took full levels in Monk or Druid or whether you did something alignment-intensive like becoming undead, a ghost, etc. Disguising oneself as a close relative ("minor details") grants a substantial bonus to disguise and bluff checks to stay in character, so this deception can make piercing your clever disguise essentially impossible for any character that isn't substantially more powerful than you.
* 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 [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] Freedom League. It's simpler than explaining he's ''actually Daedalus''.

* Implied by the AltText of [[http://xkcd.com/950/ this]] ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' strip, which claims that "Jimmy Hoffa currently heads the Teamsters Union -- he just started going by 'James'." (Jimmy Hoffa's son James P. Hoffa is the actual current head of the Teamsters Union.)

* In the 2003 series ''[[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'', the Utrom Shredder pretends to be his own descendants, all named Oroku Saki.
* As in [[Franchise/TheDCU the comics]], Vandal Savage in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague''. The League first encounter him after getting sent back in time to World War II; when he shows Martian Manhunter a video of himself from the future, J'onn can only remark how gracefully he aged -- Savage remarks, "You have no idea." In another episode, they run into him in the present, and it's mentioned that his "grandfather" was a Nazi war criminal, before his immortality is explained.
* In ''[[WesternAnimation/ChrisColorado Chris Colorado]]'', [[spoiler:Herb Forsythe III, pretending to be the son of Herb Foresythe II, son of Herb Foresythe I, always head of a political party]]. Bonus point for being slow aging and not immortal, and retiring from social life each time, so that everyone forgot his face and he still doesn't look exactly the same.
* Many of ''WesternAnimation/CountDuckula's'' "ancestors" were actually his own prior incarnations, with subtle differences every time his servants resurrect him (even before they got the blood and ketchup mixed up).
* A variant in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'': After Talia invites Bruce to use the [[FountainOfYouth Lazarus Pit]], it is revealed that [[spoiler:she is actually Ra's Al Ghul, who had [[FamilialBodySnatcher transferred his mind into her body]]. He plans to take over Bruce's body and pass himself off as the previously unknown son of Bruce and Talia, claiming both the al-Ghul and Wayne fortunes]].
* While it was never shown on-screen (as he was still a baby when the show ended), Alexander Xanatos from ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' will apparently be pulling this in the future to hide his immortality, as a plot 200 years into the future shows him disguised as Alexander Xanatos the fourth.