Celebrity Resemblance - Television Tropes & Idioms

"Your face is familiar..."
—Arsenic And Old Lace (repeatedly said to the villain, originally played by Boris Karloff)

Hey, isn't that Hugh Jackman?

No, that's your cousin, but there is a resemblance.

It's a relatively common phenomenon. Some people do look alike, but since celebrities have such well known faces, people tend to see their resemblances in other people.

In magazines, this is often poked fun at with side by side photos of celebrities with people who resemble them, often with the caption "Switched At Birth?", and often with the labels swapped.

In a brilliant (of course) bit of Refuge in Audacity, Albert Einstein would invoke this to anyone who approached him in the street, asking him to explain his theories. He would reply "Pardon me, sorry! Always I am mistaken for Professor Einstein."

The ultimate repository for these can be found at http://totallylookslike.com

Examples:

Seen It A Million Times in magazines.
- A staple of Private Eye magazine, which always swaps the captions on the pictures. Here's a page of examples. Typically, they come from letters sent from readers, which often end with "Could they be related?" or "I think we should be told".
- Brazilian magazine Vip has a similar section, "Separated at Birth".
- The dear, departed Spy magazine popularized the Separated at Birth concept in America, leading to several spinoff books.
Mentioned in an episode of Do Over.
This troper swears a certain national leader resembles Bob Denver. I am not stating who.
Here are a ton of them, mostly video game and cartoon related.
Compare this image to this one◊.
Am I the only one who thinks Nathan Fillion and Jason Bateman look strangely alike?
- No you aren't.
Orochimaru and Michael Jackson. Which made it even creepier when Orochimaru made a snake come up his throat.
- We have proof now.
There's been a meme going around the internet claiming Emperor Palpatine and Pope Benedict XVI look alike.
- I see a resemblance between Palpatine and Saddler, the Big Bad from Resident Evil 4, which makes his line about Hollywood cliches a bit of hypocrisy.
- This troper has seen a Piece of Flair on Face Book that puts Emperor Palpatine's picture next to John McCain's. Said troper finds the resemblance disturbing.
And we can't forget that Zac Efron is Kira.
- Forget that, Demyx is Troy Bolton.
- This toper is pretty sure though that Demyx is Arap Bethke from some other universe. Or at least the 13 year old version of Victorino Gallardo.
Robin Williams. Bono. Hell, the book Separated At Birth? saw it in 1988.◊
- Want more proof? Compare this video of Pop-era U2 (complete with Bono's short hair!) and Robin on Whose Line is it Anyway?. Then think about how much they sound like each other, particularly when Bono does the "out-siiiiiiide~, it's America!" thing. Indeed, I think we should be told.
There was a man in New York City in the 1980s and '90s who would check into hotel rooms and dine high on the hog based on his resemblance to singer Rod Stewart.
- Speaking of which... Rod Stewart◊, Ron Wood◊ and Jeff Beck◊ were all in The Jeff Beck Group...
This troper refuses to believe that Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg are different actors.
The sadly late Father Ted lead actor Dermot Morgan bore an unfortunate resemblance the the sadly not-late Serbian dictator Radovan Karadzic. At least, before Karadzic grew the beard, of course.
Brazilian actor Dan Stulbach and Tom Hanks look very alike◊ - this troper even thinks that Stulbach was the one in that awful "comedy", The Ladykillers.
- This similarity between them was turned into a Running Gag by popular Brazilian comedy show Casseta & Planeta. Everytime they mocked a soap opera or a movie or a series in which Stulbach appears, they would have people calling him "Tom Hanks", which works as a Berserk Button for him. At one point, they mocked The Da Vinci Code, and showed that Hanks had the same problem as people insisted in calling him Dan Stulbach.
- Throw Dave Matthews◊ into the mix and you have separated-at-birth triplets.
A man from São Paulo, Alessandro de Souza, earns most his money from his resemblance with soccer player Ronaldo.
This troper had a period in her earlier teens where she saw Elijah Wood look-alikes everywhere she went.
- I was one. One of my friends in 3rd grade took to calling me "Huck."
This troper wonders if he is the only one who thinks that, without facial hair, Freddy Mercury and Johnny Depp resemble each other.
TV personality Dr. Phil may, in fact, be a fictional character played by Jeffrey Tambor.
This troper wonders if Anne Hathaway's Italian convict ex-boyfriend (Rafaello What's-His-Name) is really a fictional character played by Zach Braff.
The entire point of the website http://totallylookslike.com.
- God-baiting scientist Richard Dawkins and Emma "Hermione" Watson. Seriously.
Also, I once saw a troupe of Irish dancers in Austria (it was some kind of Festival of Europe thing), and one of the Irish dancers not only appeared to be of Asian extraction but was in fact the dead spitting image of the Emperor Hirohito. It was most uncanny.
Is this troper the only one to confuse Jennifer Garner with Piper Perabo?
- Jennifer Garner? No. Hillary Swank? Yes.
- How about Jennifer Garner and the original Pink Ranger?
An issue of Justice League reveals that the citizens of DC comics think that the famous reporter Clark Kent just happens to resemble that hero Superman. Odd.
This troper's mother recently saw a picture of Anthony "Giles" Head and thought it was Anthony "Hannibal the Cannibal" Hopkins.
While this troper and her brother were watching the Doctor Who episode "Journey's End" this summer, their dad walked in and watched the last few minutes with them. At the very end, he said this about David Tennant:
Dad: You know who he looks like? He looks like the guy from Psycho.
Troper: Norman Bates?
Dad: Yeah, but who was the actor?
Troper: I don't know. I've never seen Psycho.
Dad: Yeah, he looks like him.
Troper: Okay.
- The actor was Anthony Perkins. And now that you mention it...◊
Tina Fey and Sarah Palin. Bill Maher said he was so tired of hearing it that he noted she looks more like Peggy Hill.
Many gamers observe that Jon Stewart strongly resembles a younger, less batshit insane Jack Thompson. Poor Jon.
This troper is pretty damn sure that Sophia Myles (Beth on Moonlight and Madame du Pompadour on Doctor Who), Yvonne Strahovski (Sarah on Chuck), and Elisabeth Rohm (Detective Kate Lockley on the first two seasons of Angel) are all the same person.
Just recently, this troper saw a picture of a young Jeremy Irons and mistook him for Adrian Pasdar.
This troper's younger sister used to insist that the guy who says, "He's disabled the rudder chains, sir!" in the first Pirates Of The Caribbean film (when Captain Jack and Will commandeer the Interceptor by attacking the Dauntless) was Russell Crowe (or "The captain guy from Master and Commander").
David Boreanaz bears an eerie resemblance to a young James Garner (the hunky American volunteer RAF pilot in The Great Escape).
Brad Pitt looks a lot like Robert Redford in his younger years—-so much, in fact, that this troper wonders if Brad Pitt isn't the result of a botched attempt to clone Robert Redford.
- The similarities are impossible to ignore in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It might have been the makeup, it might have been the lighting, but the resemblance in the Moscow scenes is downright frightening.
This troper swears that John Travolta and disgraced former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich are long lost brothers.
A good percentage of the riffs in Mystery Science Theater 3000 deal with the resemblance of actors in the movies to other celebrities. For example, in their presentation of Manos The Hands Of Fate, there are jokes centered around The Master's◊ resemblance to Freddie Mercury◊, John Cleese◊, and Bill Buckner◊.
Idina Menzel and Nelly Furtado look a lot alike, I think.
- Add Paola Turbay to this.
  - And Lea Michele.
If you do not believe that Dr. Reichwein◊ from Monster looks as if he was played by Wilford Brimley◊, then you are lying.
- AMV Hell had some fun with this, doing a mashup of Reichwein and the "Diabeetus" mix. See it here.
- This troper thinks that Tenma somewhat resembles Keanu Reeves, especially in the beginning.
This troper's younger brother recently confused Ralph Fiennes with Christopher Eccleston. His face fell when I told him it wasn't the Ninth Doctor.
- And then he noticed the resemblance again when we watched The Duchess. I told him to be quiet.
  - This troper was walking through Wal-Mart with her roommate and saw a display for The Dark Is Rising, with a nearly life-sized cardboard Christopher Eccleston. I asked, "Is that who I think it is?" She replied, immediately and without preamble, "Ralph Fiennes." It took five minutes of examining the small print on the DVD case to get her to recognize the Doctor.
This editor swears that Lloyd from Fire Emblem 7 looks like David Tennant.
The dude who played Carlisle in Twilight looked so much like either Ralph Fiennes or Christian Bale, all I could do to make sure he wasn't was to think "Neither of them would sink this low".
- Well, I certainly hope not—both for their sakes and ours.
- The guy who plays James in the movie has also been compared to Orlando Bloom.
- This troper's mother, who is a high school volleyball coach, thinks her athletic director (her boss) looks like a middle-aged Robert Pattinson. He does, I guess, but with softer and far less emo features; also, he's kind of a DILF.
In the movie Moon Child, there are occasional moments where Hyde (Kei's actor) bares a surprising resemblance to David Bowie. It's the haircut and eyebrows that do it.
In Quantum Of Solace, the bad guy, Dominic Greene, looks essentially like the lovechild of Benjamin Linus and Desmond.
Watch CAKE's music video for "The Distance." Now watch Firefly. Serenity too, if you've the time. Now look at Wash. Look at CAKE's guitarist. Repeat. They look similar, and sometimes even seem to have the same tics of motion.
This◊ is Martin Sheen, a respected veteran actor best known for playing President Josiah Bartlet on The West Wing. This◊ is Belle Gunness, America's first female serial killer and one of the most prolific in history. Yeah.
Done all the time by the comedic magazine the Buffalo Beast, with the "separated at birth" caption. This◊ is quite possibly the most accurate one.
This troper sees a startling resemblence between Fergie (the singer, not the duchess) and Kirstie Alley (the actress currently best known from the Jenny Craig ads).
Wow, and this far without a mention of Jim Croce◊ and Frank Zappa◊?
- Croce looks like Borat as well.
One strip of the Dilbert comic has Bob the Dinosaur stand on a rooftop, yelling "I CAN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TOM BROKAW AND PETER JENNINGS!!!"
Angela Petrelli and Cherie Blair look so alike it's scary.
Josh Duhamel◊ and Timothy Olyphant◊ look so much alike they could play brothers. I see Josh as the good-looking charmer, with Timothy as the brains of the operation... then to top it off, Johnny Knoxville◊ could play the stupid youngest brother.
- Add Michael Weatherly from NCIS to that.
Lost's Ben Linus. Tesla Motors' Elon Musk. It's rather creepy...
- No man, what's creepy is Klaus Nomi and the resemblance thereof.
As was mentioned many times when they were both younger and more in the limelight, Daryl Hannah and Lori Singer.
David Hyde Pierce was cast as Niles in Frasier when a casting director noticed how much he looked like Kelsey Grammer.
Colonel Saul Tigh. John McCain. It's uncanny.
Sephiroth and David Bowie. Actually, a lot of Final Fantasy characters look like David Bowie.
Will Ferrell, star of many recent comedies and former cast member of SNL and Chad Smith◊, drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers and supergroup Chickenfoot. He even performed on Conan O'Brien's show wearing a shirt that read "I am not Will Ferrell."
And speaking of Conan, much hay was made on his show about his resemblance to Finnish president Tarja Halonen. Especially the gender difference.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan apparently gets mistaken for Javier Bardem◊ so often that sometimes he signs autographs as Bardem. As The Comedian, Morgan was also mistaken for Robert Downey Jr.
- This troper thinks that Jeffrey Dean Morgan also looks like Johnny Cash in his younger days, especially when clean-shaven.
Zachary Quinto and Eli Roth could probably play fraternal twins.
- Zachary Quinto and Brandon Routh could probably play brothers as well.◊ Must be the eyebrows.
Zooey Deschanel. Katy Perry.◊ Can you tell 'em apart?
DeForest Kelley◊ and Gary Sinise◊. Even their voices sound alike.
Omar Epps and Pittsburg Steelers coach Mike Tomlin◊. This was referenced in the episode "Ignorance Is Bliss":
House: Got all of my starters back plus a couple of free agents. I feel like Mike Tomlin. (looks at Foreman) Probably not as much as you do, but you get the idea.
Tom Welling (Clark Kent on Smallville) and The All American Rejects frontman Tyson Ritter share more than a passing resemblance◊ with each other. My brother prefers to refer to The All American Rejects as "The Tom Welling Band".
Ben Stiller with glasses totally looks like a young Richard Belzer. See for yourself.
- Ever heard of British group The Hoosiers? Try to watch the video for 'Good Bye Mr. A' and not comment on how much of a Ben-Stiller-Lookin'-Mofo the lead is.
Is that young Jessica Lange in The Postman Always Rings Twice or Alison Lohman? Voice is the same too. Guess Tim Burton saw it too...
James Marsters and Ben Lawson from ABC's The Deep End.
Almost as soon as images of Bayonetta began coming out people were commenting that she looks a bit like Sarah Palin. It's almost certainly a coincidence, but the glasses seal the deal.
Mentioned by the band The Axis of Awesome. The lead resembles Jack Black, and knows this, and is annoyed by everyone who tells him so.
Megan Fox and Angelina Jolie. Bonus points for also having similar personalities and both being open about their sexual histories.

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