A rare case in which the real-world subject used as a template for the character eventually became actual Comic-Book Movie Casting.
"Mr. Samuel L. Jackson, of course, no discussion."
Sometimes in comics or animated shows, a character is made to look like a particular actor or other celebrity whom the artist imagines playing the character. This might be out of admiration for the actor, because the character fits with the actor's well-known roles, or in the hope that the actor would be flattered and try to get the comic adapted as a movie. Or it might be unconscious on the author/artist's part.
Fantasy casting can also occur in non-visual media such as (non-illustrated) novels, but can be harder to spot unless Word of God acknowledges it, or the character is closely based on a particular role the actor is associated with.
If the resemblance is outright stated in the text, it's Textual Celebrity Resemblance. For when the character is a direct impression or parody of a celebrity's public persona, see No Celebrities Were Harmed. For when an animated character is designed to resemble the real-world voice actor, see Ink-Suit Actor. See also Hypothetical Casting, for where fans or creators do this as Word of God without making it explicit in canon.
Not the same thing as when a comic book or animation is spun-off from an earlier live-action film or TV show and the characters inevitably are drawn to look like the live-action actors, which would be "Reality Casting". However, sometimes there are borderline cases where a comic or animation is adapted into a live-action medium and artists start drawing a character to look like the actor in the adaptation.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Bakuman。 offers an interesting Manga Within A Manga case: every time Takagi and Mashiro create a new manga series, Mashiro makes the most important female character look like his girlfriend Azuki, a voice actress, hoping that she will get the role of this character in the anime adaptation.
- Mr. Chang, the head of the local triad in Black Lagoon looks a lot like Chow Yun-fat.
- Cowboy Bebop:
- Spike Spiegel was modeled after famous 1970s Japanese action film star Yusaku Matsuda.
- The couple in the first episode were based on Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek.
- The debt assistant also known as a conman who's sent to help Faye with her debts after she was revived is based on George Clooney.
- Decker, the bounty in Heavy Metal Queen appears to be modeled on Woody Allen.
- The gangster from "Waltz for Venus" is based on Biggie Smalls.
- The bounty hunter in "Mushroom Samba" is based on Pam Grier (and named after one of her movies).
- Freddy from Cromartie High School bears an obvious resemblance to Freddie Mercury from Queen. It's never explicitly stated whether or not he actually is Freddie Mercury, but most signs point to no. Just avoids No Celebrities Were Harmed since his characterization has no resemblance at all to Freddy's public persona.
- It's hard to tell, given the blue hair and gold eyes, but April of Darker Than Black looks a fair amount like Halle Berry. Probably because her Japanese voice actress, Takako Honda, dubs a lot of Berry's film roles – including that of Storm from the X-Men Film Series, who like April, is black and has weather-control powers.
- Dr. Slump had Dr Mashirito as a recurring Big Bad (as far as that goes in the comedy/satire genre), with facial features based on Akira Toriyama's editor, Kazuhiko Torishima. It's even lampshaded by a few panels where said editor calls up Toriyama to tell him not to draw Mashirito to look like him - for this scene, he is drawn with exactly the same face as Mashirito.
- It's been noted
that Re-L of Ergo Proxy has an uncanny resemblance to Evanescence singer Amy Lee.
- Eyeshield 21 has some really strange ones considering all the characters are high school football players. Shin (especially in the early days) was pretty much Bruce Lee in football gear, Aoyanagi is Weird Al on steroids, Bud Walker is Johnny Depp, and Shinryuuji has players that resemble Gandhi, Richard Nixon, and the Dalai Lama.
- Kenshiro of Fist of the North Star fame infamously resembles Mel Gibson's character from The Road Warrior with a bit of Bruce Lee to round him out.
- In Moldiver, Mad Scientist Doctor Machinegal's robot female minions are all named after (and are designed to resemble) various female movie stars.
- Doctor Reichwein in Monster bears a strong resemblance to American actor Wilford Brimley. Oddly, this is actually due to Naoki Urasawa's unrepentant Osamu Tezuka fandom. Reichwein was modelled on Brimley because he was the closest Real Life actor to Tezuka's famed "Mr. Mustachio" character. Still, any AMV Hell clip of the character will include the dance remix of "You know, I have diabeetus..."
- One Piece:
- All three of the admirals are patterned after prominent actors in Japan. By sheer coincidence, one of the admirals also bears a strong resemblance to Sammy Davis Jr.
- Eneru is based off rapper Eminem, Mr. 5 off of biracial rock star Lenny Kravitz, Peeply Lulu after Freddie Mercury, and that's barely even touching the surface
.
- Emporio Ivankov bears an uncanny resemblance to Tim Curry's Dr. Frankenfurter from Rocky Horror Picture Show, but is actually modeled after a guy from actress Mayumi Tanaka's dance troupe named Norio Imamura. He would later voice the character in the anime until a Role-Ending Misdemeanor resulted in him being recast.
- Masayuki Ozaki has confirmed that several characters in Tiger & Bunny are supposed to resemble certain famous individuals:
- Blue Rose's manager is Robert Downey, Jr.
- Her teacher is Steven Spielberg
- Ben is Forest Whitaker
- The card collecting kid who loses his balloon is Macaulay Culkin
- The Mayor is Barack Obama
- Barnaby's father looks exactly like Batman-era Michael Keaton, and his mother is possibly based on Michelle Pfeiffer
- Rock Bison is Antonio Banderas
- Sky High resembles a blonde Tom Cruise.
- Mario is Ghost Busters-era Harold Ramis
- Yami No Aegis's Zero really looks like Leon from The Professional. They're also both assassins, and aside from the hats (Zero wears a baseball hat) they dress identically.
- The Jesus of Saint Young Men is drawn to look like Johnny Depp. The comic occasionally lampshades the similarity - one of his bios says he would want Depp to play him in a movie about his life, and at one point, he distracts a group of Gyaru who are upsetting Buddha by posing at a 'Johnny Depp-like angle' and flirting with them in English. At another point, he tries on a Cosplay of Jack Sparrow, calling it 'fate'. When Buddha tries to persuade Jesus to change his hairstyle, he hands him a movie magazine containing some photos of Depp's various roles — Edward Scissorhands, Jack Sparrow, Sweeney Todd and Willy Wonka — but Jesus decides to keep his original haircut due to the need to protect his celebrity image.
- According to Naoko Takeuchi, Seiya Kou/Sailor Star Fighter from Sailor Moon was based on androgynous model Jenny Shimizu.
- Zafal Takie from the Motorball arc of Gunnm is based on Grace Jones in Conan the Destroyer. Overall this seems to be a fairly common practice with black characters in manga. Since there aren't many black people in Japan, artists will often use American movies as photo-reference, as Japanese manga artists' attempts to produce black characters freehand can sometimes show a dubious similarity
to Blackface caricatures.
- In Naruto, the First Raikage is designed to look like Jimi Hendrix.
- Shougo Sena from Love Stage!!'s physical appearance is based off of one of Daigo, lead vocalist from the band Breakerz, who happens to be author Eiki Eiki's younger brother.
- Ash Lynx, the main character in Banana Fish, was initially based off the tennis player Stephen Edberg, and later River Phoenix. Another character, Max Lobo, was modeled on Harrison Ford.
- Gundam:
- Heero Yuy from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing was based off Japanese idol Yuki Uchida.
- Similarly, Relena Darlian (and her Expy, Lacus Clyne) were based on Audrey Hepburn.
- According to Gundam Seed/Gundam Seed Destiny director Mitsuo Fukuda, Kira Yamato was designed after actor Tatsuya Fujiwara.
- Gendo Ikari and Kozo Fuyutsuki from Neon Genesis Evangelion are heavily based on (respectively) Ed Bishop and George Sewell in their roles as Edward Straker and Alec E. Freeman in the TV series UFO. Their character dynamic is even very much the same as in UFO.
- Mamura from Hirunaka no Ryuusei is modeled on Kentaro Sakaguchi. Sakaguchi even portrayed Mamura during a collaboration photoshoot.
- Little Witch Academia: Earl Paul Hanbridge has a pretty uncanny resemblance to Colin Firth, especially as he looks on the Kingsman film series.
Comic Books — DC Universe
- Artist Gary Frank always draws Superman as Christopher Reeve and Supergirl as Laura Vandervoort in stories such like Superman: Brainiac or Superman: Secret Origin. This makes him one of fandom's favorite artists to draw their stories.
- Captain Marvel was said to be based on Fred MacMurray.
- His sister Mary Marvel was initially modeled after Judy Garland.
- Inverted with Captain Marvel Junior, as Elvis Presley modeled his signature hairdo and costumes after him.
- Hal Jordan and Sinestro in Green Lantern have respectively been claimed to have been based on Paul Newman and David Niven. The male Guardians of the Universe from Green Lantern were initially based on David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel. John Stewart, meanwhile, was based on Sidney Poitier. Alan Scott was modelled after Alan Ladd and Kyle Rayner was based on Keanu Reeves.
- Injustice: Gods Among Us makes Lois Lane look like Amy Adams, the actress who portrays the character in Man of Steel.
- Aqualad's mother Sha'lain'a from the Young Justice tie-in comic series looks like singer Beyoncé.
- Batman Incorporated featured a trio of female assassins who looked exactly like Rihanna, Katy Perry, and Lady Gaga. For bonus points, the headmistress of the Leviathan-run school featured in the story looked like Madonna.
- Bruce Wayne in Batman: Year One was unashamedly drawn a lot like Cary Grant, and intentionally so, although David Mazuchelli has also claimed an influence from Gregory Peck. And his aged look in Kingdom Come winds up looking like Peck, minus mustache. The old Batman in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns was modeled on Marlon Brando in The Godfather, while Alex Ross tends to make Joker look like Jack Nicholson complete with receding hairline.
- Both Bill Finger and Bob Kane modeled Selina Kyle and Catwoman on screen Femme Fatale like Hedy Lamarr and Simone Simon in Cat People. Anne Hathaway modeled her performance in The Dark Knight Rises on Lamarr.
- After the success of Batman Begins, there was at least one issue of a Batman comic (this one
) in which Bruce Wayne bore an unmistakable resemblance to Christian Bale, and the Joker got plastic surgery to look like Heath Ledger. The Batman manga Child of Dreams has Bruce Wayne with an uncanny resemblance to Bale. And the story was published around 2000, a few years before Batman Begins.
- Superman #355 (Jan. 1981) presented Dr. Asa Ezaak, a dead ringer for Isaac Asimov, sideburns and all, as an insane moon-powered evil writer. Those were happier times.
- Classic Superman is Clark Gable while his civilian identity is based on silent comedian Harold Lloyd who codified the "glasses look", Cary Grant in Bringing Up Baby (where he's a mild-mannered academic who sports glasses), with some inspiration from classic Flash Gordon actor Buster Crabbe. Lois Lane is also modeled on Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday not only visually but by voice actors (such as Dana Delany).
- In Paul Cornell's "Black Ring" story arc in Action Comics, Lex Luthor's assistant Spalding is modeled on David Tennant, complete with the Tenth Doctor's "brainy specs". Lampshade Hanging is provided by the Joker who, when taking credit for killing Spalding, claims "He reminded me so much of that actor, I wanted to see if he'd turn into someone else!"
- In Cornell's Batman spin-off miniseries Knight & Squire, Jarvis Poker the British Joker is based on the appearance and typical roles of Kenneth Williams.
- George Pérez based his Pre-Crisis Wonder Woman on Connie Sellecca and his Post-Crisis version on Marina Sirtis.
- Darwyn Cooke admits to doing this a lot in his Catwoman story "Selina's Big Score". Stark is Lee Marvin, Jeff is Chow Yun-fat, Swifty is Burgess Meredith and Chantel is Pam Grier.
- There's a list of these in the back of Identity Crisis in which artist Rags Morales says, among others, Captain Boomerang is based on Ron Jeremy and Jackie Martling, and his son is based on Justin Timberlake. Vixen was drawn to look like Geena Davis... which is odd because Davis is not black (according to Morales, she was originally supposed to be based on Grace Jones). Others include Elongated Man on Danny Kaye and Dick Van Dyke, Barry Allen on John Hurt, Zatanna on Phoebe Cates, Felix Faust on Leonard Nimoy, and Batman on Tom Selleck.
- The Vixen illustration Stanley "Artgerm" Lau did for the DC Cover Girls statue series looks exactly like Rihanna.
- Action Comics v2 #9 had a story about an Alternate Universe where Superman and Wonder Woman are both black. Wonder Woman was based on Beyoncé Knowles, while Superman was basically a younger, beefier Barack Obama. Given that President Obama is an avowed Superman fan and Beyoncé has expressed interest in playing Wonder Woman in a live-action film, this was almost certainly intentional.
- The Sandman:
- Delirium is sometimes based on Tori Amos and sometimes on the writer Kathy Acker
.
- Her brother, Destruction, is sometimes unmistakably BRIAN BLESSED.
- Dream was originally designed to look like Peter Murphy, but at other times is pretty clearly Robert Smith of The Cure, as well as being influenced by Neil Gaiman and Conrad Veidt.
- Lucifer is David Bowie.
- Delirium is sometimes based on Tori Amos and sometimes on the writer Kathy Acker
- John Constantine, Hellblazer, was drawn in his initial Swamp Thing appearances to look like Sting and has continued to do so ever since.
- In Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's Black Orchid, Carl Thorne looks like the young Marlon Brando, while Lex Luthor often looks like the older Brando (especially when he's on the videophone—he seems to be based on Brando in Apocalypse Now then).
- Jack Kirby was said to have based Big Barda of New Gods on actress and singer model Lainie Kazan, while Darkseid was based on actor Jack Palance.
- According to Mike Grell, Tyroc from the Legion Of Superheroes was designed to resemble actor and former football star Fred "The Hammer" Williamson.
- Some artists are drawing Jonathan and Martha Kent to more resemble John Schneider and Annette O'Toole.
- And to hammer the point further home, the young Clark Kent seen in the Superman: Birthright miniseries looks like a child version of Tom Welling.
- In the Final Crisis sketchbook, Grant Morrison describes Dan Turpin as "Jack Kirby drawn by Frank Miller".
- Towards the end of her pre-New 52 run, Power Girl began to resemble actress Christina Hendricks in more than just body shape.
- In the 2009-2010 miniseries Superman: Secret Origin, Superman/Clark Kent was drawn to resemble Christopher Reeve, which is not surprising, but Lois Lane is drawn to closely resemble Winona Ryder, who has yet to appear in a Superman-related production.
- The Just #1, a one-shot about legacy heroes with no evil left to fight, features an Arrowette with a scantily-clad, shorthaired look very much like Miley Cyrus.
- The Joker's original design was based on Conrad Veidt's face from the movie The Man Who Laughs.
- According to artist James Harvey, Riko Sheridan from We Are Robin was based on biracial model Zoe Flood.
- Adam Hughes draws Catwoman as looking like Audrey Hepburn.
- The Comedian from Watchmen was based appearance-wise on Burt Reynolds.
Comic Books — Marvel Universe
- The original X-Men Hellfire Club line-up were all based by John Byrne on actors he admired. Sebastian Shaw was based on Robert Shaw, the Black Queen (Jean Grey) on Diana Rigg (Emma Peel), Mastermind/Jason Wyngarde on Peter Wyngarde (Jason King in Department S and Jason King), Harry Leland on Orson Welles (Harry Lime and Jedediah Leland), and Donald Pierce on Donald Sutherland (film version of Hawkeye Pierce).
- A later writer introduced Emma Steed of the London Hellfire Club, who was even more Diana Rigg.
- The Diana Rigg and Peter Wyngarde parallels specifically were part of a Whole Plot Reference to the Avengers episode "A Touch of Brimstone", also set at a Hellfire Club, and which had Mrs Peel in the Jean Grey role and Peter Wyngarde as John Cleverly Carter in the Mastermind role.
- During the Claremont/Byrne run on Uncanny X-Men, Cyclops was based on a young Henry Fonda, Jean Grey on a young Raquel Welch, Wolverine on Paul D'Amato (Tim "Dr. Hook" McCracken) in Slap Shot, Colossus on Max Baer Jr, Beast on Al Franken, Charles Xavier on Keane Curtis, Moira McTaggert on Hannah Gordon, Arcade on Malcolm McDowell, and Emma Frost on a young Faye Dunaway. Kitty Pryde was based on what Byrne thought a young Sigourney Weaver would look like.
- Nightcrawler started to gradually look more and more like Errol Flynn, with his holographic image inducer calibrated specifically to look like him. Nightcrawler is also a huge Flynn fanboy, so in his case it was a cultivated look.
- The disco-themed mutant Dazzler was modeled after Bo Derek, who was supposed to play the character in a live-action movie.
- Later, when handling art honors for Excalibur, Alan Davis once stated that he modeled his Kitty Pryde after a young Katharine Hepburn.
- Ultimate Nick Fury was drawn to look like Samuel L. Jackson. In the Iron Man movie, Jackson was naturally cast in the role.
- This was an explicit arrangement; Jackson gave Marvel free rein to do it as long as he could have the part in the movies.
- NYPD Detective Paul Budiansky, a one-arc character from The Punisher MAX is also modeled after Sam Jackson.
- In a special feature, Bryan Hitch discussed the "cast" of actors he and Mark Millar used for reference in The Ultimates. Aside from the aforementioned Sam Jackson as Nick Fury, he picked Brad Pitt for Captain America, Zhang Ziyi for The Wasp, Bruce Willis for Hawkeye, Angelina Jolie and James Haven for Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, Matthew McConaughey for Giant-Man, and Steve Buscemi for Bruce Banner. He couldn't find a suitable actor for Thor, so he just said Jesus.
- Shapeshifting Chitauri villain Herr Kleiser, greatly resembles Robert Carlyle
- The Punisher MAX series has a lot of characters looking like famous "cool" actors in real life.
- Frank himself is a beefy Clint Eastwood in the first arc; this is particularly evident when he's held prisoner by Microchip. Another artist basically turns him into the T-800.
- Paul Budiansky is Samuel L. Jackson.
- Budiansky's CSI friend is Tommy Lee Jones (and he hates CSI.)
- Colonel George Howe is Morgan Freeman.
- From The Punisher Presents Barracuda, Big Chris Angelone is Christopher Walken.
- Castle's CO in the Born mini-series is William H. Macy.
- According to Garth Ennis's script for issue #37 (which has since been taken down from its original spot in the Comic Book Script Archive by Marvel) Nicky Cavella's physical appearance was based on Andy Garcia, and John James Toomey was based on Puff Daddy.
- Lenny Balinger from Damage Control is a dead ringer for Lee Marvin, though he thinks he looks more like Paul Newman.
- Tony Isabella has said Misty Knight was physically modeled after Pam Grier, while the basic concept of the character was essentially conceived as a Gender Flipped version of Blackbelt Jones.
- Darla Deering/Miss Thing from FF was modeled after pop star Katy Perry.
- Detective Oscar Clemons from Greg Rucka's The Punisher run is based on Morgan Freeman.
- In John Byrne comics, Mr. Fantastic is based on Jeffrey Hunter, Wonder Man on David Prowse, Doctor Strange on Richard Boone, the Scarlet Witch on Playmate Julia Lyndon, Desmond Marrs on Rocco Siffredi, Polaris (in X-Men: The Hidden Years) on Jennifer Aniston.
- He drew Steve Rogers during his run on Captain America to look like Robert Redford, which is now Hilarious in Hindsight since Redford ended up playing the villain of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
- Gene Colan modeled The Falcon after O.J. Simpson, who was still primarily known as a college football star at the time.
- John Romita admitted that he modeled Mary Jane Watson on Ann Margret (specifically the way she looked in Bye Bye Birdie). While Gwen Stacy, as Gerry Conway noted, was based on blondes in Alfred Hitchcock films — Grace Kelly and Kim Novak in particular. More recently, Mike Deodato has drawn her as a red-haired Liv Tyler, and Paolo Rivera's take on her is a blend between Leighton Meester and Miranda Kerr, inspired by her dimples.
- Rachel Summers in her first appearances in New Mutants was intentionally designed to look like Annie Lennox.
- Likewise, Illyana Rasputin in the same title was designed to look like Heather O'Rourke, the child actress who played Carol-Ann in Poltergeist.
- Monica Rambeau was designed to resemble Pam Grier, one of John Romita, Jr.'s favorite actresses.
- Whenever Mike Deodato draws Norman Osborn (see Thunderbolts, Dark Avengers, etc.), he ends up looking like Tommy Lee Jones. Deodato has admitted that this is deliberate.
- In his more recent appearances, Norman appears to have been modelled on Julian McMahon. Which is kind of ironic when you think about it...
- Blade: Since the success of the movies, there hasn't been an instance where the character wasn't drawn to look like Wesley Snipes.
- When she first appeared in Secret War, Daisy Johnson/Quake was drawn to look exactly like Angelina Jolie as she appeared in Hackers. As time went on, the resemblance lessened.
- Don Heck based Pepper Potts off actress Ann B. Davis, known at the time for her role on The Bob Cummings Show. She's best remembered today for playing Alice in The Brady Bunch.
- Before the movies, Charles Xavier's bald head and thin eyebrows were reminiscent of Yul Brynner's distinct appearance. In several X-Men books since the movies, though, Professor Xavier has noticeably been drawn more like Patrick Stewart.
- Alex Ross modeled Professor Xavier after Patrick Stewart as the artist for Marvelsyears before the first movie. He also used Timothy Dalton as a model for Tony Stark.
- In the Star Trek: The Next Generation crossover novel, written before the X-Men movie, he is also described as bearing fair resemblance to Jean-Luc.
- This has also been reflected in other media has well, as David Kaye in X-Men: Evolution, Tom Kane in Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and Jim Ward in Wolverine and the X-Men and The Super Hero Squad Show all have emulated Stewart in their turns as Xavier. Averted in several X-Men video games as they did actually get Patrick Stewart to reprise the role in them.
- When Walt Simonson was the writer/artist on Thor, he based Sif's look on actress Sigourney Weaver and the Enchantress' sister Lorelei on Debbie Harry of the punk band Blondie. This was Lampshaded in an issue where a street punk tried to hit on Lorelei by asking if anyone had ever told her that she looks like "Blondie" before.
- Numinus
, an obscure Power Pack character who looks like a bright-red Whoopi Goldberg in Kirbyesque "cosmic" armor.
- Before Iron Man 2 came out, Justin Hammer was modeled on Peter Cushing.
- Tony Stark, as drawn by Salvador Larocca in the current series by Matt Fraction, looks A LOT
◊ like Josh Holloway.
- Salvador Larocca does this with many characters in The New Universe reimagining newuniversal. He casts Josh Holloway as Kenneth Connell (Star Brand); James Gandolfini as the father of Connell's girlfriend; Vincent Pastore, Steven Van Zandt, Michael Imperioli, and Tony Sirico as sheriff's deputies; Leonard Nimoy as a Starbrand wielder from an alternate Earth; Angelina Jolie as Dr. Jennifer Swann; James Cromwell as her boss, Philip L. Voight; Bruce Willis as Det. John Tensen (Justice); Eminem as the crack dealer who put Tensen in the hospital; footballer Zinedine Zidane as a Serial-Mercy Killing nurse who would've killed Tensen if not for the White Event; Johnny Depp as Dr. Leonard Carson; Nicole Kidman as Dr. Hannah Ballad; and Gene Hackman as Jim Braddock.
- On at least one occasion (the moment when Spider-Man revealed his secret identity), Peter Parker and J. Jonah Jameson look very much like Tobey Maguire and J. K. Simmons, respectively.
- Early Doctor Strange more or less is Vincent Price.
- Steve Ditko's art can make it difficult to say for certain, but his early appearances sometimes more closely resemble Charlie Chan actor Warner Oland.
- Morgana Blessing was based on singer Amy Grant, something her management team did not appreciate. They were worried that Grant being associated with a sorcerer like Doctor Strange would harm her standing in the Christian music community, and took legal action against Marvel. The case ultimately ended with an out-of-court settlement.
- Creator/Alex Ross based Mr. Fantastic's appearance in Marvels off of Russell Johnson aka The Professor from Gilligan's Island in keeping with The '60s setting of the series.
Ross's fully-painted artwork uses photo references for most major characters. Books like Kingdom Come and Marvels actually have model credits, mostly comprised of the artist's friends and fellow comic creators. And Richard Nixon as Norman Osborn.
- Brian Michael Bendis's unused script for Ultimate X-Men actually calls for this, describing Archangel as "Kurt Cobain-esque", Rogue as a teen Gwen Stefani, Storm as either Erykah Badu or Lauryn Hill, and Gambit as a devilish Leonardo look-a-like, probably referring to DiCaprio. Beast's dad would supposedly look like Martin Sheen.
- Black Panther supporting character Everett Ross is admittedly drawn as Michael J. Fox.
- White Wolf was based on Kevin Spacey as he appeared in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
- Frank Miller stated that Elektra's appearance was based on bodybuilder Lisa Lyon.
- On The Avengers, John Buscema modeled Captain America on Burt Lancaster, Hawkeye on Anthony Quinn, Goliath on Robert Culp, Quicksilver on Fred Astaire and The Incredible Hercules on Steve Reeves, who portrayed Hercules in the famous Italian produced Hercules movies from the 50s. Lampshaded in an issue where a kid saw Hercules walking down the street and excitedly said it was Steve Reeves.
- Robbie Reyes, the All-New Ghost Rider, is based off pop singer Zayn Malik.
- Jack Kirby's pre-cosmic ray Ben Grimm borrows the look of Film Noir actor John Garfield.
- In the second volume of Secret Avengers, Senator Robert Ralston, former Howling Commando and United Nations official overseeing SHIELD, is drawn to resemble a middle aged Robert Redford.
- Black Widow 2099 from Secret Wars is designed to resemble Nicki Minaj.
- One iteration of the character Echo was designed to look like adult film actress Skin Diamond.
- Artist Gil Kane based Morbius' appearance on that of actor Jack Palance when he created the character.
Comic Books — Other
- The Saint of Killers in Preacher had a powerful and deliberate resemblance to Lee Marvin, stated as deliberate by Garth Ennis in his introduction to the Ancient History collection that contained his origin story.
- The Boys features Simon Pegg as Wee Hughie. This started back when Pegg had only done Spaced and wasn't well known.
- The eponymous hero of the Italian comic Dylan Dog is based on Rupert Everett. Among the other characters, Kim is based on Kim Novak, and Professor Adam on Sean Connery. Groucho is a in-universe sosia of Groucho Marx, complete with fake mustaches.
- That's standard procedure at Bonelli Comics. Mystic shaman Magico Vento is Daniel Day-Lewis, Ken Park is Robert Redford, Nick Raider is Robert Mitchum (and his sidekick is Eddie Murphy), Legs Weaver is Sigourney Weaver and Julia Kendall is Audrey Hepburn (her maid is Whoopi Goldberg, her boss/romantic interest is John Malkovich and her best friend is John Goodman).
- This even extends to the so-called "Bonellidi", that is, comic books imitating the format and style of Bonelli Comics. For example, obscure character Gordon Link is based on Kyle MacLachlan.
- Rat Man is another Italian comic book that does this. Brakko, Rat-Man's best friend, is Danny Glover. Rat-Man's former mentors Il Pipistrello and Lupo are Patrick Stewart and Sylvester Stallone. Hot Scientist Kalissa is based on Cher. The Animated Adaptation also had a recurring character named Dr. Schafausen who was based on Christopher Lee.
- Dave Stevens did this an awful lot in The Rocketeer. For example, Cliff is Errol Flynn, his girlfriend Betty is pin-up model Bettie Page, Cliff's sleazy photographer rival is real-world porn photographer Ken Marcus, and second-storyline villain Lothar is Rondo Hatton.
- Stevens modeled Cliff Secord after himself, not Errol Flynn. He mentioned this in several interviews. And Peevy was modeled after his friend and mentor Doug Wildey.
- Astro City:
- Steeljack's appearance was modeled on Robert Mitchum.
- The Gentleman, like inspiration Captain Marvel (above), is modeled on Fred McMurray.
- Anything drawn by Greg Land will resemble a random assortment of celebrities and porn stars due to his tendency to trace. Unfortunately, there's little rhyme or reason to his choices. Emma Frost may look like Natalie Portman in one panel and Kim Kardashian in the next.
- Cerebus the Aardvark has too many of these to count, though the most notable one has to be Lord Julius, who for all intents and purposes is Groucho Marx. Groucho's actual first name, for the record, was Julius. Other members of the Marx Brothers are also depicted. Over the years there has also been a character based upon Margaret Thatcher, and Canadian politicians have also been caricaturized.
- In Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 8, there's a Tibetan character called Bayarmaa. The artist, Georges Jeanty, made her look like the exact portrait of Dichen Lachman, a half Tibetan actress who stars in another of Whedon's shows (she's Sierra in Dollhouse).
- In the "season 9" comics, Severin is based on James McAvoy (specifically from X-Men: First Class), Nash on David Bowie, and Pearl on Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
- Jeremy Johns, a character in Spike: After the Fall, is based on Jim Halpert from The Office, played by John Krasinski.
- In the Doctor Who Magazine comic strips:
- Long-running Eighth Doctor companion Izzy S was based, according to Word of God, initially on the singer Louise Wener and later on the actress Luisa Bradshaw-White.
- The Eighth Doctor strips also featured a fake Ninth Doctor, in reality the Time Lord agent Shayde in disguise, who was visually based on the Big Name Fan, spin-off actor-director, and now official Dalek voice artist Nicholas Briggs.
- Leighton Woodrow, an MI-6 recurring character from that era of the comics, was closely based on Leo McKern, specifically as he appeared when playing Number Two in The Prisoner.
- Frobisher's humanoid form in his Eighth Doctor reappearance is based on James Gandolfini.
- In the Twelfth Doctor strips, Jess Collins was based on actress Mélissa Azombo, a big Doctor Who fan who jumped at the chance to be in the comic, even doing a photo shoot as reference for artist David A. Roach.
- In the Doctor Who (Titan) Eleventh Doctor comics, the older version of recurring villain August Hart is blatantly based on Bryan Cranston's Beard of Evil look as Walter White.
- In the Doctor Who (Titan) Twelfth Doctor comics, the original companion Hattie, who is a bassist in a rock band, looks like a younger and punker Gail Ann Dorsey, a real bass player best known for her work with David Bowie.
- Lieutenant Blueberry was originally based on Jean-Paul Belmondo. His face later evolved into what now looks like a Belmondo/Banderas cross-over.
- Judge Dredd:
- Dirty Frank was intentionally drawn to resemble Alan Moore.
- Judge Anderson was based on Debbie Harry in her first few appearances.
- There are a number of examples in Global Frequency, Depending on the Artist. In certain issues, Miranda Zero looks almost exactly like Michelle Forbes, who was later cast as her in the abortive TV pilot. In issue 4, the English gunwoman looks like Kate Moss (something of an in-joke, as Warren Ellis's Stormwatch and The Authority leading character Jenny Sparks was famously visually based on her). And in issue 5, the magician Alan Crowe looks exactly like Alan Cumming.
- Rasputin in Corto Maltese is quite obviously modeled after the famous Russian monk of the same name. This is lampshaded in one story, where someone asks the name of the "guy who looks like Rasputin".
- The main character of Switchblade Honey, Captain John Ryder, is based on Ray Winstone. The story started out with the idea "What if the kind of character who Ray Winstone usually plays somehow got to be a Star Trek captain?".
- Jon Polito was cast as Gideon the pawn shop owner in the film of The Crow because the character in the comic was modeled on him.
- Eric's physique was modelled on Iggy Pop.
- In the Marsupilami comic series, Harold Stonelove, the villain of "The Temple of Boavista", has a striking similarity to Hugh Laurie, especially in the flashback to his younger days.
- Gargoyles: Several comic only characters were based off of actors, and even the creator admitted that he mentally casts the characters. Quincy Hemings is Morgan Freeman, Duval is Eddie Marsan, and the leader of the Illuminati is Jude Law.
- Criminal: Last of the Innocent features Wil Wheaton as Britannica Black, a former Kid Detective who grew into a Noir-style PI.
- Wesley and the Fox in Wanted are overtly based on Eminem and Halle Berry, in what was seen as a deliberate attempt to angle for a film adaptation. In the eventual film the roles ended up being played by James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie. Wesley's father bears a resemblance to Tommy Lee Jones.
- Mark Millar's first comic Saviour focuses on a returned Jesus who later turns out to be the devil that looks like Jonathan Ross.
- Astérix:
- In Asterix And The Falling Sky, the Superclones (an army of Captain Ersatzes of Superman, with a bit of Green Lantern thrown in) bear an uncanny resemblance to Arnold Schwarzenegger.
- Previously, Asterix and the Black Gold had the spy Zerozerosix, which to push the joke further looks like (a skinny) Sean Connery.
- There is a group of mega-famous bardic singers in Asterix in Britain (1966) who look suspiciously like The Beatles.
- Jenny Sparks in Stormwatch and The Authority is a double for the model Kate Moss.
- Jonathan Ross and Bryan Hitch's series America's Got Powers is pretty evident with its celebrity likenesses, with David Tennant as the head scientist, and Sarah Palin as a villainous US Sentator, with Ed Harris playing a John McCain fashioned US President, even before he was cast as McCain for the TV movie Game Change.
- Lucky Luke:
- Luke faces a Bounty Hunter who looks like Lee Van Cleef,.
- In one story there is an Alfred Hitchcock bartender — making a Creator Cameo in a "movie" outside of his own!
- Louis de Funčs makes an appearance as an irritable little man who mistreats his employees... so pretty much any of his roles.
- From Hell: Inspector Abberline was modelled after Robbie Coltrane. Who amusingly was also in the movie, though Abberline himself was played by Johnny Depp.
- In Transmetropolitan, Oscar Rossini is played by Patrick Stewart, who was a big fan of the comic and had been considered as potentially playing Spider Jerusalem in a failed film adaptation project.
- The cast of The Wicked + The Divine are all physically modeled after famous music stars.
- Lucifer - A Gender Flipped David Bowie
- Baal - Kanye West
- Sakhemet - Rihanna
- Woden - A member of Daft Punk
- Baphomet - Andrew Eldritch
- The Morrígan - Patricia Morrison
- Amaterasu - Florence Welch
- By Word of God, the titular heroine of Albedo: Erma Felna EDF is basically a feline version of Helena Bonham-Carter, albeit only in looks in a retroactive way, due to the Art Evolution Erma has suffered across the years, since she debuted many years before Carter began her career as an actress.
- The IDW comic spin-off of Dirk Gently has a Dirk who looks very, very, similar to David Tennant. He's also costumed and styled in a way that creates the general impression that IDW were very upset about losing the Doctor Who comics license and are desperately trying to lure the readers into a new comic.
- In The Invisibles, the Blind Chessplayer is sometimes drawn to look exactly like Richard E. Grant. After one of those occasions, his conversation with Dane in Dulce, Dane outright says that he looked like a well-known actor without mentioning who.
- XIII's General Carrington is very much Lee Marvin.
- Transformers vs. G.I. Joe:
- General Flagg is based on the seminal GI Joe writer Larry Hama.
- Dr. Venom is Christoph Waltz, largely due to the similarity of his characterisation in this comic to one of Waltz's best-known English-language roles.
- Falcon is a young Sylvester Stallone.
- In the Image SF comic Void Trip, co-protagonist Ana looks an awful lot like Cara Delevingne.
Films — Animation
- In Aladdin, Aladdin was based on Tom Cruise. Earlier designs took inspiration from Michael J. Fox. Jafar in turn was a copy of Conrad Veidt in The Thief of Bagdad.
- Carl Fredrickson from Up is inspired by Spencer Tracy, with a bit of Walter Matthau thrown in. His childhood hero turned nemesis, Charles Muntz, resembles Kirk Douglas.
- The Little Mermaid:
- Ursula was based on, of all people, drag queen and John Waters regular Divine.
- While Sherri Stoner was the model for Ariel, animators have said they were inspired by then teen actress Alyssa Milano.
- Anastasia is a combination of Audrey Hepburn and her voice actress, Meg Ryan, making her both this trope and Ink-Suit Actor.
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs:
- The wicked queen was based on Katharine Hepburn.
- Snow White was based on Janet Gaynor.
- Cinderella was based on Ingrid Bergman
- Sleeping Beauty: Helene Stanley was the physical model for Aurora.
- Beauty and the Beast:
- Gaston bears an uncanny resemblance to Bruce Campbell. He's even introduced with a boomstick in his hand. It goes further than that: in his first appearance he's wearing the "Groovy" Smile.
- Belle was based on a range of actresses, including Audrey Hepburn.
- The Captain in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within looks like a young George Clooney or Ben Affleck.
- The Nightmare Before Christmas: If you know who Cab Calloway is, then you'll pick up on Oogie Boogie's similarities to him.
- Though voiced by Bill Nighy, Rattlesnake Jake from Rango is modeled off of the hawkish face of Lee Van Cleef.
Films — Live-Action
- Sentinel Prime of Transformers: Dark of the Moon is a robotic version of 1970s Sean Connery (though his body language is that of his voice actor, Leonard Nimoy).
- Both Hellboy director Guillermo del Toro and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola revealed at the same time that their first choice for the title character was Ron Perlman.
- Neil Blomkamp's concept art for Chappie originally had Deon Wilson (Chappie's creator) modeled after the likeness of actor Jason Cope, who was the motion capture actor for the alien Christopher Johnson in District 9 and also served as one of the narrator in the same movie. Dev Patel was ultimately chosen for the role of Deon, but Cope still makes a cameo as a Tetravaal engineer.
- Cloud Atlas: In-universe. When Cavendish is planning the escape with his compatriots, he imagines that a film adaptation should have the hero be "Sir Laurence Olivier with a dash of Michael Caine."
Literature
- Paul Kidby's illustrations of Sam Vimes in Discworld cover designs and other art deliberately depict him as Clint Eastwood. By contrast, Melvyn Grant, the artist of Where's My Cow?, drew Vimes like Pete Postlethwaite, who was said to be Terry Pratchett's own fantasy casting for the role.
- Similiarly, Kidby has based his drawings of Carrot Ironfoundersson on a young Liam Neeson.
- Cornelia Funke based Mo in Inkheart on Brendan Fraser, who went on to play the character in the film version. (And in her less-famous novel The Thief Lord, she based Viktor on Bob Hoskins. It was also made into a film, but not with Bob Hoskins in.)
- Harry Dresden is generally described (and in illustrations and the comics drawn) in fashions that evoke a young Clint Eastwood, which carries over into the art. Tall, lean, dark haired, stubbly, sharp features... yep, that's Clint.
- Doctor Who Expanded Universe examples:
- Lance Parkin has an acknowledged tendency toward fantasy-casting his characters; in particular, Ian Richardson gets a lot of "roles" in Parkin novels, most obviously in the Doctor Who New Adventures novel The Dying Days, where Lord Greyhaven is quite close to his iconic role in House of Cards (UK).
- The third incarnation of Romana who appears in the Eighth Doctor Adventures was based by her initial creator, Paul Cornell, on Louise Brooks.
- Cornell has also said he saw Bernice Summerfield played by Emma Thompson (specifically, she's based on the character of Kate from The Tall Guy). This gets Lampshaded in The Dying Days, where she's mistaken for Thompson, and the short story "Digging Up the Past" by Mark Michelowski in The Dead Men Diaries, in which she says she'd like to be played by a CGI Thompson in a docudrama.
- The new incarnation of the Master introduced in First Frontier is played by Basil Rathbone.
- Iris Wildthyme's incarnations in the Eighth Doctor Adventures are modelled on Beryl Reid, Shirley Bassey and Jane Fonda as Barbarella. (The Big Finish Doctor Who incarnation is modelled on Katy Manning, but that incarnation is actually played by Katy Manning.)
- Word of God from Marissa Meyer is that Linh Cinder from Lunar Chronicles was modeled after Mew Azama, the actress who played Sailor Jupiter in Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon.
- Barbara Hambly:
- Antryg Windrose of The Windrose Chronicles is basically the Fourth Doctor as a wizard. Reportedly, Hambly even said she mentally cast him as played by Tom Baker.
- Ingold Inglorion of the Darwath trilogy is very obviously the late Sir Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi, brown robes, beautiful voice and all.
- Supposedly, J. K. Rowling based Hagrid on Robbie Coltrane when she was writing the first Harry Potter book. Either way, when the movies rolled around, she insisted that Robbie Coltrane was the only choice for the part of Hagrid and, fortunately for her, they got himnote . JK has also said that she imagined Professor McGonagall as being Maggie Smith. This also worked out for her. One that didn't however, was her vision of Tim Roth as Snape (Roth later confirmed he was offered the part, but was unable to appear in the first film due to his commitment to Tim Burton's version of Planet of the Apes (2001)), although it's clear that Alan Rickman did start to creep into her image of him in later books.
- She initially modelled Dumbeldore on John Gieulgud.
- Tamora Pierce often "casts" characters in her head in both her Tortall Universe and Circle of Magic books—sometimes the actor themselves or a role they've played. Rosethorn, for example, is based on Kira Nerys. (Yes, she's a Trekkie.) Rosto the Piper is played by James Marsters, which is pretty clear when you read Beka's description and then look at a picture of, say, Spike.
- Played with in Gaunt's Ghosts. In the books, Gaunt is described as having blonde hair and it's generally agreed he was modeled after Sean Bean's performance in Sharpe. The funny thing is that the cover art also looks like Sharpe, only this time as he's described in the books.
- Christopher Fowler's novel Hell Train is conceived as the novelisation of a fictional "lost" Hammer Horror film, with a framing narrative around the planning of the film. This includes an in-canon casting chapter where it's discussed which of the Hammer regulars and other well-known English character actors would play the major characters.
- Happens in-universe in Nora Roberts' Tribute. After meeting Former Child Star Cilla McGowan, graphic novelist Ford Sawyer is inspired to create a new superheroine and bases her appearance off of Cilla's.
- A.J. Butcher, the author of Spy High, said that he envisioned Lori as the tennis player Anna Kournikova, and would want her to be played by Kournikova in any screen adaptation (although Kournikova isn't an actress.)
- William Goldman says he wrote Fezzik in The Princess Bride with André the Giant in mind. They got him for the movie, even though he didn't speak English!
- Rex Mundi, the co-hero of Robert Rankin's Armageddon trilogy, is repeatedly described as looking like a young Harrison Ford. The third book in the trilogy finishes with "credits" (including actors who at the time of publication were obviously far too old for the characters (or, in the case of Orson Welles, too dead)). It also has a bunch of minor characters arguing over which film star they resemble as they fight to get more page space. Note that Rex's co-hero is a time-travelling Elvis Presley.
- Writer Ian Fleming based the James Bond's original appearance on that of singer/actor Hoagy Carmichael. In later books, however, Fleming made Bond more closely resemble actor Sean Connery (including making the character part Scottish).
- Recurring Star Wars character Kell Tainer resembles Jason Segel in illustrations. Both of them are very tall, so it's possibly intentional.
- Imperial Admiral Jhared Montferrat from the short story Blade Squadron is drawn to resemble Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre in Casino Royale (2006), complete with a damaged eye. Interestingly, Mikkelsen would eventually star as Galen Erso in Rogue One.
- Claudia Gray says that in Star Wars: Lost Stars, Ciena Ree is a young Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Paron Ree is Lennie James, Ved Foslo is Harry Shum, Jr., Kendy Idele is Parminder Nagra, and the Contessa is Michelle Yeoh.
- Claudia Gray seems to like this trope, as she released an entire fancast for Star Wars: Bloodline. Greer Sonnel is Priyanka Chopra, Ransolm Casterfo is Tom Hiddleston, Lady Carise is Jamie Chung, Tai-Lin Garr is Ken Watanabe, Arliz Hadrassian is Sonia Braga and Joph Seastriker is Josh Hutcherson.
- Word of God says that Shadow from American Gods by Neil Gaiman was supposed to look like Dwayne Johnson.
- An odd partial example - the The Pirates books make a point out of describing the Captain in the introduction to every book as "all teeth and curls" and with "a pleasant, open face", both notorious clichés used to describe Tom Baker and Peter Davison's Doctors in Doctor Who ("teeth and curls" coming from a notorious Take That! line by Jon Pertwee's Doctor in "The Five Doctors", and "pleasant open face" from Terrance Dicks' Target novelisations). However, when the author was asked about whether he imagined the Captain being 'played' by those actors in an interview, he admitted that he didn't imagine him as anyone specific at all. The version of him that appears in The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! looks slightly like a mixture of Tom Baker and Peter Davison, but in the art style it's hard to tell, and his voice performance (by Hugh Grant) and animation is nothing like how either of them would have played the role.
- Word of God is that in Star Trek: Vanguard, Admiral Nogura is "played" by Mako and Jon Cooper is James Naughton.
- The depiction of Frost in the last book's cover of the Magic University series has a staggering resemblance to Kiera Knightley.
- In Catch-22, Major Major Major Major's life is plagued by his resemblance to Henry Fonda:
Major Major had three strikes on him from the beginning – his mother, his father and Henry Fonda, to whom he bore a sickly resemblance almost from the moment of his birth. Long before he even suspected who Henry Fonda was, he found himself the subject of unflattering comparisons everywhere he went. Total strangers saw fit to deprecate him, with the result that he was stricken early with a guilty fear of people and an obsequious impulse to apologize to society for the fact that he was not Henry Fonda."
- The children's book Out of the Dust features a non-celebrity example. On the cover there is a historical photograph of a girl named Lucille Burroughs. Word of God is that Billie Jo looks like her.
- In the illustrations for the short story "Peaceniks" in The Esential Book of K9, the character Starjakk is modelled, with permission, on the actor Vitas Varnas.
- Trainspotting: Mark Renton is described as looking like footballer Alex McLeish due to his ginger hair, while Tommy is described as looking like a young Harrison Ford. In the sequel Porno, Sick Boy is described as looking like Steven Seagal.
Puppet Shows
- Gerry Anderson shows did a fair amount of this
- Jeff Tracy from Thunderbirds looks remarkably like Lorne Greene, who's best known for also playing a single-parent head of a family of boys
- Troy Tempest from Stingray was intentionally modeled on James Garner.
- Captain Scarlet from Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons was modeled on Cary Grant. Francis Matthews did his best Grant impression doing the voice, as well.
Tabletop Games
- A few characters from Warhammer 40,000 are based on famous movie characters and are thus designed to resemble the actors who played them (though how much the models and/or official art reflect this is pretty hit or miss). Fabius Bile is pretty blatantly modeled on Richard O'Brien as Riff Raff, Sly Marbo is Sylvester Stallone's Rambo, etc., though sometimes there's no particular rationale for a character's resemblance to a particular celebrity. There's one cover painting for one of the Horus Heresy books where Horus bears an uncanny resemblance to James Gandolfini of all people.
- At COTG Live Event, several wrestlers dressed as characters from the Champions Of The Galaxy card game. These characters then got special cards made to resemble the wrestlers portraying them, Thantos even getting altered abilities to make him even more like Chuck Taylor.
Video Games
- In the actual game of Injustice: Gods Among Us, John Stewart is a dead-ringer for Idris Elba.
- Wing Commander: The Tiger's Claw ace pilot Iceman appears magnificently similar in both grizzly features and gritty demeanour to that ace shooter himself of another time, Clint Eastwood. One of the good guys and firmly focused on vengeance against the Kilrathi. Not someone who one can imagine cracking a joke with too often. According to his fellow pilots, he don't say much.
- Metal Gear:
- The packaging illustration for the retail releases of the first Metal Gear was traced over from a promotional still for The Terminator which featured Michael Biehn posing as Kyle Reese.
- In the MSX2 version of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, the character portraits were originally modeled after real-life celebrities (such as Solid Snake as Mel Gibson and Big Boss as Sean Connery) and at least one historical figure (namely Dr. Pettrovich, who is clearly based on Albert Einstein). The resemblances for most of these characters were so obvious, that the portraits were replaced in later versions to avoid any possible likeness infringement.
- According to an interview with Shinkawa in the Metal Gear Solid: Official Mission Handbook, Solid Snake's design in that game was given the face of Christopher Walken (specifically from his character in The Deer Hunter) and the body of Jean-Claude Van Damme for that game, although he and his family have been subtly moving away from that look and more towards Kurt Russell's character, Snake Plissken in Escape from New York. Ocelot was also 'cast' as Lee Van Cleef, and dressed up similarly to his Colonel Mortimer character in For a Few Dollars More (Van Cleef makes a two-fer in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, as Old Snake is clearly based on him as well
◊ - though by the time of Escape from New York, for obvious reasons). In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Vamp was modelled after the flamenco dancer Joaquín Cortés
◊, and The Boss in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was modelled after Charlotte Rampling.
- There's not that much of a resemblance in his earlier designs, but Raiden in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance strongly resembles David Bowie, especially in his human body at the beginning of the game. The Metal Gear Solid 2 novelisation previously described Raiden as looking 'like a young David Bowie'.
- Somewhat weird video game example: Eddie Riggs from Brütal Legend was based on Jack Black from the start, but then Double Fine persuaded him to play the role, which turned it into an example of an Ink-Suit Actor.
- In Condemned 2: Bloodshot, Malcolm Van Horn looks uncannily like Max von Sydow (most strikingly in the concept art).
- Sentinel Worlds I: Future Magic (a sort of 1988 proto-Mass Effect RPG) used particularly shameless photo swipes as the basis for several crew pictures, including Arnold Schwarzenegger from The Terminator, Sigourney Weaver from Aliens, and, apparently, a young Donald Rumsfeld
◊.
- Laser Squad is guilty of this in the IBM PC version. The cutscenes exclusive to this version use trace-overs of various scenes and/or characters from The Empire Strikes Back for the Rebel Star team in the first level and the cyborgs in the second, while the team member portraits use various 1980s movie actors as facial sources - Lorenzo Lamas, Michael Biehn, Alec Baldwin, Rutger Hauer, Michael Ironside, John Hollis (who makes up the entire enemy squad in the second mission) and, surprisingly standing out from the rest of the list, Errol Flynn. In a bit of Hilarious in Hindsight, there are also people looking like Adam Baldwin and Vin Diesel as Riddick as he appears in the Batman Cold Open of The Chronicles of Riddick.
- Zoey in Left 4 Dead is modeled after Natassja Kinski, according to the series's wiki.
- Something worth noting would be the fact that the face model of Zoey happened to be Sonja Kinski, the daughter of Natassja.
- All eight playable main characters in the Resident Evil Outbreak games resemble celebrities to some extent. The most blatant is Jim Chapman, who is basically Chris Tucker in The Fifth Element.
- Beg to differ, there's probably no one who, when shown a picture of the character of Kevin Ryman, the maverick R.P.D police officer, wouldn't immediately recognize Tom Cruise.
- Nathan Drake's appearance is based on Johnny Knoxville.
- Speaking of Naughty Dog: Ellie from The Last of Us looks a lot like Ellen Page. The character design has since been modified to look a little younger and better resemble voice actress Ashley Johnson, though the resemblance did not go unnoticed by Page, who said she was "not pleased" at Ellie's close resemblance to her, mainly since her image IS being used for the game Beyond: Two Souls.
- Like Nathan Drake above, Travis Touchdown is modeled on Johnny Knoxville. Some of his opponents also resemble real people; Dr. Peace is Charles Bronson, Volodarski is magician Criss Angel and Destroyman's secret identity, John Harnet, is UFC fighter Josh Barnett.
- Robert Garcia is drawn to look almost exactly like Jean-Claude Van Damme on the cover of the first Art of Fighting game.
- Max Payne's face was modeled after the chief writer Sam Lake's in the original game and after Timothy Gibbs'
in the second, before going full-on Ink-Suit Actor in the third (where he is modeled after his own long-time VA James McCaffrey
).
- Rynn's appearance in the Drakan series was based on a model named Myrna Blankenstein
.
- Whether intentional or not is unknown, but Natla in the original Tomb Raider game bears more than a passing resemblance to then-singer Victoria Adams (now better-known as socialite and fashion designer Victoria Beckham)
- Arcueid's design in Tsukihime was based upon a nameless occidental model
◊ whom the artist Takashi Takeuchi once glimpsed in a fashion magazine and was so smitten by that he decided to recreate her appearance from memory and give it to the female lead of the game.
- The two female love interests in Dragon Age: Origins were modeled after real women (Leliana after an adult model Alexandra Stein, and Morrigan, after Victoria Johnson)—at least in the Sacred Ashes trailer (which not entirely dissimilar from the released game).
- Many of the NPC character portraits in Neverwinter Nights strongly resemble not just celebrity actors, but specific photographs of those actors. In most cases, the photos were legally licensed for use, but when it turned out that some were used without permission, the offending portraits had to be redrawn.
- You can actually do this
with your Commander Shepard in Mass Effect. The default apperance of the male Commander Shepard is modeled after Dutch model Mark Vanderloo.
- Mr. Torgue of Borderlands 2 was based on Randy Savage. Word of God also states that Handsome Jack was based on Nathan Fillion.
- Jennifer, the main character of Clock Tower and its first sequel, looks just like Jennifer Connelly. The game was inspired by Dario Argento movies (especially Phenomena, which starred Connelly), so the resemblance is clearly intentional, as another one of the developers' homages.
- Pokémon X and Y: Diantha was clearly based on Audrey Hepburn, down to being an actress.
- The development team behind the Nancy Drew games uses celebrities as inspiration for their character designs, as stated in an interview. Many characters bear resemblance to certain famous actors, such as a Scottish character looking suspiciously like David Tennant.
- Similarly, the photo
◊ of George Fayne owes a lot to Tina Fey, and Victor Lossett
◊ of The Deadly Device is rather blatantly a photo of Obadiah Stane era Jeff Bridges.
- Similarly, the photo
- Doctor Who Legacy's representation of Cinder (a book character) is based on Hayley Williams from Paramore.
- Tony Stark, as he appears in Iron's Man's and Haggar's endings in Marvel vs. Capcom 3, resembles Robert Downey, Jr..
- Aiden Pearce's facial model looks VERY close to Tom Cruise.
- The Batman: Arkham Series got in on this:
- A few characters resemble actors who've played them in the past, including the Joker resembling Jack Nicholson, Penguin resembling Danny DeVito (albeit sans the makeup he wore), and Two-Face's unscarred side resembling Tommy Lee Jones. Batman himself in Knight gets in on this, resembling Ben Affleck. Unlated to past Batman actors, Riddler in City and Knight resembles, respectively, Stephen Merchant and Charlie Sheen; Robin in the latter game resembles Eminem; and Copperhead in Origins looks like Miley Cyrus.
- Even voice actors get into it, as Wally Wingert admitted to emulating Frank Gorshin's laugh as the Riddler and Troy Baker admitted to trying to emulate Richard Moll's Two-Face voice for the part. Some people have also noticed that Baker's voice for Two-Face's Harvey Dent persona sounds like Aaron Eckhart and Roger Craig Smith's voice for the young Batman in Origins would sound like Christian Bale's growl at times. Unrelated to past Batman actors, Corey Burton used his Christopher Lee impression for Hugo Strange in City.
- Contra is essentially what would have happened if Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone decided to team up while they were still in their prime to take on Xenomorphs.
- The Lovecraftian 1993 adventure game Shadow of the Comet has several character portraits very obviously based on famous actors. For example, Vincent Price
◊ and Jack Nicholson
◊. Somewhat more obscurely the mayor is Glenn Shadix
◊, whom you might recognize as the interior designer in Beetlejuice or the kimono-wearing assistant in Demolition Man.
- Final Fantasy VIII ran into some legal trouble by using Gackt as basis for Squall's design (mostly due to outfit resemblance), although Gackt was a fan of the series and appeared in an Ink-Suit Actor capacity as a Compilation of Final Fantasy VII character in later games. Tetsuya Nomura has always claimed that Squall was based on River Phoenix. Cid Kramer also has a very strong resemblance to Robin Williams.
- Link in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was based after a famous 90s heartthrob actor... but the developers have purposefully obscured which actor it was, other than that he was 'who you would think of when you thought of a handsome actor at that time'. One of the features taken from the actor was his distinctive, pointed nose, leading many to speculate that River Phoenix, who had a similar pointed nose to the Link art, was the inspiration. Other theories suggest Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio.
- In Middle-earth: Shadow of War, Shelob's human form resembles Liv Tyler, which in turn makes her look like Arwen from the film version of The Lord of the Rings.
Web Comics
- The creator of The Challenges of Zona once said that he designed Zona to resemble Valerie Perrine.
- In The Dreamer, Beatrice Whaley was based on Emmy Rossum, Alan Warren was based on Jude Law, Elizabeth Winters is based on Jill Richie, Nathan Hale is based on Jamie Bamber, Yvette Howe is based on Dawn Richard, Thomas Knowlton is based on Thorston Kaye, Benjamin Cato is based on Usher, Gen. Howe is based on Jeremy Irons, and John Mulligan is based on Aaron Ashmore.
- Girl Genius: Master Payne is based on a Northwest stage magician of the same name
who is a friend of the Foglios.
- In How To Raise Your Teenage Dragon, Mortimer's look was apparently based on Peter Dinklage. Well, if you're going to feature a short person, you might as well get the best!
- The creator of Dasien claims to have based the heroine's facial features on those of Charlize Theron.
- The second hard copy collection of Bandette includes notes on which actors inspired certain characters: for example, Bandette is a blend of Audrey Hepburn and Audrey Tautou, Monsieur is an older Cary Grant, and Il Tredici is a blend of Lee Marvin and Henry Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West.
Web Original
- Used literally by the Global Guardians PBEM Universe. Real Life celebrities Leland Orser, Mick Jagger, Avery Brooks, and Miley Cyrus are all super-powered, among others, and two (Leland Orser and Miley Cyrus) are a villain and hero, respectively.
- In the Whateley Universe, Gunnery Sgt. Oscar Bardue (ret.) plays Nick Fury - in front of the in-universe majority shareholder of Marvel - thus giving readers their first real impression of who and what Bardue looks like.
- Conversational Troping by El Sandifer in TARDIS Eruditorum when discussing
the Doctor Who Missing Adventures novel The Dark Path as though it was actually published in 1968, just to show why this doen't work. She notes that the evil Member of the Doctor's Race (don't mention the Time Lords!) who appears in the book is drawn on the cover to look like character actor Roger Delgado, suggesting McIntee had some casting ideas in mind when writing it.
Western Animation
- DC Animated Universe:
- In Superman: The Animated Series, Lex Luthor was based on Telly Savalas and Metallo seems to have been based on James Coburn, while Dan "Terrible" Turpin is modeled after his creator, Jack Kirby. Likely because Season 2 started airing in 1997, the same year as the Steel movie, the show's version of John Henry Irons was designed to look like Shaquille O'Neal, who played Irons in the movie.
- Batman: The Animated Series:
- Word of God has confirmed that Randa Duane, the sexy Femme Fatale who appeared in "Heart of Steel", was based on Marilyn Monroe.
- The female fashion designer Calender Girl kidnaps in "Mean Seasons" looks like Carrie Donovan.
- Steel's appearances Justice League sees his voice actor, Phil LaMarr, trying to emulate Morgan Freeman.
- Trevor Goodchild in Ćon Flux has a distinct resemblance to David Bowie, especially at the climax of "The Purge" when he's dressed up like a music-hall act.
- The Boondocks: Hateocracy consists of Lord Rufus Crabmiser, Lady Esmerelda Gripenasty and Mister George Pistofferson. Their designs are based on Redd Foxx, Lawanda Page and Jimmy Walker, respectively.
- Tony Stark is not only drawn to look like Robert Downey, Jr. in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!, but sounds like Downey, too. You could be forgiven for thinking that his voice actor, Eric Loomis, is doing a pretty good impression of Downey, but as it turns out, that's actually Eric's normal voice
.
- Avengers, Assemble!, being made as a cash-in for the Marvel Cinematic Universe for a few cases:
- Justin Hammer looks just like Sam Rockwell, who played the character in Iron Man 2.
- Roger Craig Smith and Laura Bailey channel Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson as Captain America and Black Widow, respectively.
- As he's basically a Decomposite Character of Ivan Vanko from Iron Man 2 without the Whiplash elements, Crimson Dynamo is modeled on Mickey Rourke.
- Mr. DeMartino from Daria is based on Christopher Walken.
- Chris Bradford on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) is rather obviously based on Chuck Norris.
- Ultimate Spider-Man:
- Damage Control is run by a Canon Foreigner called "Mac" who is drawn to resemble Damage Control's creator, the late Dwayne McDuffie.
- Miles Morales was also based on Donald Glover, crossing over with Ink-Suit Actor.
- Artemis from Young Justice was designed to resemble Hanah Cook, the mixed-race daughter of one of Greg Weisman's frequent collaborators
.
- Magpie's design in Beware the Batman is inspired by pop star Lady Gaga. Magpie's original design was more akin to that of a punk rocker or hair metal musician.
- The respective mayors of Johnny Bravo's Aron City and The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius's Retroville are both identical in sight and sound to Clark Gable.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: Sokka's swordfighting master Piandao looks quite a lot like Sifu Kisu, a man who works on the show as a martial arts consultant.
- In The Legend of Korra, one of the people who became airbenders in the third season, a Basement-Dweller named Ryu, looks like and has the same first name as the series' art director, Ryu Ki Hyun.
- Asami's father looks like Theodore Roosevelt in the first season. In the fourth, three years in prison give him a startling resemblance to Hayao Miyazaki.
- Regular Show:
- Agents Kessler and Costello look exactly like David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson.
- The protagonist of the Evil Dead parody from "Grave Sights" was designed to look like Bruce Campbell.
- Concept art online from a proposed Doctor Who cartoon by Nelvana depicts a Doctor with an extremely strong resemblance to Christopher Lloyd.
- Clyde, the leader of The Ant Hill Mob in Wacky Races and The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, is based on Edward G. Robinson.
- Ivanhoe: The King's Knight:
- Rebecca resembles a very young Olivia Hussey.
- Brian de Bois-Guilbert resembles Sam Neill.
- Robin Hood resembles Errol Flynn.
- In the Adventure Time episode "Be More", Moe is, according to Word of God, based on the actor Jamie Farr (best known as Klinger in M*A*S*H). This is notable as Adventure Time character design is usually too stylised to look like any specific person.
- Wolverine and the X-Men:
- The main X-Men sees a lot of this, as basically out of the main X-Men throughout the series, the only real notable exceptions who those who didn't try to emulate their X-Men Film Series counterparts were Steve Blum as Wolverine, Susan Dalian as Storm, Yuri Lowenthal as Iceman, and Danielle Judovits as Shadowcat with Jim Ward doing what a lot of other voice actors have done and emulated Patrick Stewart as Professor Xavier and Nolan North as Cyclops, Jennifer Hale as Jean Grey, Fred Tatasciore as the Beast, Liam O'Brien as Nightcrawler, and Kieren van den Blink as Rogue evoking (to varying degrees) the characters' respective film actors, Jason Marsden, Famke Janssen, Kelsey Grammer, Alan Cumming, and Anna Paquin. On the villains' side, this is one of the few cases of this happening to Magneto, with Tom Kane emulating Ian McKellen as Magneto.
- On a non-X-Men Film Series note, Kevin Michael Richardson's Shadow King sounds exactly like Frank Welker's Darkseid/Soundwave/Dr. Claw voice.
- Justice League Action has General Zod resemble Michael Shannon's incarnation in Man of Steel only without the beard.
- When Jeff Bennett was cast to replace Robert David Hall as Azmuth in the Alien Force/Ultimate Alien era of the Ben 10 franchise, he was channeling Rene Auberjonois—which is probably why Ben 10: Omniverse decided to recast the role with Auberjonois himself.
- Betty Boop: Betty was a composite of several celebrities such as Helen Kane and Clara Bow.
- In H2O: Mermaid Adventures Lewis resembles Michael Jones of Rooster Teeth's Achievement Hunter.