History Main / DeadPersonImpersonation

* ''Manga/TheLegendOfZeldaAkiraHimekawa'': In the adaptation of the ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'', Link blunders through a few of these in order to give the souls whose masks he wears some peace.

* ''[[Manga/TheLegendOfZeldaAkiraHimekawa The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask]]'': Link blunders through a few of these in order to give the souls whose masks he wears some peace.

** In ''Justice For All'', [[spoiler:there is a witness who got into a car crash with her sister. Her sister died and her face was mangled by the accident, and when surgically reconstructing her face, they mistakenly used her sister's driver's license photo. She assumed her sister's identity to escape from the consequences of her actions, including the fact that she was responsible for the crash.]]

** ''Literature/TheHandOfThrawn'' has a [[BigBadDuumvirate triumvirate of villains]] collectively contriving to make it look as if [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Grand Admiral Thrawn]] has [[BackFromTheDead returned from the dead]]. One member handles supply, demand, and political fallout, one member composes tactics and strategy and expands on the triad's plans, and the third pulls off a very good acting job, aided by a massive subversion of WeWillNotUseStageMakeupInTheFuture. [[spoiler:The second also contributes to the script and gives details to the actor, because secretly he was ''very'' close to Thrawn. By which it's meant that he's a human clone with part of Thrawn's mind and some of his mannerisms. Ironically, this deception indirectly causes the heroes to thwart Thrawn's own contingency plan for his death, a clone of himself that would've activated just weeks later.]]
** In ''Literature/StarWarsScoundrels'', also by Zahn, one member of Han's CaperCrew is an imposter who's stolen a dead person's identity and is aiding in TheCaper for his own ends. [[spoiler:It's Boba Fett; he's using the team to get close to and kill a high-ranking member of Black Sun for a bounty. His aim is to capture Han for his bounty afterward, but Han is suspicious enough to give him the slip.]]

** Creator/TimothyZahn's ''Literature/HandOfThrawn'' duology has a [[BigBadDuumvirate triumvirate of villains]] collectively contriving to make it look as if [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Grand Admiral Thrawn]] has [[BackFromTheDead returned from the dead]]. One member handles supply, demand, and political fallout, one member composes tactics and strategy and expands on the triad's plans, and the third pulls off a very good acting job, aided by a massive subversion of WeWillNotUseStageMakeupInTheFuture. [[spoiler: The second also contributes to the script and gives details to the actor, because secretly he was ''very'' close to Thrawn. By which it's meant that he's a human clone with part of Thrawn's mind and some of his mannerisms. Ironically, this deception indirectly causes the heroes to thwart Thrawn's own contingency plan for his death, a clone of himself that would've activated just weeks later.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:A literal example.]]

* [[spoiler: The current Leif]] in "VideoGame/BugFables" [[spoiler: is eventually revealed to be a sentient fungus who possessed the original Leif's long dead corpse and inherited his memories; his ice magic and understanding of Roach language come from the memories the fungus possessed of being an experiment. He [[HeroicBSOD doesn't take well this discovery,]] and it takes the help of his friends to help him snap out of it. For them, it doesn't matter; even if he isn't the actual Leif, he's the Leif that they know and care about, and that hasn't changed at all.]]

* [[spoiler: The current Leif]] in "VideoGame/BugFables [[spoiler: is eventually revealed to be a sentient fungus who possessed the original Leif's long dead corpse and inherited his memories; his ice magic and understanding of Roach language come from the memories the fungus possessed of being an experiment. He [[HeroicBSOD doesn't take well this discovery.]]]]

* Occurs at one point in ''VideoGame/{{Siren}}''. The catch is that the game never shows you the scene where the character is murdered and replaced, so for a while you continue to play believing that the character in question is the original. Another catch is that the person who murders and impersonates the deceased is his identical twin.

* Series/{{Arrowverse}}:
** Part of season 5 of ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' sees [[spoiler:Laurel's EvilCounterpart from Earth-2 pulling this on her.]]

** ''Series/{{Supergirl|2015}}'' also has this: [[spoiler: When Alex Danvers confronts Hank Henshaw about the death of her father, Jeremiah Danvers, he tells her the truth: He isn't Hank Henshaw. The real Hank Henshaw was hunting an alien refugee and died in a mad quest to kill him. The alien, [[ComicBook/MartianManhunter J'onn J'onzz]], swore to Jeremiah, who died protecting J'onn, to protect his daughters and started impersonating the real Henshaw.]]

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "The Once and Future King", Gary Pitkin, an ElvisImpersonator from 1986, gets into a fight with the real Music/ElvisPresley on July 4, 1954 as Elvis believes that he is a demon who has been sent to tempt him with evil music. In the struggle, Elvis is [[InertialImpalement killed when he is accidentally impaled on the neck of his broken guitar]]. After burying his body, Gary [[YouWillBeBeethoven assumes Elvis' identity]] and becomes the King of RockAndRoll.