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"I know a detective who once attempted to disguise himself thoroughly. The first policeman he met took him into custody."
''"I'm the master of disguise
''I can vanish from your eyes
''I can be in different places
''With my many friendly faces in disguise
A character who can be anybody during the course of the story. Giving a character this power and concealing its use from the audience for a "reveal" is very hard to pull off.
They may rely on extensive training and a vast collection of wigs, clothing and stage makeup to pull off the fakery. Or, their powers could be Phlebotinum-driven, in that they have the physical ability to alter their very shape and size to match that perfectly of the person they are duplicating.
Their allegiances can go either way. Sometimes they're villains, sometimes they're heroes (though more likely to be The Smart Guy in the Five Man Band, rather than The Hero), and very often they're just Wild Cards.
Crucial to an Impossible Mission.
See also Latex Perfection, Shape Shifter, Wig Dress Accent, We Will Not Use Stage Makeup In The Future, The Power Of Acting. Compare Clark Kenting.
Examples
Anime and Manga
- Four in Detective Conan: Shinichi's mother Yukiko, a former prize-winning actress, Black Organisation member Vermouth, who trained with Yukiko, and Kaitou KID (Also starred in Magic Kaito)— who actually referred to the current KID and his father.
- Masaharu Niou and Hiroshi Yagyuu from The Prince Of Tennis. They pretend to be each other during a doubles match, after all.
- Mercilessly parodied with Koharu and Yuuji, who use disguises not to conceal their identities but to disrupt their rivals's concentration. And to provide a whole Crowning Match Of Funny. To beat them, Momo and Kaidoh had to become Masters of Disguise, using lucha libre masks to confuse them back.
- Lupin The Third pretty much the whole cast.
- Honey Kisaragi aka Cutey Honey.
- Due of the Numbers in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Shape Shifter Combat Cyborg that specializes in infiltration and assassination.
- Great Britain aka 007 of Cyborg 009. In fact, he was a brilliant clasically-trained actor before being turned into a Cyborg.
- Sayoko Shinozaki from Code Geass. Source of much lulz when she impersonates Lelouch in an incredibly bizarre way in R2.
- Saemon Kisaragi from Basilisk.
- In one Axis Powers Hetalia strip, China vents his frustrations to a panda and talks about how he's sick of all the foreigners and how Russia's planning to backstab him. The panda takes its head off, revealing Russia.
- In Mahou Sensei Negima new villain and Fate's minion Shiori has a specialized kiss that can steal the full appearance of the one she kisses, as well as the ability to lose her consciousness and think she's the person. Needless to say, no one figures it out once she switches with Asuna... until they meet up with the Governor General, that is..
- The series also has Kazumi Asakura, who's capable of becoming indistinguishable from whoever she chooses in order to (in this case, Shizuna-sensei) get the big scoop. Main lead Negi only managed to tell the different thanks to the Marshmallow Hell she gave him, seeing as even though she's not bad herself, Asakura just couldn't compete with Shizuna.
- Schwarz Bruder from G Gundam is shown to be this in episode 18, where he took the form of an old man. It's not surprising, since he's ninja and all. He doesn't use this often though.
- In Monster Johann dresses up as his sister twice. Once as a child for a completely inexplicable reason and then later as an adult just in order to fuck with everyone. No one saw that coming. As a variation on this trope he also proves a master of disguising his identity and real nature (through sheer charisma) from various people right up until it's too late for them to do anything about it.
- Mr 2, Bon Clay from One Piece can take the shape of anyone he's touched. He isn't that comfortable acting the part though...
- Ranma One Half has Tsubasa Kurenai, a oneshot (twoshot in the anime, with a pair of cameos) character whose speciality is dressing up in elaborate costumes, mainly of inanimate objects, which allow him to blend in perfectly to his surroundings if he chooses. He's been a mailbox, a statue, the sign outside Ukyo's restaurant, a trashcan, a kasa-obake (an umbrella spirit), a vending machine... and underneath the costume, he also dresses in women's clothes as an expression of his love for Bifauxnen Wholesome Crossdresser Ukyo Kuonji. He's so good at impersonating a woman that just about everyone he meets actually thinks he is one at first. He even has a girl's voice!
- Another oneshot, Copycat Ken was a paparazzo who stole martial artists' techniques by becoming them and using all of their moves against them. The only one he couldn't copy perfectly was Happosai, because he was just too perverted. So he trained Ken. He ended up with so many copies that he started mixing them up and became unable to change back.
- Hannya from Rurouni Kenshin, to the point that he actually mutilated his own face to make the process easier. The result is Nightmare Fuel, and it's understandable why the anime didn't include that bit (only showing us one of his eyes).
- Team Rocket from Pokemon disquises themselves as somebody or another, sometimes crossdressing, or in the case of Meowth dressing as another species, on average once an episode. Jessie "Jessebella" "Jessadia" "Jessalina" "Jessilinda" "Jessilynlyn" "Jessirilyn" has used so many deviations of her name with rather small (relatively — her big dress up costumes are usually very detailed) changes to her outfit it isn't even funny. Ash and Co. never figure out who Team Rocket is until they out themselves — if they figure it out at all.
Comic Books
Film
- Simon Templar from The Saint
- Mitch Leary from In the Line of Fire
- Pistachio Disguisey in The Master of Disguise is a parody.
- Three words: Who's Harry Crumb?.
- Several Peter Sellers characters. Some merely fancy themselves as this, such as Inspector Clouseau, but others, like Claire Quilty, are dangerously good at it.
- Spoofed in Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes by Sam Smith, a black man who disguises himself as such notable non-black people as Hitler, Abe Lincoln, George Washington, and a blonde girl, all while making not the slightest effort to disguise his skin color. He even managed to convince the tomatoes that he was one of their number, until he forgot and asked for ketchup.
- Peyton Westlake, a.k.a., Darkman
- Despite being the Trope Namer for Clark Kenting in the comic canon, the first Christopher Reeve film turned Superman into one of these. Like Richard Hannay in the Literature example below, his success had less to do with props than body language and vocal mannerisms.
Literature
- Sherlock Holmes
- The titular character of The Count of Monte Cristo.
- The Scarlet Pimpernel, as well.
- Subverted in Richard Hannay novels by John Buchan: while the main character disguises himself frequently and successfully, it is more through acting than characterization.
- Buchan's thesis appears to have been that if you're a good enough actor you can disguise yourself from even people who know you well. The main character's best friend is a particularly good actor, and is always unexpectedly appearing in books, sometimes from behind the face of a villain.
- At least once, Holmes's disguise was also mostly due to acting, in "The Final Problem"—Watson is supposed to meet Holmes at a train station, and instead is joined by an old Italian priest in a cassock. The priest changes his expression for a moment and Watson realizes it's Holmes. (The cassock is his only physical disguise.)
- The original Arsene Lupin, gentleman thief, had this down to an art.
- Fantômas, the villain of his own series by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre, is one of the more brutal examples of this. One of his defining features is always appearing in various disguises and then getting rid of the persona through faked deaths, explosions, and mass murder. The same is true of his rival the Inspector Juve, sans the death count, who uses an equal number of disguises to try and bring Fantômas to justice.
- For crook turned secret agent Jim DiGriz this is a basic survival technique, seeing as he works in a universe of omniscient surveillance and paranoid secret policemen. Can range all the way up to full body surgery.
- Alias in the Evil Genius Trilogy, who teaches Disguise at the Axis Institute, and frequently arrives to class disguised as one of his own students. Notable for being one of the few teachers who isn't a Complete Monster, and one of the three that escaped the institute alive.
- The Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, of the 1930's pulps was a master of disguise. He suffered a horrible emotional shock which deadened the nerves in his face which he could mold like putty. (I am not making this up!! Ah the innocence of the 30's!) He carried around a disguise kit with wig, contacts, make-up etc to go along with the putty face. Later when his face came back to life he invented a serum which had the same affect.
- Doc Savage, which is pretty amazing when you consider his extraordinary physical appearance.
- In the Star Wars Expanded Universe, we have the birdman Kaird, who is of a very rarely-seen species, but has elaborate prosthetics and suits and so on - Star Wars generally averts We Will Not Use Stage Makeup In The Future - to disguise himself as anything from a human to a Hutt. He'll also use less extensive measures. Whatever works.
- Erast Fandorin is so good at this that some characters get confused, which of his appearances is the real, original one.
- Betty Bent in the Kiki Strike books. She's the daughter of costume designers and so good at disguising herself that she can appear as pretty much anyone the Irregulars need her to be.
- The villainess in The Girl With The Golden Bouffant, a Les Yay spoof of James Bond, isn't recognised despite turning up as a girl in a mink bikini or a stewardess conducting an 'intimate' lifebelt drill demonstration on the heroine.
- Jay, from the Paladin Of Shadows series after the first one. Kurt Schwenke is also suggested to be this, in A Deeper Blue.
- Nymphadora Tonks from the Harry Potter series is a metamorphagus who can change any part of her appearance at will, which she says was very helpful in the disguise section of her Auror exams.
- Count Olaf from A Series Of Unfortunate Events, being an actor, has an infinite amount of costumes at his disposal, especially from his evil troupe. He's been everything from a Sikh gym teacher, to a submarine captain, to a carny. No one second guesses the tall lanky man with an eye tattoo on his ankle except the Baudelaire kids.
Live Action TV
- The Master in Doctor Who tended to do this up to the point that BBC credited the "actor" who played "the monster" a name that was an anagram of the actor who played the Masters name. Leon Ny Taiy
 = Tony Ainley anyone?
- Rollin Hand (Martin Landau) and Paris (Leonard Nimoy) from Mission Impossible
- Arch-enemy Murdoc from MacGyver was said to be a master of disguise. But his disguises were so bad that viewers only fell for them because his appearances were spread out enough that the audience had forgotten what he looked like.
- Christopher Chance, star of the comic book and quickly-cancelled TV series Human Target, though Chance doesn't impersonate, he becomes (often resorting to surgery, which is kind of cheating.)
- In the original comic books, he relies on disguises.
- An episode of CSI had an old Vegas mob boss who was thought to be dead come back as one of these, killing his betrayers with a different disguise.
- Jared, the titular Pretender, had an entire series based around this. While he never changed his physical appearance, he would adopt an extremely wide array of different jobs, mastering all of them in an astonishingly short timespan.
- In something of a subversion, Col. Flagg of M*A*S*H thinks he's one of these, while in reality absolutely anyone can see through his disguises. Mostly due to the ridiculous ones he tries to pull off.
- Artemus Gordon, on The Wild Wild West even fooled Jim West occasionally. However, his disguises weren't allowed to be too good as a result of Executive Meddling, fearing that Viewers Are Morons and would be confused.
- False Face from the Batman TV show (who was based on one-shot comics villain).
- Sylar from Heroes recently joined the members of this trope. In addition to a ton of other powers, goshdangit.
- Several characters in Super Sentai can do this, mostly the Pink Rangers, but also quite prominently Soukichi Banba (aka Big One) from JAKQ Dengekitai. One memorable battle from Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger even had Mei fighting the villains' master of disguise, Lamie, with both often switching costumes.
- The Dolls of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse are imprinted with many different personalities for their engagements.
Newspaper Comics
- The villain Harley Niav AKA "Puttypuss" from the Dick Tracy comic strip. The writers admitted he was a riff on Al Capp's Lil' Abner Dick Tracy parody Fearless Fosdick's villain Anyface.
Tabletop Games
Video Games
- Decoy Octopus from Metal Gear Solid is quite possibly the most detail-obsessed Master Of Disguise ever, being able to flawlessly mimic a person's speech and mannerisms, and either ingesting or injecting himself with the blood of the person he's imitating. But he's unable to fool The FOXDIE pathogen, which kills him.
- Mimi from Super Paper Mario is astoundingly good at this, at least in looks; she can't pull off the personality of her target terribly well.
- The Spy in Team Fortress 2.
- The dragons in World Of Warcraft are able to assume humanoid forms, generally High Elvish, but there are exceptions, such as human or even gnome forms. Notably, Onyxia used to live in the human city of Stormwind, under the disguise of human Lady Katrana Prestor, where she was subtly influencing political decisions to the Black Dragonflight's favor. Some dragons appear to be worse than others at this: thus, the leader of Red Dragons Alexstrasza takes on the guise of a Blood Elf of High Elf, but even in the guise she keeps her distinctive dragon horns and red color. Since she doesn't actually hide the fact she's a dragon, perhaps she does this on purpose.
Western Animation
- Zartan, GI Joe
- To a lesser extent the Baroness and Scarlett were both masters of disguise, but they used rubber masks. Scarlett invariably botched it anyway, but Baroness could easily be, for example, a highly decorated prison warden.
- Puttypuss from The Houndcats.
- Camille Léon from Kim Possible.
- Merrilee from Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kids.
- Masquerade from My Little Pony
- David Bowie on the Venture Bros via shapeshifting and psychic powers. Also see below.
- Batman in Batman The Animated Series would occasionaly disguise himself for undercover work in the criminal underworld. Clayface, a shape-shifting villain, appeared in the same series.
- False Face from She Ra Princess Of Power.
- Imp from She Ra Princess Of Power was typically used by the Horde for information gathering against the Rebellion. He was very much able to shapeshift into any form he wanted and his transformations were so flawless the characters encountering him in a shifted state tended to treat him accordingly. Examples include Kowl perching on top of him when he was a footstep in a ladder, Bow tossing him when he became a stick, and Catra even drinking from him when he was mimicking a goblet. Though most of his transformations tended to retain his blue color scheme, on at least two occasions (as a ground rodent and as a hanging painting) Imp showed the ability to alter his coloration at will. The only limitation here seemed to be Imp wasn't able to become anything more massive than himself, although he did take on the abilities of whatever thing he was pretending to be.
- Part of She Ra Princess Of Power's every episode was to watch the scenery for the character Loo-Kee, who tended to be hidden amongst the scenery. While sometimes he was easy to find, there were several times it was very difficult to pick him out of the background. I'm not sure if this would count as being a Master of Disguise, but it certainly makes him a Master of Hiding.
- Dingo from Sonic Underground is something of a Master of Disguise, though his powers are controlled by his partner Sleet making this an form of Involuntary Shapeshifting.
- The title character from Walter Melon who would regularly take on the appearance of the heroes he was substituting for, could do so so well that apparently even those with intimate knowledge of the hero were unable to spot the difference (with one exception when he did his Karate Kid, the expy of Mr. Myogi claimed he watched Walter Melon and stopped him before he could kiss Daniel's girl). Simultaneously he wasn't the only one as his assistant Bitter Bug and his rival Sneero also displayed such ability, typically taking on the roles of needed sidekicks and villains respectively without anyone noticing.
- Its interesting to note that, though Walter and Sneero encountered each other during almost every episode of the show, neither one ever recognized the other as a substitute hero/villain.
Real Life
- David Bowie. He's been known to wear different costumes and came up with a lot of different alteregos. He's more than just a master of disguise...he's the Wizard of it.
- As with David Bowie, Peter Sellers was a real-life example of this; he discovered his talent for mimicry and acting when he was in the RAF, playing pranks in which he successfully pretended to be various high-ranking officials.
- Gary Oldman, anyone?
- Or Johnny Depp.
- And Madonna...at least according to Basil Exposition in her "Beautiful Stranger" video.
- If we're talking about real Masters Of Disguise, Lon Chaney Sr. blows all of the above out of the water. It's not as if Johnny Depp applies or designs his own characters' make-up ... let alone, invented it.
- Older Than Radio example: Chilean La Resistance leader Manuel Rodríguez Erdoíza.
- SS chief Heinrich Himmler was only apprehended because he'd worked so hard on preparing his forged documentation that it was actually suspicious to find someone who had all his papers in the chaotic Germany of immediately after the war's end.
- This Troper recently went to the spy museum, which had a large display all about how this was used in real life. Among the imposts, a white man disguised as a Sikh, and a young woman disguised as an old man.
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