Comic-Book Fantasy Casting

A rare case in which the real-world subject used as a template for the character eventually became actual Comic-Book Movie Casting.

Hank Pym: Who do you think they could get to play you [in a movie], Nick?
Nick Fury: Why, Mr. Samuel L. Jackson, of course. That's not even open to debate, Dr. Pym.

— The Ultimates

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 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:

• Comic Books

---

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.
• Banana Fish:
  • The main character, Ash Lynx, was originally based on Swedish tennis player Stefan Edberg, though his design changed over time to resemble River Phoenix.
  • Another character, Max Lobo, was based on Harrison Ford.
• Zafal Takie from the Motorball arc of Battle Angel Alita 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.
• Mr. Chang, the head of the local triad in Black Lagoon looks quite 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 was 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.
• In Dear Brother, minor members of the Sorority were designed to resemble actresses from the Takarazuka Revue who were popular at the time the manga was published.
• Doctor 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 Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior with a bit of Bruce Lee to round him out. Later chapters add more Sylvester Stallone to the mix.
• The main villain of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, Yoshikage Kira, is famous for his resemblance to David Bowie. This is no coincidence, given how famous Jojo is for its shout-outs.
  • The likeness of Dio Brando himself was originally based on Roy Batty, played by Rutger Hauer.
• The general shape of Arsène Lupin III's face and his haircut borrow heavily from Jean-Paul Belmondo, who was invokedsurprisingly popular in Japan as a quintessential French badass / Lovable Rogue.
• In Moldiver, Mad Scientist Doctor Machinegal's robot female minions are all named after (and are designed to resemble) various female models and movie stars, such as "Brooke" (Brooke Shields) and "Nastassja" (Nastassja Kinski).
• 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 Voice Clip Song 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 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. Frank N. Furter from The 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 Girls 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.
• In Naruto, the First Raikage is designed to look like Jimi Hendrix.
• Shougo Sena from Love Stage!!'s physical appearance is based on one of Daigo, lead vocalist from the band Breakerz, who happens to be author Eiki Eiki's younger brother.
• 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 (1970). Their character dynamic is even very much the same as in UFO.
• Mamura from Daytime Shooting Star is modeled on Kentaro Sakaguchi. Sakaguchi even portrayed Mamura during a collaboration photoshoot.
• Little Witch Academia (2017): Earl Paul Hanbridge has a pretty uncanny resemblance to Colin Firth, especially as he looks on the Kingsman film series.
• Ishigami from Kaguya-sama: Love Is War was modeled after the actor and Idol Singer Sho Hirano. In a classic case of Hilarious in Hindsight, Sho Hirano was cast in the series' live-action movie... as Shirogane. The comparison is even lampshaded in chapter 140 (which was a Leaning on the Fourth Wall celebration of the movie's announcement).
• Actor Bjorn Andrésen as he appeared in Death in Venice was a major influence on Bishōnen characters in The '70s (and beyond). This is visible with manga characters such as Gilbert Cocteau from Kaze to Ki no Uta, Reinhard von Lohengramm from Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Griffith from Berserk, and Oscar from The Rose of Versailles, among others. Some even pointed out that Char Aznable bears a resemblance to Andrésen.
• By Word of God, Erwin Smith from Attack on Titan was based on one of the dancers in Paris Hilton's "Paris For President" music video. In 2020, the dancer in question, Matthew P Hall, spoke about how he found out and felt humbled by it.

Arts

• The Last Supper: Allegedly, Leonardo based the face of Judas off of Savonarola, a prominent Florentine preacher at the time.

Fan Works

• Abraxas: The Kaiju/Titans are able to communicate with each other and with the transformed Vivienne Graham and the author has described what the voices of Ichi, Ni and Godzilla sound like here. She's also toyed with potential voice claims for Thor, Mothra, and Rodan, and has stated Monster X's (San and Vivienne) voice in its first form sounds like the Gravemind's in Halo.
• A Thing of Vikings: The author, after being asked, made a Tumblr post with face claims for some of the fic's OC’s.
  • Wulfhild looks like Julia Stiles as she appeared in Save the Last Dance or The Bourne Identity, only shorter and with longer hair.
  • William of Normandy looks like Tom Holland.
  • Harald, Magnus, and Gunnar Bræsisson looks like Chris Hemsworth, Luke Hemsworth, and Liam Hemsworth respectively, only with blonde hair.
  • The author stated that he has an idea for who Gudmund Hallvarsson looks like, but hasn’t said who it is due to spoilers. It’s eventually revealed that Gudmund/Heidrun’s faceclaim is Nicole Beharie only taller and with shorter hair.
  • Yngvarr looks like Heath Ledger as he appeared in A Knight's Tale.
  • Pelagia Triantafyllou looks like Nia Vardalos.
  • Inga Roswynsdoittor looks like Marian Tomas Griffin when she was 18.
  • Bladewit looks like Judi Dench.
  • Benjamin Axelsson looks like Matt Damon as he appeared in Good Will Hunting or Saving Private Ryan.
• Back in the day, Lance Parkin and Mark Clapham wrote a series of Doctor Who fanfics featuring the 42nd Doctor (played, of course, by Ian Richardson) and his wife Iphegenia (played by Caitlin Moran).
• Earth-27: Several characters resemble some of their more famous appearances.
  • John Stewart is designed to resemble Idris Elba, who is often suggested by DC fans to portray John in a film.
  • Jason Blood looks like Jude Law.
  • Ralph Dibny looks like Benedict Cumberbatch.
  • T. O. Morrow looks like Aidan Gillen.
  • Imogen the angel looks like Anna Kendrick.

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. While Jasmine bears resemblance to Jennifer Connelly, the animator modeled her after his own sister.
  • Cassim, Aladdin's father, in the direct-to-video sequel King of Thieves was designed to look like an Arabic Sean Connery.
• 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 (1989):
  • 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 Joan Crawford.
  • 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 Incredibles: Edna Mode was modeled on Linda Hunt.
• 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.
• Lord Farquaad in Shrek was modeled on Michael Eisner, as a Take That! from his former partner Jeffrey Katzenberg.
• Batman vs. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles not only sees Troy Baker once again emulate Mark Hamill as the Joker but likely inspired by The Fly (1986), Keith Ferguson is channeling Jeff Goldblum as Baxter Stockman.
• Strange World: The Clade men are based on action hero archetypes of past and present. Jeager is very much Kurt Russell from The Hateful Eight. Searcher’s beard and bulbous nose are borrowed from John Krasinski.

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.
• Neill 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 narrators 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. Kidby has since tried to develop his Vimes into a sort of cross between Eastwood and Postlethwaite.
  • Similarly, 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 scheming politician Lord Edward Greyhaven is quite close to his iconic role in House of Cards (UK). (Ironically, Parkin attempted to include a cameo by the 42nd Doctor [see Fanfic] in The Dying Days, but it was cut. He does, however, appear in the Bernice Summerfield NA Beige Planet Mars).
  • 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 Michalowski 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 The 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 him^note Incidentally, Coltrane was in fact the first to be cast in the entire series. 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 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 Gielgud.
• 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). Fleming's ideal choice was Cary Grant.
• 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, for her novel Star Wars: Lost Stars, says that Thane Kyrell is Sam Reid, Ciena Ree is a young Gugu Mbatha Raw, Jude Edivon is Liza Weil, Paron Ree is Lennie James, Ved Foslo is Harry Shum, Jr., Kendy Idele is Parminder Nagra, and the Contessa is Michelle Yeoh.
    • Apparently she 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 Sônia Braga and Joph Seastriker is Josh Hutcherson.
  • Chuck Wendig has noted that Cobb Vanth from The Aftermath Trilogy was modeled on Timothy Olyphant, specifically Olyphant's sheriff character from Justified. This one wound up coming true; when Vanth later appeared in The Mandalorian, they actually got Olyphant to play him, much to Wendig's pleasant surprise.
• Neil Gaiman says that Shadow from American Gods is 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 Keira Knightley.
• 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 Essential Book of K9, the character Starjakk is modelled, with permission, on the actor Vitas Varnas.
• Winston Groom imagined Forrest Gump to look like John Goodman.

Newspaper Comics

• Many characters in Doonesbury started out as caricatures of real-life figures, although they tend to evolve away from the initial resemblance over time, and often outlast the original figure's fame. The most prominent such character in the strip is Uncle Duke, based on Hunter S. Thompson.
• Joe's partner, Crunchy, from Jump Start was clearly based on Ed Asner. He even has the personality of the types of characters Asner has a tendency to play, having a gruff exterior with a Hidden Heart of Gold.
• The main characters in Apartment 3-G were all based on actresses who were popular when the strip came out: Margo is Joan Collins, Tommie is Lucille Ball, and Lu Ann is Tuesday Weld. It's a lot more obvious◊ in the early strips.

Podcasts

• Chrissy Nada in the Cool Kids Table game All I Want for Christmas is Lori Laughlin as Aunt Becky from Full House. And her husband Mike is played by John Stamos.
  • All the player characters in the Firefly game of Cool Kids Table are played by actual actors. Mickey Spacelust is Russell Brand; Kimmy Jin is played by Taiwanese actress Shu Qi; Roc Me Amadeus is played by Noel Fielding; and Caleb is played by Sean Maher. Somehow.
  • Sid's parents in Sequinox are played by Jason Mantzoukas and Stephanie Beatriz.
• Hardcore, the resident scientist of Shuffle Quest, is played by Glenn Close. When asked what Hardcore wears, the showrunners said that she wears whatever Glenn Close wears.

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

• In the early 1990s, BattleTech fans floated the older Lauren Bacall as ideal to play Clan War-era Natasha Kerensky.
• 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.
  • Roboute Guilliman bears quite a resemblance to Mark Strong in some of his artwork. Ferrus Manus looks a bit like Jon Bernthal, especially his appearance as The Punisher. Eldrad Ulthran in official art where he is helmetless looks a lot like Hugo Weaving's Elrond.
• Warhammer, the Fantasy game, also gets in on this. For instance Orion, the King in the Woods and ruler of Athel Loren, looks quite a bit like Mel Gibson in some of his art and in his Total War: Warhammer appearance.
• 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

• The Hitman World of Assassination Trilogy has a tendency to do this:
  • Silvio Caruso bears some resemblance to Robert Downey Jr.
  • Penelope Graves has the same facial features and hairstyle to that of Emma Watson.
  • Bradley Paine bears an uncanny resemblance to The Eleventh Doctor, who was played by Matt Smith, down to the bowtie and suit. Even his glasses are similar to the ones seen in his later tenure on the show.
  • Bartholomew Argus is modelled on American musician will.i.am.
  • Robert Knox loosely resembles late Formula 1 driver Niki Lauda, who also got scars from a racecar accident.
  • Jorge Franco bears a great resemblance to Stan Lee, right down to his goatee and aviators.
  • The Young Diana seen in the cinematics in 2 and 3 seems to be based on Anne Hathaway.
  • Sophia Washington is clearly based design-wise on Serena Williams. Her original name (as unintentionally left in her intel) was originally "Serena", and her appearance, glasses and initials all bear a striking resemblance to the cebebrity.
  • Roman Khabko looks quite a lot like infamous Russian musician Stanislav Baretsky.
  • Dame Barbara Elizabeth Keating Somewhat resembles Judith Collins, a real-life New Zealand politician.
  • Noel Crest looks a lot like Chris Pratt.
  • Manon Beaulieu appears to be based on based on Yayoi Kusama, who shares a similar dress sense of patterned dresses and a bob-cut hairstyle.
  • Terrance Chesterfield Bears quite a strong resemblance to that of well-known English actor Toby Jones.
  • Jack Roe bears some resemblance to Bryan Cranston. Fittingly, Cranston has played a criminal cook (meth, instead of people).
  • Alexander Fanin in Hitman 3 looks a lot like John Cleese, as between 2016 and 3 he seems to have grown a moustache. Also a Development Gag, as his concept art also makes him look like a bit like Cleese, just with a Van Dyke-esque moustache.
• In the actual game of Injustice: Gods Among Us, John Stewart is a dead-ringer for Idris Elba. In the sequel, he looks more like Mahershala Ali.
• 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 doesn't say much.
• Metal Gear has always aspired to be 'cinematic' and thus has incorporated this constantly.
  • Metal Gear: The packaging illustration for the retail release, depicting Solid Snake, 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 modelled 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.
  • Metal Gear Solid:
    • According to an interview with Yoji Shinkawa in the Official Mission Handbook, the original pitch for Solid Snake's revised appearance was "the face of Christopher Walken (Deer Hunter years) and the body of Jean-Claude Van Damme (circa Bloodsport)", and some early concept art that shipped with Policenauts shows this resemblance obviously. As the design was refined (particularly, Shinkawa decided the character should be younger), the resemblance to Walken was mostly lost.
    • Ocelot was also 'cast' as Lee Van Cleef, and dressed up similarly to his Colonel Mortimer character in For a Few Dollars More.
    • Otacon's appearance and mannerisms are based on Hideo Kojima. This had not been Kojima's idea, who originally envisioned the character as an overweight African-American programmer.
  • Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty:
    • As the decision had been made to give the new game a John Carpenter vibe, Snake's design was adjusted to combine his previous Walken-JCVD design with an Escape from New York-era Kurt Russell.
    • Vamp was modelled after the flamenco dancer Joaquín Cortés◊. This is why flamenco elements are incorporated into his combat style and Leitmotif.
  • Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater:
    • Big Boss's design combines Solid Snake's Walken-JCVD-Russell design with yet another actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger (a la Commando). This is particularly noticeable in his build, which is much bulkier than his son.
    • The Boss in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was modelled after Charlotte Rampling.
    • EVA was supposedly modelled after a gravure idol whose name has only been been given as "***-sato" ("○○○里"). Fan speculation is usually that this was Morishita Chisato (森下千里) but there is no evidence for this.
  • In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Old Snake's appearance snowballs up all the actors in his previous design with a hefty dose of Lee van Cleef.
  • 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 had previously described Raiden as looking 'like a young David Bowie'.
  • In Snake's Revenge, Lt. Snake is Arnold Schwarzenegger and John Turner is a First Blood-era Sylvester Stallone.
• 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 (2004).
• Zoey in Left 4 Dead is modeled after Nastassja 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 Nastassja.
• Resident Evil:
  • In the original game, Albert Wesker was designed after David Bowie, as shown in concept art of the character. In later appearances, he was redesigned to instead resemble his actor from the first game's live-action cutscenes while incorporating elements of Arnold Schwarzenegger as the T-800. As for the voice, according to Richard Waugh himself, that was based on Shere Khan. D.C. Douglas, Wesker's current voice as of Umbrella Chronicles, even stated that he used Bowie as a template for his portrayal.
  • All eight playable main characters in the Resident Evil: Outbreak games resemble celebrities to some extent. The most blatant are Jim Chapman, who is basically Chris Tucker in The Fifth Element, and Kevin Ryman the maverick R.P.D police officer, who's 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 Elliot Page. The character design has since been modified to look a little younger and better resemble voice actress Ashley Johnson, though Page himself noticed the resemblance and said he was "not pleased" about it, mainly since his 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.
• Tomb Raider:
  • 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)
  • In the rebooted Tomb Raider (2013), Lara's face was based off model Megan Farquhar and voiced by Camilla Luddington, though others have noted a striking resemblance to Odette Annable.
• 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.
  • On the topic of Nasuverse, Lord El-Melloi II/Waver Velvet's appearance◊ post-Fate/Zero bears a striking resemblance to Severus Snape as portrayed by Alan Rickman. Sometimes it's a case of Depending on the Artist due to Takashi Takeuchi's Art Evolution.
  • Sherlock Holmes from Fate/Grand Order clearly resembles Benedict Cumberbatch's portrayal of the character in Sherlock, minus the wavy hair. Elements of his costume design particularly resemble Cumberbatch's Sherlock as he appeared in "The Abominable Bride".
  • Also from Fate/Grand Order, Beowulf's design was clearly inspired by Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden.
• 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 appearance of the male Commander Shepard is modeled after Dutch model Mark Vanderloo.
• Balrog/Boxer in Street Fighter II is very clearly based on Mike Tyson, which is especially obvious in his character portraits. It's even more obvious in Japan, where he's known as 'Mike Bison'. The resemblance lessened in subsequent games, likely to avoid any potential legal issues - most significantly, this was the reason his name was shuffled around with Vega/Claw and M. Bison/Dictator (known in Japan as Balrog and Vega respectively) in the west. Amusingly, Tyson himself reportedly had no idea the character existed, let alone was based on him, until nearly twenty years later.
• 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.
  • Scarlet and Violet: Professor Turo bears a strong resemlence to Starset's frontman Dustin Bates, even being associated with futuristic aspects.
  • It's uncertain if he was always the inspiration for the design but Robin Williams once stated in an interview that Nintendo chose him as the only person fit to portray Professor Oak in any live-action film.
• 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.
• 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. Unrelated 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, with Bill Rizer being the Arnie lookalike, and Lance Bean being the Sly pastiche.
• Castlevania: Like with Bill Rizer in Contra, Simon Belmont is also based off of Arnold Schwarzenegger — in this case being his portrayal of Conan the Barbarian◊.
• 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:
  • The Emperor in Final Fantasy II is modelled after David Bowie, specifically the Jareth character from Labyrinth.
  • Final Fantasy VII
    • Barret Wallace looks and speaks remarkably similar to Mr. T.
    • Tifa Lockhart's appearance really resembles Jennifer Connelly, particularly her appearance on Career Opportunities (compare Tifa◊ to Connelly in that film◊). However, Tifa's appearance since Advent Children has been modeled after Ayumi Ito, who is her Japanese voice actress since the film.
    • Aerith Gainsborough's appearance◊ resembles (and is said to be modeled after) a young◊ Brooke Shields.
  • Final Fantasy VII Remake:
    • Jessie is modelled after Franca Zoli, a Japan lifestyle blogger and character designer Roberto Ferrari's wife. According to her, when they met in the early 90s, she used to have the same hairstyle and bandanna, which Roberto used as inspiration.
    • Biggs bears a strong resemblance to Charlie Sheen, with the character's getup bringing to mind Chris Taylor, who Sheen played. Biggs's voice actor also does an impression of the actor himself.
    • Cloud's redesign looks a lot like Kubota Masataka. This is lampshaded in the 14-minute Japanese commercial; Masataka plays a young man who, in one scene, is teased by his girlfriend over his resemblance to Cloud. Later in the story, he Googles Cloud pics at work and apparently can't see the resemblance.
  • 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. In a more coincidental example (as she was only a child when the game was made), players have pointed out that Rinoa looks eerily similar to Camilla Belle.
  • Noel from Final Fantasy XIII-2 resembles a young Tom Cruise.
• 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 similarly pointed nose to the Link art, was the inspiration. Other theories suggest Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio.
• Zack from the Dead or Alive series was based on basketball player Dennis Rodman, and Rodman eventually played the character in Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball.
  • The guy Christie assassinates in her DOA4 ending movie looks suspiciously like Steven Seagal.
  • With the more realistic models in DOA5, Momiji gains a resemblance to Monica Bellucci, and Rig is clearly based on Wentworth Miller.
  • In Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation, Luna's face looks a lot like that of Chloë Grace Moretz.
• Spider-Man (PS4) sees its Peter resemble a cross of live-action Spider-Men Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland (with the original PS4 version leaning closer to Garfield and the remastered version making him look closer to Holland) and Mary Jane resemble Kirsten Dunst. Norman Osborn resembles a cross between Willem Dafoe, Chris Cooper, and an Ink-Suit Actor of his voice actor, Mark Rolston.
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) has a major part of the multiplayer mode characters based visually on media personalities with military background, among them Alex Zedra, Tu Lam, and Tony Sentmanat.
• Doom Eternal styles King Novik of the Sentinels after the late Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead, right down to his facial boils.
• Disco Elysium:
  • The Scab Leader/Kortenaer is bizarrely designed to resemble Peter Daou, a former child soldier who became a minor pop musician in the 90s, then a political blogger, and the campaign manager for John Kerry in 2004 and Hillary Clinton in 2008; he became internet famous for his obsessive and inflammatory Hillary Clinton support in the runup to the 2016 election, in which he would accuse even the most moderate critics of her campaign or policies of being misogynists. (A few years after the 2016 election, Daou moved to the left, supporting Bernie Sanders in the 2019 Democrat candidate race, and now identifies as a socialist.) It is likely he came to the attention of the developers via his feud with the Chapo Trap House podcast, who called him a "Hillaryman" and frequently made fun of him on the show; in the game's original dub, the Scab Leader is voiced by Chapo host Felix Biederman in reference to this.
  • Egg Head is modelled after H.P. Baxxter from the band Scooter.
• Sean Chiplock's voice for Noob Saibot in Mortal Kombat 11 channel's Frank Welker's voice for Dr. Claw, Darkseid, and (without effects) Soundwave^note This also makes Noob sound like Shao Kahn did at the end of Mortal Kombat: The Movie as Welker, in addition to doing the vocal effects for Retile, also voiced Shao and reused the Dr. Claw/Soundwave/Darkseid voice for him.
• Tekken
  • Marshall Law and his son Forrest are blatantly modeled after Bruce Lee.
  • Lei Wulong is modeled after Jackie Chan, particularly his character from the Police Story film series.
  • Christie Monteiro is modeled after Tyra Banks.
  • Craig Marduk is the actor/wrestler Nathan Jones (not Goldberg as commonly thought, although he does contain some references to him).
  • Raven is based on Wesley Snipes (in a weird mash-up of his Demolition Man and Blade movie personas).
• Legacy of Kain: Janos Audron's model from Defiance seems to be modeled after David Bowie.
• Red Dead Redemption II: Arthur Morgan bears a striking resemblance to Chris Pine, though there's also a bit of a young Clint Eastwood to him as well.
• Santiago Espinosa, Big Bad of Harebrained Schemes' BattleTech computer game, bears a strong resemblance to Giancarlo Esposito, right down to having a similar-sounding name.

Web Comics

• 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.
• 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.
• El Goonish Shive has a voice acting example. In this strip, Ashley comments that the griffin sounds like Raven from Teen Titans. Also, the griffin's name turns out to Tara.
• Girl Genius: Master Payne is based on a Northwest stage magician of the same name who is a friend of the Foglios.
• In Grrl Power, instead of using a generic-looking male face for the senator, the artist based him on Michael Peña.
• 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.
• Weak Hero:
  • Jake Ji's appearance and name are inspired by Woo Ji-ho, also known as Zico from Block B, with some of his lines even referencing Zico's lyrics.
  • Dean Kwon (second-in-command to Jake) has his name and fashion style inspired by Korean R&B singer Kwon Hyuk, commonly known by his stage moniker Dean.

Web Original

• 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 doesn'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. Inspector Henderson was based on Morgan Freeman as William Somerset in 7.
  • 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 Calendar Girl kidnaps in "Mean Seasons" looks like Carrie Donovan.
    • Annie from "Growing Pains" was modeled after Natalie Portman in The Professional.
    • Fitting for the noir influence, many characters looks were inspired by genre actors of the period.
    • ”Tyger, Tyger” Dr Dorian is based on Ernest Thesinger from Brideof Frankenstein.
    • ”Zatanna”, magic debunker Montaque Kane is modeled after stage magaician/actor Orson Welles.
  • Steel's appearances Justice League sees his voice actor, Phil LaMarr, trying to emulate Morgan Freeman.
• Trevor Goodchild in Æon 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 (2012):
  • 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 sword-fighting master Piandao looks quite a lot like Sifu Kisu, a man who worked 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 stylized to look like any specific person.
• Wolverine and the X-Men (2009):
  • 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, James 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 René 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.
• The Simpsons:
  • Comedian, Rich Hall always complained that Mos Szyslak must have been based on his likeness, which Matt Groening eventually confirmed.
  • The woman Homer buys the pony from in "Lisa's Pony" was based on Katharine Hepburn, right down to the voice.
  • Frank Grimes in "Homer's Enemy" was modelled on Michael Douglas in Falling Down.
  • There's a recurring, unnamed character generally referred to simply as "The Yes Guy" who is pretty clearly modeled on comedian Frank Nelson, best known for his role on The Jack Benny Program.
    Eeeh-Ye-e-e-es?
• No prizes for guessing who Elvis from Fireman Sam looks like.
• The Real Ghostbusters' version of Peter Venkman was, according to Word of God, modeled after former Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry.
• Winx Club: The appearances of the main characters were inspired by Britney Spears for Bloom, Cameron Diaz for Stella, Jennifer Lopez for Flora, Lucy Liu for Musa, Beyoncé for Aisha, and P!nk for Tecna.

---