Poor Man's Substitute

Mr. Burns: Get me Steven Spielberg!
Smithers: He's unavailable.
Mr. Burns: Then get me his non-union Mexican equivalent!

— The Simpsons, "A Star Is Burns"

Often, when you've got a pretty good and recognizable actor or actress, there will be another actor/actress who is awfully similar except that he/she is not quite as good, famous, busy, expensive, or whatever.

This can be very handy when you've been asked to cast a TV series based on a movie, since the actors from the movie often won't be willing to do a weekly series, at least not for what you're willing to pay.

Such pairings can also be used to effect The Other Darrin, but when the former actor is much more famous than the replacement, this is a recipe for disappointment.

The good news for the actors is that by the end of the show's run, if its a hit, they're sometimes more famous than the film actor they replace.

The Trope Maker for the Poor Man's Substitute was Jayne Mansfield for Marilyn Monroe. In fact, 20th Century Fox hired Mansfield for just that purpose after Monroe famously walked out on her contract in 1955.

On Mystery Science Theater 3000, Joel and the Bots call this the "Wayne Rogers Effect", after the actor who replaced Elliott Gould in the TV adaptation of M*A*S*H.

Often goes hand-in-hand with Not Quite Starring. There are scripts that acknowledge this as Hypothetical Casting (only to somehow get the real deal!).

PLEASE NOTE: This trope is about actors who can pass for each other in bad light and/or can fill the same type of roles. For actors who have played the same character, you want The Other Darrin instead. If the Poor Man's Substitute is a different character in-universe, they're a Suspiciously Similar Substitute. If you're looking for objects that are inferior versions of brand names, see Shoddy Knockoff Product.

---

Real-Life Examples:

Live Action

Actors

• In the 1930s, Warren William was sometimes referred to as a poor man's William Powell.
• Another older example is Simon Oakland (best known as the psychiatrist who gives the long speech at the end of Psycho), who basically spent his career being the younger, more affordable Edward G. Robinson. Robinson himself twice filled in for Spencer Tracy (Cheyenne Autumn, The Cincinnati Kid) when Tracy had to leave a film due to illness.
• For The War Lord, Charlton Heston wanted the very acclaimed Shakespearian John Gielgud for the role of the priest, but Gielgud refused. The similar-looking Maurice Evans was cast instead. It should be noted Evans was an experienced Shakespearian as well, just less towering than Gielgud in that field.
• Jamie Foxx to Will Smith as he often gets roles, such as Django Unchained, that Smith turns down.
• Martin Lawrence is the poor man's Eddie Murphy. The same goes for Chris Tucker.
• Peter Scolari can substitute for Rick Moranis in a fix (as he did in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids' Recycled: The Series).
• Michael Shanks was this for James Spader when he was playing as Daniel Jackson in Stargate SG-1. Same went for Richard Dean Anderson in the same show as a sort of poor man's Kurt Russell.
• Tony Danza filled in for Bruce Willis in Baby Talk 1991, the TV adaptation of Look Who's Talking.
• Nigel Bennett (Lexx, Forever Knight) can fill in for Malcolm McDowell in a pinch, and Malcolm can fill in for Sting (as shown in Captain Planet) given the right wig. The same goes for Terence Stamp for live action and Corey Burton for voiceover, as well as Michael Des Barres.
• Brian Cox was described as a poor man's Albert Finney in 1990s, at which time Finney was much better-known on stage and screen than Cox.
• Charles Durning was described as "the fat man's Brian Dennehy" (though both men did slim down quite a bit).
  • Bruce Campbell's autobiography mentions Brian Keith feeling kind of like a Poor Man's Brian Dennehy (although not in those words), since Keith kept losing roles to Dennehy.
• Jonathan Lloyd Walker, when he was in the role of Rankol in Flash Gordon (2007), was a Poor Man's Gary Oldman.
• Before the second war in Iraq, Jerry Haleva made a living portraying Saddam Hussein in multiple movies (both comedy and drama). He was frequently cast due to his uncanny resemblance to the Iraqi despot.
• Tom Sizemore: the poor man's Michael Madsen. In fact, Madsen turned down Sizemore's roles in Heat, Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down.
• Billy Crudup would make a decent Christian Bale.
• Ron Silver is an obvious replacement for "Hoo-ah"-era Al Pacino, and played a Pacinoesque actor in the film Lovesick.
• James Callis (Dr. Gaius Baltar, Battlestar Galactica (2003)) has been described by sci-fi fans as "the poor man's Alexander Siddig" (Dr. Julian Bashir, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), though the two actors are similarly accomplished. Ron Moore, who has worked on both shows, was once asked by a fan if he noticed this resemblance, and he replied that he hadn't... but now couldn't stop seeing it after having it pointed out, and that he considered it seriously creeped him out.
• Also from Battlestar Galactica (2003), Matthew Bennett (Aaron Doral) has been dubbed "a poor man's Kevin Spacey".
• Most people's reaction on seeing Kerr Smith in Charmed is to think he's Julian McMahon (who played a different recurring character earlier in the series).
• Almost happened to Dudley Moore at the height of his American success. He had his biggest box-office hit in Arthur (1981) just a year after Peter Sellers, a fellow Brit star (in fact, a friend and colleague), had died. Though he was a very different personality than Sellers, two films that had been in development for Sellers were made with Moore (Lovesick and Unfaithfully Yours). He was even the initial choice to take over the role of Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther series, but according to Wikipedia was only willing to do the script Sellers had co-written as a Grand Finale, Romance of..., and only if Blake Edwards (who wasn't supposed to have been associated with it) would direct it; Edwards didn't want to film that script, and ultimately Moore moved on.
• If you can't afford James Cromwell, Donald Moffat will substitute very well.
  • Also, James Cromwell and James Rebhorn are more or less interchangeable.
    • Not so much any more what with Rebhorn's death.
• In The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., Julius Carry seems to be filling in for Mr. T, especially with frequent exclamations of "sucka!"
• If you can't get Sean Connery for something live-action, Laurence Luckinbill might be able to sccrtep in (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier).
• Nicolas Cage was the producer of The Dresden Files television adaptation; Paul Blackthorne, the lead actor in the series, bears a strong resemblance to, and sometimes seems to be performing an impression of, Cage; possibly Cage wanted to play the part but was either deemed too old or was otherwise engaged.
• Several actors have tried being poor man's versions of Jim Carrey, to varying degrees of success. Eric Christian Olsen played a younger version of Carrey's character Lloyd in Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd. Jamie Kennedy played a character similar to Carrey's from The Mask in Son of the Mask. Rob Paulsen is the go to guy for voicing animated version of Carrey roles.
• Want Keanu Reeves, but he's out of your price range? Call Joe Flannigan. Chris Klein also works, as evidenced by the Rollerball remake, and if you want a younger Reeves but are working on a television budget, hire Jesse Rath.
• Should Chris Rock be too expensive to hire, then Phil LaMarr is a good replacement actor.
• Can't get Sean Bean? Go with David Wenham instead. The latter was even cast as Faramir in The Lord of the Rings because he looked so much like Sean, who played Faramir's brother. Coincidentally, their on-screen father Denethor treats Faramir like he's merely a poor man's substitute for his older brother.
  • Better yet, Richard Armitage - similar look, similar voice and similar taste in roles - compare John Porter from Andy McNab, or anti-heroic Guy of Gisbourne to Boromir.
• Jeffrey Dean Morgan (the Comedian in Watchmen) is often compared to Robert Downey Jr., mostly because they have almost the same exact face. It came up many interviews he did in the run-up to Watchmen. Ironically, the sudden surge in Downey's popularity appears to have made this Poor Man's Substitute too expensive for shooting flashback scenes in Supernatural.
  • He also stated in an interview people confuse him for Javier Bardem.
• Matthew Goode's Adrian Veidt from Watchmen looks like David Bowie, which is only natural because that's who the original character was modeled after.
  • Goode can also step in for you if Benedict Cumberbatch is too expensive.
• Benedict Cumberbatch too expensive/busy? Try Toby Kebbell.
• If you can't afford Sir Ben Kingsley, Erick Avari will do in a pinch.
  • And Carlo Rota if you can't get Erick Avari.
• Ben Kingsley himself is a viable substitute for early actor Georges Méliès of A Trip to the Moon fame, especially since the man himself is long dead. He played Méliès in Martin Scorsese's film Hugo.
• Need an actor for an old wise Black character? Get Bill Cobbs if you can't afford Morgan Freeman.
• James Purefoy is pretty much a British knockoff of Hugh Jackman.
• Nicholas Farrell makes a good substitute for Bill Nighy. He's been in Chariots of Fire, Foyle's War, Torchwood, Pearl Harbor, and The Choir, to name a few.
• Olivier Rabourdin in Taken plays a convincing Kevin Spacey acting as a French cop.
• Chris Rock did an infamous rant on this subject during his Academy Awards host monologue. He actually called people in the room poor men's substitutes (for other people in the room).
  • Including himself as Denzel Washington's substitute ("If you want Denzel Washington and all you can get is me, WAIT! Denzel is a fine actor. He wouldn't never do Pootie Tang. After I did Pootie Tang, Cuba Gooding sent me a check for $80.").
  • Dave Chappelle did a commercial for Chappelle's Show in which he shouted "I am not Chris Rock!".
• Eli Roth looks a lot like Zachary Quinto. Apparently, Eli has tweeted about getting mistaken for Zach.
• Here's a fun drinking game. Go on Jesse Eisenberg's IMDb board, take a shot every time you see a thread title with "Michael Cera" in it.
  • Since both of those guys are expensive, try Jay Baruchel.
  • In a similar vein, if you can't afford Cera OR Eisenberg, Gaelan Connell slots in just as easily for a fraction of the cost.
• Need a younger, cheaper Jack Black? Dan Fogler's your man. Or you can get the Canadian import brand: Tyler Labine.
  • A clean-shaven Fogler can also fill in for Jonah Hill.
• George C. Scott took over at least three roles from Lee J. Cobb: Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman onstage, Juror #3 in 12 Angry Men on TV, and Lt. Kinderman in The Exorcist III. (Of course, in this case, Scott is an Oscar winner and would generally be considered more famous.)
• Really, the only reason that Michael Ironside has had such a successful career is that Jack Nicholson is so damn expensive, and Powers Boothe was 1, a little too much, and 2, dead as of 2017.
  • If Nicholson starts getting too old, Christian Slater is still up for his jobs. At least that's what they did in Heathers.
• Jerry Doyle is the poor man's Bruce Willis. Compare Doyle in season 1 of Babylon 5 to Willis in the original Die Hard, then season 3 Doyle to Die Hard with a Vengeance Willis, and cap it off with season 5 Doyle to Live Free or Die Hard Willis. It's uncanny. Especially considering Mr. Doyle's first professional acting role was on Moonlighting, playing a guy who was impersonating Bruce Willis' character.
• Robert Costanzo (Die Hard 2, Total Recall (1990), Sewer Shark) definitely looks like a poor man's Danny DeVito. He sounds like him as well, considering he replaced DeVito as Phil in the Hercules Recycled: The Series and the Kingdom Hearts games, and even voiced DeVito in a few episodes of Family Guy.
• Charles Shaughnessy looks a lot like Richard Gere. His most well known role is Maxwell Sheffield - exactly the kind of guy, Gere is often typecast as.
• Stellan Skarsgård and Liam Neeson. Skarsgård was actually asked by Spielberg to play the lead in Schindler's List but declined due to the role of Oskar Schindler being too similar to his role as Raoul Wallenberg in Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg. When he declined he suggested to Spielberg that he should offer the role to Liam Neeson instead, since people kept getting Neeson and Skarsgård mixed up.
• So you want a young Harrison Ford but don't have a time machine? Do you want Brad Pitt, but he's out of your price range? Get Jensen Ackles.
• If you want the role of an older Harrison Ford without the money, try Dennis Quaid. The film adaptation of Carrie Fisher's semi-autobiographical novel Postcards fron the Edge notably had Quaid as the love interest of Fisher's surrogate, heavily implied to be Harrison Ford. Dennis Quaid is also considered by some to be a poor man's Kevin Costner.
• Leonardo DiCaprio to River Phoenix in the early 90s. He took on two roles that were meant for River (Total Eclipse and The Basketball Diaries) and was considered to play Daniel in Interview with the Vampire, which was initially meant for River Phoenix (ultimately played by Christian Slater).
• If you can't get Javier Bardem, you can always call Javier's older brother, Carlos Bardem.
• Can't get Joaquin Phoenix? Try Rufus Sewell.
• Brendan Fraser has become a poor man's Nathan Fillion.
• Nathan Fillion is sometimes mistaken for Jason Bateman. To the point where it got him out of a speeding ticket once. Later lampshaded on Castle, when (fictional) celebrity author Richard Castle is mistaken for Bateman by the press.
  • On the Richard Castle Twitter feed, Castle says he's sometimes mistaken for Nathan Fillion. He mentions in one episode that he's a fan of that old Joss Whedon scifi show, though he doesn't mention it by name. Thus resolving the Celebrity Paradox in the Castle-verse.
• James Franciscus was cast in Beneath the Planet of the Apes specifically because he looked like Charlton Heston (who is also in the movie, but for much less time).
• Can't afford Russell Crowe for your movie? Then give Gerard Butler a call.
• Jude Law has twice taken roles once played by a younger Michael Caine, in remakes of Alfie and Sleuth.
• Tom Hanks has sort of taken roles twice played by Cary Grant, directly doing so in The Money Pit, a remake of Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House and indirectly doing so in Sleepless in Seattle, a pseudo-remake of An Affair to Remember. For Tom Hanks himself, if you can't afford him, you can always call his brother Jim Hanks, or Tom's son Colin Hanks if you want a younger version of him.
• Michael Caine is an inversion. As he got older, he began to look a lot like Michael Gough, who was Alfred Pennyworth in all of the Batman Film Series. Guess who wound up being cast as Alfred in The Dark Knight Trilogy?
• James Roday Rodriguez practically is Ben Stiller in The Dukes of Hazzard movie.
• Want Martin Sheen but he's out of your price range? Get his brother Joe Estevez, who is nearly identical in both appearance and voice. This resemblance came in handy during the making of Apocalypse Now — Sheen's near-fatal heart attack during the filming led to Estevez being brought in as a double in some shots, and Estevez was again used during post-production to record Willard's voiceover narration when Sheen was unavailable.
• Thickly accented German bodybuilder Ralf Möller for thickly accented Austrian bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger in the low-budget TV series Conan the Adventurer.
• Since Wesley Snipes wouldn't resume his role as Blade for Blade: The Series, the creators replaced him with rapper Sticky Fingaz.
• Patrick Bergin for Rutger Hauer. Both actors even played Morgan Edge at one point during the third season of Smallville.
• Want Jason Statham, but he isn't available? Chris Vance can drive around and kick butt, while retaining the accent.
• Someone looking for a less prominent Tom Cruise could go with John Barrowman, who has almost identical cheekbones and even a similar voice, though much higher and smoother. In the same vein, Ethan Hawke has been described as a much-cheaper Tom Cruise.
• Can't afford Matthew McConaughey? Get Josh Lucas.
• Need a tough, rugged-faced New York Jew but can't get a hold of Harvey Keitel? Joseph Bologna will do (even though he isn't actually Jewish). ^note  In fact, both have portrayed characters who are the fathers of characters played by Adam Sandler - in Little Nicky and Big Daddy, respectively.
  • If you can't afford Keitel to play an Italian-American tough guy (even though he isn't actually Italian-American) don't worry, you still can try with Dennis Farina, Joe Mantegna, and Frank Vincent.
    • Keitel actually played himself playing Dennis Farina's character in the movie-within-a-movie in Get Shorty
• While either is fairly pricy, if you need Samuel L. Jackson, and he's not available, Laurence Fishburne would do nicely. Likewise, if you need Fishburne and can't get him, Jackson's a good bet.
  • Though they look nothing alike, Ving Rhames is a cheaper alternative to both, if all you're looking for is a generic Scary Black Man character. In addition, Rhames and Tiny Lister are pretty good substitutes for (the now deceased) Michael Clarke Duncan.
• This is a much older example, but on Broadway, if you couldn't get Paul Ford (due to his TV and film commitments), you could hire David Burns. Funnily enough, Burns opened on Broadway in characters that Ford would play in films, even though Ford was the original choice of most of the Broadway directors. Ford actually replaced Burns as Mayor Shinn in The Music Man for a few months of the Broadway run, and later appeared in the movie.
• Kevin James has carved out a niche for himself as the poor man's Chris Farley. And if Kevin James is outside your price range for your direct-to-video comedy film, his nearly identical looking brother Gary Valentine is waiting for your call!
• Jon Cryer spent the 1980s taking on the excess workload that Matthew Broderick didn't have time for. He even replaced Broderick in Torch Song Trilogy on Broadway. This was even lampshaded on Two and a Half Men, when Cryer's character Alan Harper pretends to be Matthew Broderick in order to get into an invite-only nightclub (which didn't work), and later to a doctor in order to get them to check on Charlie (the doctor believed him.)
• If you need someone like George Clooney but can't afford him, Adam Arkin is your man.
• Looking for a younger version of Tommy Lee Jones? Look no further than Josh Brolin. (He could be an excellent substitute for Harrison Ford, too.)
• Need Tim Curry and he's not available or is too expensive for you? Jemaine Clement demonstrated in Men in Black 3 that he'd do very well as a substitute.
• Need Zac Efron but he's too expensive for you? Drew Seeley's your man! They don't actually look too much alike, but Seeley did Zac's singing bits in the first High School Musical and toured with the cast (Efron took vocal lessons to do his own singing in the sequels). Since then he's been in a lot of lower budget tween-friendly musical projects, the type Zac would have been perfect for it High School Musical hadn't turned him into a known name.
• The movie Infamous 2006 set Toby Jones on the path of a poor man's Philip Seymour Hoffman. However, since then Toby Jones has had at least some fairly high-profile roles, including a fairly significant supporting role in Captain America: The First Avenger.
• The success of Modern Family has created a demand for a more affordable Ty Burrell, a niche capably filled by Mather Zickel.
• Since John Belushi is no longer with us, his brother, James Belushi, is almost as good.
• Can't get Daniel Craig for a badass action movie lead role? Give Callum Keith Rennie, Thomas Kretschmann or Christopher Eccleston a call.
• Averted: In his memoir, Christopher Eccleston revealed that he lost Ralph Fiennes' roles in Wuthering Heights, Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia, Quiz Show and Oscar and Lucinda because Fiennes was better-looking.
• Can't get Bill Pullman? Try Anthony LaPaglia.
• Bill Pullman and Bill Paxton are so similar it can be tricky to remember which was in which movie without looking it up.
• Can't get Jonah Hill? Try with Josh Gad.
• Andy García has always been the cheaper, 20-years-younger Al Pacino.
• Scottish comedian Billy Connolly seems to have become the "Bargain Bin" John Cleese, when a Cleese-esque character is needed for a big budget film.
• Can't get Brad Pitt, but want someone who looks a lot like him? Hire Martin Cummins.
• Need a younger Samuel L. Jackson in a live-action role? Terry Crews might be your man.
• Want Andrew Garfield, but can't afford him? Nick Palatas will do just as nicely.
• Want Willem Dafoe, but on a television budget? John Glover to the rescue!
• French martial artist Olivier Gruner for Belgian martial artist Jean-Claude Van Damme.
• Early in his career, Jean-Claude Van Damme filled out a niche for action movie producers who couldn't afford Chuck Norris or Steven Seagal to play the lead.
• Patrick Dempsey and Colin Donnell look remarkably similar.
• Jason Sudeikis and Ed Helms look similar and often do similar types of movies. Early in Sudeikis' career, he probably was the poor man's Ed Helms, but at this point they're at an equal level of stardom.
• Alec Baldwin's brothers, Daniel Baldwin, William Baldwin and Stephen Baldwin, all of whom are also involved in the movie industry, are generally considered to be poor man's substitutes for their more successful relative if you don't have enough money in your budget to hire him.
• Need a charming rogue with a heart of gold and Cary Elwes turned you down? Matthew Modine is visually indistinguishable and is almost charismatic!
• Some fans of Breaking Bad refer to Jesse Plemons' character Todd as "Meth Damon".
• Todd Duncan starred as the poor man's Paul Robeson in the original productions of Porgy and Bess and Lost in the Stars, though his singing voice wasn't quite strong enough to do Porgy without cuts.
• In The '90s, if you can't afford Jet Li for your kung-fu flick, Vincent Zhao will do. Even moreso when Zhao was cast as The Other Darrin for Wong Fei-Hong in the Once Upon a Time in China sequels when Jet refuse to reprise his role as the character, and the fact that a sequel to High Risk was planned involving Jet Li, only to have Li back out and subsequently replaced by Zhao and the sequel getting retooled into a standalone film called The Blacksheep Affair.
• Want Jonathan Ross to host your show but he's a bit out of your price range? Get his brother Paul.
• If you want a scruffy Aussie type who can do both drama and comedy and Brendan Cowell is out of your reach, get Patrick Brammall. It helps that they're about the same age.
• John Boorman wanted Burt Reynolds, whom he'd just done Deliverance with, to star as Zed in his next film, Zardoz. After he declined, Sean Connery took the part with a paycut, so it isn't surprising that Connery ends up looking like Reynolds here. This came just a few years after Albert Broccoli had tried to cast Reynolds as James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, which would have made Reynolds the poor man's American Connery.
• In his early days, Chris Farley was seen as a Poor Man's John Belushi or John Candy.
• Want to make a movie with a British star, but can't afford Simon Pegg? Then Stuart Ashen is the next best choice, since he looks a lot like Pegg.
• If you can't afford Tom Hardy, Logan Marshall-Green is your man. Chances are most audiences won't even tell the difference.
• The Carry On... Series occasionally had to deal with absent castmembers in this manner:
  • In Carry On Cruising, Lance Percival and Dilys Laye filled in for Charles Hawtrey and Joan Sims.
  • In Carry On Up the Khyber, Roy Castle fills in for Jim Dale.
  • In Carry On Girls, it's really obvious that the Cecil Gaybody role was meant to be either Hawtrey or Kenneth Williams. Jimmy Logan winds up doing a pale imitation of both.
• Early in Jackie Chan's career, he was sold as the next Bruce Lee, to the extent that one of his early films was Fist of Fury II. This was not the direction he wanted his career to go in and it wasn't until Drunken Master that his unique blend of action and comedy came through.
• After being The Other Darrin to Roger Moore in The Saint, Ian Oglivy was frequently cast as Tuxedo and Martini secret agents, playing several such characters in Murder, She Wrote alone.
• Can't get Jonathan Groff? Don't worry, you can always grab Jeremy Jordan.
• If you have the Brit polish and Villainous Cheekbones of Richard E. Grant in mind but can't get him, Steve Valentine is an able stand-in.
• Jason David Frank was set to play Len/Wing Knight in Kamen Rider Dragon Knight. And then the producers decided to make the show succeed on its own merits rather than piggybacking on JDF's popularity from Power Rangers, making replacement Matt Mullins a poor man's Jason David Frank.
• Mojo Nixon said that his role as Toad in Super Mario Bros. (1993) came from being pitched as this by a casting director: "They said we gotta have Tom Waits for this role, but he wants too much money. Well I can get you a third-rate Tom Waits—for half-price!"
• Rod Taylor is essentially a poor man's Cary Grant.

Actresses

• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock has Robin Curtis as a poor woman's Kirstie Alley.
• Milla Jovovich too expensive or busy working on another of her husband's movies? Try Kristanna Loken. And if you can't get Kristanna, you might need to settle for Natassia Malthe.
• Rhona Mitra can be considered a poor man's Kate Beckinsale or Milla Jovovich. Especially since she starred in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans as a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for Beckinsale's character.
• If you can't afford Helen Hunt or Laura Dern, try to get Laura Linney, or Leelee Sobieski for a younger version. Sobieski's also the cheap Kirsten Dunst.
• Bryce Dallas Howard was the substitute Nicole Kidman in Lars von Trier's Manderlay, when Nicole refused to work with him again after Dogville.
• Can't afford Demi Moore? Try Mimi Rogers on for size.
  • Mimi Rogers, with eerie accuracy, played an actress playing Wendie Malick's character in an episode of Dream On.
• After her roles in Superbad, The Rocker, The House Bunny and Zombieland, Emma Stone seemed to have become an uncannily perfect substitute for Lindsay Lohan. For a few years, this was inverted when Lohan's career was hit with personal struggles caused by drug addiction, while Stone had a more successful career, but by the end of the 2010s Lohan had regained popularity thanks to the continuing popularity of Mean Girls and had staged a comeback of sorts with the hit Netflix film Falling For Christmas.
• There has been a fair amount of talk describing Katie McGrath of Merlin as a potential substitute for Keira Knightley, despite their notably different body shapes (one has famously modest cleavage while the other... doesn't) and the fact that Katie isn't even English (she's Irish). Apparently, having a strong jawline and being a pale, twenty-something brunette actress (and one who is naturally blonde at that) is enough similarity.
• Keira Knightley herself was the poor man's Natalie Portman in The Phantom Menace: she was cast as the decoy queen because of her resemblance to Portman, who was playing the actual queen. Portman's own parents mistook Knightley for their daughter. Though to be fair, she was in costume and wearing a ton of make-up.
  • Christina Ricci has often described herself as the poor man's Natalie Portman. In the 90s, she often took roles that Portman had already passed on.
• Originally, Scarlett Johansson was this for the Olsen twins. Now, it's probably the other way round. And if Johansson herself isn't available or too expensive, you can always choose fellow Ms. Fanservice actress Alexandra Daddario as a substitute.
• Moira Kelly took over the role of Donna Hayward from Lara Flynn Boyle in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.
• Rita Wilson seems to be a poor man's Kelly Preston.
• Mia Wasikowska looks uncannily like a young Gwyneth Paltrow, should one be called for.
• Megan Fox started out as this for Angelina Jolie. And if you can't get Megan Fox, Odette Annable is probably available, while Dina Meyer makes a great poor man's Angelina Jolie.
• Can't get Julia Stiles for your sequel? Just call Kam Heskin or Isabella Miko.
  • Erika Christensen is frequently referred to as a poor man's Julia Stiles.
• Need an older Miley Cyrus? Call Alexis Dzienza or Lyndsy Fonseca.
• Meet Mónica Cruz, the 3 years younger and nearly indistinguishable sister to Penélope Cruz. The hilarious part is that she wasn't an actress originally but a dancer and choreographer, and she began acting just because of how many people who couldn't cast Penélope kept offering roles to her.
• Tina Fey did this to herself by casting Julia Louis-Dreyfus to play her in flashbacks during 30 Rock's live episode. It's a toss up who's the poor man in this one.
  Liz Lemon: My memory has Seinfeld money.
• Maggie Lawson and Alicia Silverstone look almost identical. In addition, Rachel Blanchard, who Darrin'd Silverstone in the Clueless TV series, was considered a poor man's Alicia Silverstone during that time period.
• Alicia Silverstone, Drew Barrymore, and Reese Witherspoon have all said that they sometimes get mistaken for each other.
• There was a point in The '90s where Alyssa Milano seemed like she was Drew Barrymore's substitute. Milano starred in Poison Ivy 2: Lily, following Barrymore in the first movie (though as a different character), and both women played Amy Fisher in a Made-for-TV Movie.
• Blonde B-movie actresses Kristy Swanson and Erika Eleniak are about the same age (Eleniak is a few months older) and look enough like each other to be confused often - so much so that Swanson was once credited as a Baywatch cast member (Eleniak's show) despite never having appeared on it. Eleniak is (arguably) the more famous of the two due to Baywatch and her Playboy appearances.
• Aussie actress Marta Dusseldorp, who among other minor roles played Officer Yal Henta (an old friend of Aeryn Sun's from her Peacekeeper days) in parts I and II of the Farscape episode "Into the Lion's Den", bears an uncanny resemblance to Bridget Fonda.
• Saskia Reeves looks and sounds remarkably like Emma Thompson, having been born in the same area of London.
• Either will probably cost you, but Ginnifer Goodwin and Jennifer Morrison are apparently so interchangeable they've actually done interviews as each other (without discussion between them about it), since people mix them up so frequently.
  • If you need a child version of either (especially Goodwin), you need Bailee Madison.
• You want a Michelle Pfeiffer-type, but a decade younger and more affordable? Then call Amanda Detmer. How about three decades younger? Amanda Seyfried.
• You're casting the female lead for a romantic comedy. If she already has a boyfriend, you hire Cameron Diaz. If she doesn't (but has a romantic rival), you hire Jennifer Aniston.
• Glenn Close once quipped that she's often mistaken for Meryl Streep, but never on Oscar night. Similarly, Sigourney Weaver once quipped that she gets the roles that Streep's not doing.
• After Grace Kelly stopped making movies, Alfred Hitchcock cast several substitutes in his films - Kim Novak in Vertigo, Eva Marie Saint in North By Northwest and Tippi Hedren in The Birds and Marnie. In the case of Novak, her big break was when Columbia Pictures signed her specifically with the intention of turning her into their version of Marilyn Monroe. In fact, she was born Marilyn Novak and changed her name to Kim after Monroe became famous. After Monroe died, Novak took one part originally written for Monroe (Kiss Me, Stupid), and turned down an offer to replace Monroe in the unfinished Something's Got to Give.
• If you want Amy Schumer and can't get her, go for Nikki Glaser. And if you can't get Glaser, try Iliza Shlesinger. Schumer herself has acknowledged in the Academy Awards that "I’m Amy Schumer—or as they know me in Hollywood, ‘Melissa McCarthy said no’".
• Can't afford Amy Adams? Get Isla Fisher. This similarity inspired a Casting Gag in Nocturnal Animals. Another available substitute for Adams is JoAnna Garcia Swisher, who says she's constantly mistaken for Adams in Real Life. And for Adams herself, back in her career's early days she was considered so similar to Jenna Fischer that she got cast on The Office (US) as a Romantic False Lead for Jim, who even gets called "new-and-improved Pam" by Michael Scott.
• Now that Margot Robbie is an A-lister thanks to her Star Making Roles in The Wolf of Wall Street and Suicide Squad (2016), she'll probably never do any low-budget horror movies. In which case, her fellow blonde-haired, blue-eyed Australian Samara Weaving is your girl, having carved out a niche as a scream queen version of Robbie. Weaving is aware of the comparisons, and perhaps not coincidentally, she and Robbie are friends. There's even a Casting Gag in Babylon (2022) where Weaving plays an actress who starts losing roles to Robbie.
• Eiza González is considered by some to be a poor man's Ana de Armas.
• Lifetime's original movies use a rotating set of actresses, many of whom fit this category.
  • Brytnee Ratledge could easily pass for Anna Kendrick's younger sister. She even has many of the same mannerisms.
  • Anna Marie Dobbins, as the plucky Girl Next Door with dirty blonde hair, is Lifetime's Jennifer Aniston.
  • Crystal Allen is an interesting zig-zagged variation, with most of her performances evoking a Played for Drama Amy Poehler.
  • And a whole bunch of other Lifetime regulars count, like Chelsea Gilson (Kate Hudson), Alyshia Ochse (Olivia Wilde), Jhey Castles (Mariska Hargitay) and Monroe Cline (Michelle Trachtenberg).
  • There's also a weird inverse trope you might call Rich Man's Substitute involving Lifetime. Occasionally they'll make a quickie Ripped from the Headlines movie about a True Crime case, starring a fairly well-known actress, then later there will be a bigger-budgeted limited series about the case on another platform, with a similar—but more A-list— actress taking over the lead role, like Patricia Arquette (Escape at Dannemora) replacing Penelope Ann Miller (New York Prison Break: The Seduction of Joyce Mitchell), or Elle Fanning (The Girl From Plainville) replacing Bella Thorne (Conrad & Michelle: If Words Could Kill).
• Rosa Salazar is available if you're unable to get Aubrey Plaza.
• Several studios tried to created their own Marilyn Monroe. 20th Century Fox (Monroe's studio) had Jayne Mansfield and Sheree North, Universal Pictures had Mamie Van Doren, Columbia Pictures had Kim Novak and The Rank Organisation had Diana Dors.

Complex

• In the TV version of Harry and the Hendersons, Bruce Davison and Molly Cheek were substitutes for John Lithgow and Melinda Dillon.
• Stan Helsing is notable only for having at least three Poor Man's Substitute - Diora Baird and Steve Howey are uncanny substitutes for Rachel Bilson and Ashton Kutcher and while Desi Lydic doesn't especially physically resemble Christina Applegate (other than being blonde and pretty in a kooky sort of way) her voice is absolutely identical.

Directors

• A lot of directors have been seen as the poor man's Steven Spielberg:
  • Ron Howard (Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, The Da Vinci Code)
  • Robert Zemeckis (Romancing the Stone, Back to the Future, Forrest Gump, Contact and Cast Away), which is not surprising since Spielberg helped produce many of Zemeckis's 1970s and '80s films
  • Joe Johnston (Jumanji, October Sky, Jurassic Park III, Captain America: The First Avenger)
  • Film critic Drew McWeeny argued on the '80s All Over podcast that a more literal example of this trope was Larry Cohen, who could effectively bring Spielberg-style premises to life on pinchpenny B-Movie budgets (as in It's Alive, Q: The Winged Serpent, and The Stuff).
• For the horror film industry, filmmaker and writer Clive Barker can be considered their poor man's Ken Russell. For the film adaptation of one of Barker's stories, Candyman, director Bernard Rose was the poor man's Stanley Kubrick in terms of their surreal directorial styles.
• Abel Ferrara used to be called "the poor man's Martin Scorsese" for his New York background and the gritty subject matter of his films. He's even directed a gangster flick King of New York and his most famous film Bad Lieutenant, starred Harvey Keitel, who also appeared in Scorsese's Taxi Driver.
• Henry Hathaway seems to have the been the official second-string John Ford, directing John Wayne in six of his non-Ford films (including North to Alaska, The Sons of Katie Elder and True Grit). Hathaway even co-directed How the West Was Won with Ford and George Marshall. But, Hathaway could also be a good substitute for Alfred Hitchcock, with films like Call Northside 777, Kiss of Death and especially Niagara, which features Marilyn Monroe doing her take on the "Hitchcock blonde" before he even really estabished the archetype, and a death scene in a bell tower several years before Vertigo.
• In The Nostalgia Critic's First Viewing of The Mummy (1999), Rob Walker felt that Stephen Sommers' direction was like "Sam Raimi's hand-me-downs".

Voice Acting

• Famous voices in the Disney Animated Canon are usually replaced with Poor Man's Substitutes most of the times in Direct to Video and TV Series sequels.
  • Dan Castellaneta replaced Robin Williams as the voice of Genie from Aladdin after Williams cut ties with Disney for using his voice in advertising. They eventually reconciled with Williams returning for Aladdin and the King of Thieves.
  • The Lion King (1994): While all the cast of the original movie reprised their roles in the sequels (except Rowan Atkinson as Zazu, so Edward Hibbert filled in the role), only Pumbaa and Rafiki retain the same voice actor in Timon & Pumbaa and Kingdom Hearts II. (Mufasa had a different voice in House of Mouse, and was "voiced" by archive recordings for Kingdom Hearts II). Simba had the same voice in both movies (save for his singing voice, which was different in both— Joseph Williams vs. Cam Clarke), as did Nala. (For all of the two lines she appeared in it.) Cam Clarke also did Simba's speaking voice in Timon and Pumbaa House of Mouse and Kingdom Hearts II.
  • Timon's voice casting in Kingdom Hearts II is kinda funny - he's played by Bruce Lanoil, but they already had another of Lane's substitutes in the cast: Quinton Flynn, who was already playing a supporting role. Note that both of them have played Final Fantasy characters... and even in the same game (X) to boot.
  • Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World replaces Mel Gibson with his brother Donald.
  • In games and merchandising for Disney/Pixar's Toy Story, Woody is not voiced by Tom Hanks but his brother Jim (who has carved a niche in Hollywood as the go to guy for those who can't afford his brother). Likewise, voice actor Mike MacRae does a spot-on Tim Allen impression, and has been voicing Buzz Lightyear in all Toy Story spinoffs (Kingdom Hearts, Disney Infinity, etc) since 2010.
  • Mulan II has Mark Moseley replacing Eddie Murphy as Mushu.
  • The Emperor's New School had to substitute David Spade and John Goodman (although, in the latter's case, just for one season).
  • James Arnold Taylor replaced Michael J. Fox as Milo Thatch for Atlantis: Milo's Return (the sequel to Atlantis: The Lost Empire; Cree Summer was involved in both the movie and its video sequel).
    • Even people who don't like Telltale Games' Back to the Future: The Game series are blown away by AJ Locascio's Michael J. Fox impression.
  • On Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, Patrick Warburton was Poor Man's Substitute for Tim Allen as the voice of Buzz Lightyear (although Allen did reprise the role in Buzz Lightyear: The Adventure Begins; Warburton revoiced Buzz when the movie was shown as episodes of the series).
  • Actually, this happens quite a bit in Kingdom Hearts, probably due to the nature of the whole thing - Tate Donovan apparently turned down the role of Hercules for the first game, so Disney hired Sean Astin. However, once it took off, Donovan reprised the role for II. Susanne Blakeslee fills in for the late Eleanor Audley as Maleficent and Lady Tremaine. Nowadays, they still have four major Darrins, the voice actresses for Kairi and Naminé, presumably because Hayden Panettiere was doing Heroes and Brittany Snow was off doing... something^note  Panettiere herself was, in turn, The Other Darrin to Alyson Stoner when she replaced her as the voice of Xion; Stoner had previously been The Other Darrin to Panettiere as Kairi and is now the current voice actor for Kairi and Xion. Got that?, Corey Burton who filled in for Christopher Lee as DiZ/Ansem the Wise in a couple of the spinoff games before taking over the character fulltime after Lee's death, and the voice actor for Ansem, Seeker of Darkness(Richard Epcar replacing Billy Zane). Also, all of the voices of the Hollow Bastion Restoration committee (plus Sephiroth) were replaced for II (resulting in Mandy Moore, Aerith, being replaced and resulting in a hugely amusing voicing situation for Yuffie). And the game RE: Chain of Memories offers Darrins for the entire Castle Oblivion party because all their voice clips in the original game were of Japanese actors simply with any sentences or spoken phrases removed. There are, however, quite a few surprising aversions for this trope, regardless; the original game had Kathryn Beaumont, the original voice actress of Alice and Wendy.
  • Corey Burton is basically the Patron Saint of this trope for Kingdom Hearts having filled in for Hans Conreid as Captain Hook, Bill Thompson as the White Rabbit and Mr. Smee, Paddi Edwards as Floatsam and Jetsam, Joseph Kearns as the Doorknob, Miguel Ferrer as Shan Yu, David Warner as Sark and the MCP, Robin Williams as the Peddler, Edward Ivory as Santa Claus, Christopher Lee as DiZ/Ansem the Wise, Tony Jay as Claude Frollo, Rip Torn as Zeus, and Michael Rye as Yen Sid!... Whew.
  • Keith Ferguson replaced Owen Wilson as the voice of Lightning McQueen in the Cars Toons series of shorts (Larry the Cable Guy still reprises his role as Mater, however).
  • Carlos Alazraqui can pull off a scarily accurate Billy Crystal impression, making him the go-to Mike Wazowski substitute for every Monsters, Inc. spin-off.
• Crispin Freeman has voiced Will Turner (Orlando Bloom's character from Pirates of the Caribbean) so often that even he has lost track of when the character is voiced by him and when the character is actually voiced by Orlando Bloom in anything other than the movies themselves.
• Danny Jacobs sounds a lot like Sacha Baron Cohen. See Epic Movie and any Madagascar-related media where King Julien appears.
• Mike Myers voices Shrek in the movies as well as the occasional short, but Michael J. Gough has taken over for all non-movie appearances and has voiced the character far more as a result.
• Corey Burton perfected a spot-on David Warner impression for the character Shockwave on The Transformers. Some 22 years later, he actually got to substitute for Warner in Kingdom Hearts II. Interestingly enough, he played Sark, whose voice was the primary influence behind Shockwave's.
  • He's also a decent substitute Christopher Lee, having played Count Dooku in both Clone Wars series and DiZ/Ansem the Wise in Kingdom Hearts following Lee's death.
  • He's also an excellent stand-in for Hans Conreid, having taken over as Captain Hook's offical voice actor in all Disney's Peter Pan media.
• James Arnold Taylor has played the prequel incarnation of Obi-Wan Kenobi (originally played by Ewan McGregor) on three separate occasions; he's actually not too shabby at it.
  • In Star Wars: The Clone Wars, he's been allowed more free reign with his Obi-Wan. He put pieces of Sir Alec Guinness into his performance, making the character his own and breaking free from being another poor man's substitute. (The irony being that Ewan's performance is supposed to be an impression of Sir Alec Guinness in the first place.)
  • Tom Kane often stands in for Frank Oz as Yoda.
  • Terrence "TC" Carson usually takes over for Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu.
  • Sam Witwer as a VA stand-in for Ian McDiarmid as Palpatine.
    • Until his death, Ian Abercrombie did the same in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and related media.
  • Matt Sloan (the voice of Chad Vader) is the go-to VA stand in for James Earl Jones as Darth Vader
• Since Tomb Raider fans obviously have no way of getting Keeley Hawes to voice Lara in their fanmade works, they use Tomb Raider Forums mod Greenkey 2 (Jenni Milward) who sounds very similar to both Keeley and a previous voice actress, Judith Gibbins.
• John Rhys-Davies' voice bears a remarkable similarity to Sean Connery, to say nothing of his uncanny performance in Aladdin and the King of Thieves.
  • Unable to get either Connery or Rhys-Davies for a voice role? Leave it to Bob Joles.
• In a World… where Don LaFontaine is no longer with us, Hal Douglas gave us 6 more years for dramatic movie trailer voiceovers.
  • As well as Peter Cullen. He did great with Toonami for years.
  • In a land where there is much tea and crumpets and a constitutional monarchy, there is Redd Pepper.
  • In Japanese trailers, Fumihiko Tachiki does the same job as well, or Hiroki Yasumoto.
  • Ditto with Sebastian Llapur in Mexico.
  • In Brazil, there was Jorgeh Ramos. Luiz Feier Motta has picked up most of his gigs after Ramos died
  • Pablo Francisco; he also does good imitations of Keanu Reeves, Jackie Chan and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
  • Jon Bailey showcases in Honest Trailers how good he is to narrate previews. His Peter Cullen impression even landed him gigs in actual Transformers works.
• On a similar note, Cree Summer can do a good impression of the late Eartha Kitt, as she once replaced Kitt as the voice of Vexus in a few episodes of My Life as a Teenage Robot and also voiced Catwoman in Lauren Faust's DC Super Hero Girls with an Eartha Kitt impression.
• Averted when Nathan Lane voiced Timon on the Timon & Pumbaa animated series, but played straight when he was replaced by Kevin Schon after the first season. Schon also replaced Lane in Disney's Teacher's Pet in a few episodes, sometimes with both voices appearing in the same episode.
• When Chuck Jones wanted to make a sequel to "One Froggy Evening", in honor of Michigan J. Frog becoming the mascot of The WB, they ran into a major problem—nobody seemed to be able to pinpoint who had played him. When they finally figured it out, they found the voice was that of Bill Roberts, who had been dead for years. For the new short and WB bumpers, the Frog was voiced by Jeff McCarthy until the character was retired in 2005.
• Too cheap to get Peter Cullen to voice Optimus Prime? Use the non-union Jake Foushee as seen in Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy and Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy. Notably Cullen was not happy about the later, feeling both disapointed that he was never contacted to reprise the role and stating the use of non-union VA's for the series set a bad precedent that undermined the credibility of the actors union.
• James Arnold Taylor is your man to go if you want a Johnny Depp stand-in voice on the cheap, as evidenced by the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Licensed Game and Kingdom Hearts II.
• Robert Cait can pass as Norm Macdonald, at least in voice acting. (See: The Fairly OddParents! in Fairy Idol)
  • So can Adam Carolla.
  • While we're on the subject of The Fairly OddParents!, Tara Strong can pass as Julia Louis-Dreyfus in voice acting too (see Big Wanda and Fairy Idol).
• Want someone to imitate animal noises, but can't get Frank Welker? Then Dee Bradley Baker has got you covered.
• Jeremy Irons damage his vocal chords while screaming "You won't get a sniff without me!"? Christopher Lloyd just can't sing? Just need someone to say something while sounding somewhat like someone else? Call Jim Cummings!
  • Jim Cummings is the embodiment of this trope. He's replaced Louis Prima as Louie from the Jungle Book, Mel Blanc as the Tasmanian Devil, and Sterling Holloway and Paul Winchell as Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, respectively.
• Billy West can do a very good imitation of the late Phil Hartman. Case in point, Zapp Brannigan in Futurama, whose part was written with Hartman in mind before he passed away.
  • Or, if you can't get Billy West, there's always Daran Norris.
• Eric Loomis voice subs for Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man for the tie-in game to the second film and The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. It's actually pretty damn close and since those, he's reprised the role in Marvel vs. Capcom 3. It also happens to be his natural speaking voice.
• If you can't get Rie Kugimiya, you'd do well to track down Kyouka (Reo Kawamura's seiyuu from Sonohana).
• According to an interview, Kiefer Sutherland started his career by calling places and claiming he could do "Donald Sutherland voiceovers"...for half price. Donald just happens to be his father.
• If Jackie Chan is not available, there is always James Sie. James Sie is Jackie Chan in Jackie Chan Adventures cartoon segments while the real Jackie Chan is in the live action segments. Sie also voices Master Monkey in Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness and the video game adaptation of the original movie.
• Other people that haven't subbed for each other but could - Genevieve Padalecki and Eve Harlow
• Micah Solusod is often considered to be Funimation's equivalent to Johnny Yong Bosch. This was mainly because his role as the titular character of Soul Eater was misattributed to Johnny. To hammer this comparison out, Micah's recent role as Liszt in Ōkami-san sounds exactly like Johnny's role as Itsuki. And made funnier when it's been announced that he will be replacing Johnny in the role of Kazuki Makabe in the Fafner film adaptation and Claus Valca in the Last Exile sequel.
• Want James Arnold Taylor to voice a badass character? Too bad, union issues. But you can hire Vic Mignogna instead! This is lampshaded in the comments of a Disgaea 3 gameplay.
• Many have mistaken the voice acting of Travis Willingham with Patrick Seitz and vice versa. This is mainly due to their similarly deep voices.
• Jessica Boone and Melissa Davis also get mistaken for each other, whenever either of them use a teenage-like voice, they sound creepingly the same.
  • Add Emily Neves to that group, as well.
• Jeff Bridges or Alec Baldwin unavailable for voice work? Just call Fred Tatasciore.
• When Scooby-Doo made its Channel Hop from CBS to ABC, Nicole Jaffe was replaced as the voice of Velma with Pat Stevens. She did serviceable work, but she left in the middle of the 1979 season and was replaced with Marla Frumkin, whose voice reading was flat and disjointed.
  • Scooby himself had his voice filled by Hadley Kay and Scott Innes following the death of original voice Don Messick until Frank Welker (Fred) became his new permanent voice.
• Craig McCracken originally wanted Jack Black as the voice of the evil gnome in The Powerpuff Girls (1998) episode "See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey". Black was too busy and too expensive, so Jess Harnell assumed the voice, doing an eerily good impression.
  • Mick Wingert also does a frighteningly good Jack Black impression playing Po, Jack Black's character from Kung Fu Panda in the Nickelodeon show Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness. To the point he replaced Black again as Slappy in Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween.
• Due to high demand with popular AAA video game roles and motion capture work since The Last of Us in addition to wanting to become a musician, Troy Baker is unable to lend his voice in anime and JRPG titles anymore. Fortunately he’s got a perfect double in Matthew Mercer. Even AAA game developers call him up if Troy isn’t available or is too expensive for their budget.
• If anyone ever wants an animated Frasier, Maurice LaMarche could easily pass for Kelsey Grammer and he already is the world champion Orson Welles.
• Here's one convoluted example: Lorenzo Music substituted for Bill Murray in The Real Ghostbusters. Bill Murray returned the favor (a few years after Music's death) in the big screen adaptation of Garfield. And when Executive Meddling settled in for The Real Ghostbusters, Lorenzo Music walked out and Dave Coulier was brought in as a replacement.
• Pokémon is notorious for pulling this on the entire main cast of the dub from the Pokémon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon special onwards when the Pokémon Company took over from 4Kids and replaced most of the longstanding cast with soundalike VA's to cut costs. While the replacements did improve over time (generally agreed to be around the second season of Diamond & Pearl), some older fans are still understandably bitter about this and the shabby way the original cast was treated.
• Can't get Mark Hamill or Crispin Freeman to voice a villain for you? Hire Liam O'Brien, Keith Silverstein, Doug Erholtz, or J. Michael Tatum instead.
• Can't get a Kari Wahlgren to voice a Lady of War, Femme Fatale, mature/stern woman, Ms. Fanservice or a spunky girl? Hire Lauren Landa or Luci Christian.
• Can't get Akira Ishida to voice a Nice Guy Bishōnen? Hire Hiro Shimono instead.
• Can't get Yuri Lowenthal to voice a Kid Hero in an anime? No problem! Either Bryce Papenbrook, Johnny Yong Bosch, Steve Staley or Todd Haberkorn (among many others) will do the job.
• If an anime is being dubbed in Houston and you want someone to voice a loli and Hilary Haag is somewhat not available, get Luci Christian to do it.
  • And for the record with Bang Zoom! Entertainment, relative newcomer Christine Marie Cabanos is filling the void as well for Stephanie Sheh.
• If you can't get Clancy Brown to voice a villain, then John DiMaggio or Lex Lang will do just as nicely.
• If you're in Montreal (or, occasionally, Ottawa) and want an actress to voice kids of both genders and female adults alike, and you can't get Grey DeLisle? No problem! Hire Sonja Ball to do the job.
• Recording your cartoon's voices in Canada and you can't get Tara Strong to voice a kid or cute character? Hire Holly Gauthier-Frankel or Chiara Zanni instead!
• Worried that Andrew Rannells being dedicated to theater now has left an anime character voiceless? No problem! Hire Daniel J. Edwards to fill in for him!
• Can't afford the "angry nasally man" voice of Gilbert Gottfried due to his death? Don't worry, there's always Dan McKeague!
• The Simpsons had an amusing case where they actually got Michael Jackson to play as a fat white guy who was in a mental hospital who thought he was Michael Jackson. However, his contract stipulated he would only speak (credited as John Jay Smith), and his singing voice would be performed by a soundalike (apparently because Jackson wanted to play a joke on his brothers, fooling them into thinking the impersonator was him), and thus singer Kipp Lennon served as a poor man's MJ.

Music

• The Ur-Example could be the many imitators of Rudy Vallée that recorded for the many dime-store labels of the early 1930s. Standouts were Smith Ballew and Ozzie Nelson, who had bigger success in ensuing years as actors. Nelson even looked a bit like Vallée and made a big deal out of being a Rutgers alum the same way Vallée played up his connections to Yale.
• The band Journey hired Filipino singer Arnel Pineda as a replacement for former lead Steve Perry. Obviously, being Filipino, Pineda looks nothing like Perry— but his voice is incredibly similar.
• It can be hard to tell Tim McGraw and Rodney Atkins apart.
• Phil Collins, already the drummer for the band Genesis, became the lead singer after Peter Gabriel left, and was described as being a better Gabriel sound-alike than Gabriel himself (though without the eccentric theatrical flair). So, possibly an inversion.
• Also applies to the soundtracks of movies too. Can't get Elton John? Get Barry Manilow instead.
• Long before his death, Jerry Goldsmith was often the poor man's substitute to John Williams. If you can't get the more expensive John Williams (who is often picky about the films he wanted to score) you could get the equally awesome and extremely prolific Jerry Goldsmith to score your films. In fact, it used to be said that Williams is a white-collar composer, whereas Goldsmith was a blue-collar composer, because he was willing to score any kind of films, regardless of content.
  • According to the first Family Guy Star Wars parody, Danny Elfman is now the poor man's John Williams.
  • Despite being in the music scoring business since the early 1990s, Joel McNeely has now become the poor man's Michael Giacchino (who is ironically considered to be McNeely's Spiritual Successor) due to them being constantly compared to John Williams and having worked with Disney more than once despite also composing for other studios' works in their resumes.
    • That being said, during Giacchino's early years in the late 90s it was the reversal, with him being the poor man's Joel McNeely for the video game industry such as Medal of Honor and small film and television projects such the Scarlett Johansson kids comedy My Brother the Pig or the telefilm sequel to Phenomenon.
  • Monster House, Trick 'r Treat and Krampus composer Douglas Pipes can be considered the poor man's Michael Giacchino too. For his brassy instrumentations, Pipes is also considered to be the poor man's Alan Silvestri.
  • Music editor-composer Kenneth Wannberg was also seen the poor man's John Williams that precedes McNeely and Giacchino for this title to the point he's been complimented as "John Williams' composer" then just his editor for works like A New Hope.
  • Like his Spiritual Successor Giacchino and when John Williams becomes an untouchable fledging household name in the movie industry, Stu Phillips can count as the poor man's John Williams for TV land and Glen A. Larson.
  • Before actually working with John Williams as his Associated Composer, Billy Goldenberg was Steven Spielberg's poor man's John Williams as his initial Associated Composer for his early television projects while working for Universal.
  • For Studio Ghibli, the studio founder Hayao Miyazaki and the anime and Japanese film industry, Joe Hisaishi is their poor man's John Williams.
  • For American International Pictures and B-movies, Les Baxter can be considered their poor man's Lalo Schifrin.
  • Full Moon Features composer Richard Band can himself be considered the poor man's Danny Elfman and Pino Donaggio.
  • For Sam Raimi, Joseph LoDuca was Raimi's poor man's Danny Elfman before Raimi would later actually work with Elfman starting with Darkman. For Mick Garris, Nicholas Pike was Garris' poor man's Danny Elfman.
  • One of Danny Elfman's Production Posse conductors the late great Shirley Walker had qualified as the poor man's Elfman herself.
  • Friday the 13th composer Harry Manfredini can be considered the poor man's Bob Cobert of Dark Shadows, Burnt Offerings, Kolchak: The Night Stalker and Trilogy of Terror due to their similar scoring styles in general.
  • For genre and television projects during The '80s and despite being active since The '70s, Craig Safan acts as the poor man's Michael Kamen due to their comparable musical styles.
  • If Goldsmith was the poor man's Williams, then James Horner was the poor man's Jerry Goldsmith as well as also the poor man's John Williams.
  • Morton Stevens was also the poor man's Jerry Goldsmith (who was Stevens' mentor).
  • Bruce Broughton himself is considered to be the poor man's Basil Poledouris and Bill Conti and can also act as either the poor man's Jerry Goldsmith (whom he's real-life friends with) or the poor man's Michael Kamen.
  • Arthur B. Rubinstein can himself qualify as the poor man's Bruce Broughton.
  • For comedies and other film and television work, Robert Folk can count as the poor man's Bruce Broughton and Michael Kamen during the mid-to-late The '80s up to The '90s up to the dawn of the Turn of the Millennium. One of Kamen's proteges and Brian Tyler's former conductor and orchestrator Christopher Lennertz can be now considered to be the poor man's Robert Folk for recent comedy projects.
  • Don Davis in general during The '90s and the Turn of the Millennium can be considered the poor man's Bruce Broughton and Michael Kamen.
  • Nowadays, McNeely, Giacchino and Alan Silvestri are the poor man's John Williams.
    • Silvestri can also be seen as the poor man's James Horner and Jerry Goldsmith.
  • For music within the video game industry, Wilbert Roget, II is their poor man's John Williams, Michael Giacchino, James Horner, Alan Silvestri and to a lesser extent Jerry Goldsmith. Inon Zur also fits, though he's seen as both a poor man's John Williams and Mark Snow.
  • Also amongst video games, Garry Schyman of BioShock is the industry's poor man's Elliot Goldenthal, while Dead Space's Jason Graves was their poor man's John Ottman and Brian Tyler.
  • The same applies for orchestras. Can't get the London Symphony Orchestra or London Philharmonic Orchestra to record your film's score? Hire one of the big Prague orchestras, like the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra or the Czech Philharmonic.
• During the 1980s, Paddy Kingsland, Giorgio Moroder, Jan Hammer, Jean-Michel Jarre, Harold Faltermeyer or Vince DiCola filled in nicely when Tangerine Dream or Vangelis wasn't available.
• Worried that we'll never get another voice like Michael Jackson ever again? Don't worry, Bruno Mars (himself a giant MJ fan) comes to the rescue!
  • An R&B singer named Jason Malachi also comes to mind. Malachi's voice is so similar to Jackson's that some of his songs are often misattributed to Jackson and vice-versa^note Due to the heavily processed-voice, several of the tracks on Jackson's first posthumous album Michael are believed by many fans, and even his relatives to have been recorded by an imposter and Malachi's name is often mentioned as said imposter. It is unknown if the vocals were actually Michael's or not..
  • The Weeknd has also been compared to Michael Jackson, in particular his song "I Feel It Coming".
  • During Michael's peak, within the R&B community El DeBarge was often compared to Jackson.
• Canadian R&B singer Deborah Cox has become this for Whitney Houston. Due to rights issues, she re-recorded Houston's vocals for the songs used in the 2015 Made-for-TV Movie about her, and she even plays Houston's part in the Screen-to-Stage Adaptation of The Bodyguard.
• Regina Richards of "Baby Love" fame was a poor man's Madonna in the mid-1980s.
• Hoyt Curtin was in high demand throughout the 1950s and 1960s as a poor man's Nelson Riddle. It's just a matter of listening to the theme songs he composed for Hanna-Barbera's prime-time cartoons.
• The opera world has a tendency of this. Can't get Sir John Tomlinson? Go and hire Peter Rose. Then again, years ago, a young Tomlinson was this when James Morris refused to sing Wotan in the futuristic Kupfer Ring.
• Mike Piccirillo was frequently used by DiC in the 90s and 2000s as a poor man's Haim Saban and Shuki Levy after the duo's firm Saban Productions parted ways with DiC to produce their own shows.
  • Noam Kaniel (himself a collaborator of Haim and Shuki) also was frequently used in the 90s as a poor man's Haim Saban and Shuki Levy, even by Saban themselves.
• Worried that we'll never get a voice like Freddie Mercury's ever again? Don't worry, call Marc Martel!
• Orbital wanted a "Missy Elliot-type" rapper to do vocals for their song "Wonky". Ultimately they went with female UK rapper Lady Leshurr.
• Charlotte Gainsbourg was able to draw on a pool of big name collaborators for her comeback album 5:55, like Jarvis Cocker, Neil Hannon, Air, and frequent Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich. For most of those names, she was the nearest they were going to be able to get to working with her (deceased) father.
• Santana recorded "Why Don't You and I" with its writer, Chad Kroeger. When Nickelback's label vetoed using the singer in a single, Kroeger himself recommended Alex Band as a replacement - and while The Calling was deemed a poor man's substitute to other Yarling-heavy groups, Band's throaty voice certainly makes him a fitting substitute.
• Ral Donner sustained a modest career based on the fact that he sounded almost exactly like Elvis Presley. No less than Robert Plant has cited Donner as an influence. Donner even did first-person narration in the voice of Elvis for the documentary This is Elvis in 1981. Related to this was a few cases of singers having hits with a Cover Version of Elvis album tracks that he didn't release as a single himself, in which they tried to copy his vocal style ("Wooden Heart" by Joe Dowell, "Suspicion" by Terry Stafford).
• After the success of A Hard Day's Night and Help!, TV producers wanted to create a sitcom based on The Beatles. Of course, the band was far too busy touring, and later recording full-time, to commit to a weekly show. Out of this idea came The Monkees, a foursome who looked quite a bit like the Beatles, from the appearances to the songs. The group, dismissively referred to as the "pre-fab(ricated) Four" in an era where the real Beatles were leading a musical revolution, had an uphill battle to be recognized as a legitimate band, not helped by the fact that they didn't play their own instruments or write their own songs early in their career.

Others

• According to Bryan Danielson, Michael Cole is a poor man's Jim Ross.
• Doing a dinosaur documentary and the Tyrannosaurus rex hasn't evolved yet? Well, Allosaurus is nearly as big! The poor thing's name even means 'other lizard.'
• The Atari ST got this reputation in the U.S. as one to the Apple Macintosh as it was also a Motorola 68000-based computer with a graphical interface similar to the Mac while retailing for significantly cheaper. It was even nicknamed the "Jackintosh", after former Commodore head Jack Tramiel, who bought Atari after The Great Video Game Crash of 1983. The ST had a couple of technical edges over the original Mac: it had color two years before the release of the Macintosh II in 1987, and the built-in MIDI interface made it popular with musicians. The Atari ST also had the reputation of being the poor man's Commodore Amiga, also considered a poor man's Mac, due to their similarities.
• Latin Spanish dubbing has this for countries/cities - Miami started out as the Poor Man's Los Angeles for producers who wanted their Latin Spanish dubs recorded "close to home" but didn't want to deal with unions and such, Argentina has become the Poor Man's Venezuela for obvious reasons, Chile is the Poor Man's Argentina (DINT Doblajes Internacionales, for a period, was Disney's go-to Poor Man's Media Pro Com), Cuernavaca (or, formerly, Monterrey for Disney) is the Poor Man's Mexico City, and Colombia, Peru, and El Salvador are Poor Man's Substitutes for the other "big" dubbing countries.
• For Brazilian Portuguese dubbing, the go-to city for something cheaper than the studios of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo seems to be Campinas, which is in the latter's state (96 km/60 mi away, and the biggest city in the SP state outside the capital's metropolitan region) - tellingly the more cheaper São Paulo dub studios either trained Campinas dubbers or employ them extensively. Other cities in the country itself with a dubbing studio or two are Curitiba, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre and Brasília, and then there's Miami (and in a few cases, Los Angeles and Buenos Aires), where the dubbers don't even need to be voice actors, as people who can speak Portuguese are accepted.
• Developing a racing game and Porsche won't license their models to you? Don't worry, Ruf Automobile is awaiting your call! Ruf models often filled in for their Porsche counterparts in games like the Gran Turismo series and Driver: San Francisco during the period in which Porsche had an exclusive licensing deal with Electronic Arts.

---

In-Universe

• There's a moment in the Skins series 4 finale where - prompted by a drunk Naomi - Cook realises that his latest random squeeze (Arcia) is a Poor Man's Substitute for Effy. He ditches her as soon as he twigs what he's doing.
• Played for laughs in Friends when Rachel breaks up with nerdy paleontologist Ross (played by David Schwimmer) and hooks up with nerdy periodontist Russ (played by David Schwimmer).
  Monica: See? They're as different as night and...later that night.
• Rare fictional example - in the Marvel Universe, USAgent is treated by everyone as a poor man's substitute for Captain America. This was lampshaded in an issue of Mighty Avengers, by Loki of all people. Disguised as the Scarlet Witch (long story), he attempts to recruit Captain America for his new Avengers team and on discovering that Cap is dead goes to USAgent and effectively says "You'll have to do".
• Similarly, in the Justice League Unlimited episode "The Greatest Story Never Told", Booster Gold spends the beginning of the episode teamed with the Elongated Man, who complains about being the League's poor man's Plastic Man. He is indeed used for that purpose by the end of the episode.
• Armored Core 2 gives us Eight Ball/Hustler Two, poor man's substitute and claimed descendant of the series' Nine Ball/Hustler One. He's very low ranked and pilots a vastly inferior mech. Nine Ball was also an AI.
• According to the The Nostalgia Critic, Jean-Claude Van Damme is this to Chuck Norris.
  Nostalgia Critic: So what's the main problem with this piece of shit movie? Four syllables: Jean-Claude Van Damme. Van Damme is like the poor man's Chuck Norris. The guy you get if you think Steven Seagal is too classy for your movie.
• The Simpsons:
  • Parodied in "A Star Is Burns". When Mr. Burns requests for Steven Spielberg to direct his movie. Upon being told that he was unavailable, Burns then requested Señor Spielbergo, his non-union Mexican equivalent.
    Mr. Burns: Get me Steven Spielberg!
    Smithers: He's unavailable.
    Mr. Burns: Then get me his non-union Mexican equivalent!
  • Also, when Bart opened a casino, he hired a Liza Minelli impersonator but needed another kind of show when he found out the "impersonator" was Liza Minelli.
  • Also occurred in The Simpsons when they told the story of how Krustyland came to be. Krusty the Clown wanted to hire the cast of The Poseidon Adventure to make celebrity appearances at the park's opening, but attorney Lionel Hutz was able to sign only impersonators of those celebrities, including a Shelley Winters imitator who was obviously a man and hadn't even bothered to shave. When Krusty sees the faux celebrities, he tries to strangle Hutz.
• South Park: When pee-wee football team South Park Cows played against Middle Park Cowboys, the entertainment hired for the halftime was John Stamos' brother Richard Stamos.
• Ultimate X-Men has Colonel Wraith refer to Sabertooth as "the poor man's Wolverine."
• Given a weird twist in Girl Genius, when Agatha, who's on the run from the Baron's forces, joins a traveling show, and in one performance of a "Heterodyne play," fills in for actress Pix. The twist? The character she's playing is her own real-life mother.
• One of many running gags in CinemaSins, where the poor man's substitute is referred to as "discount [A-list actor]". They'll also refer to an actor as a discount themselves if they're spotted in cheap pre-fame roles, such as a pre-Rocky Sylvester Stallone in Death Race 2000, or if it's a currently famous actor they think are in a bad movie, like Channing Tatum in Jupiter Ascending.
• CollegeHumor: Parodied—if you need help but can't afford The A-Team, perhaps you can hire the B-Team, C-Team, or F-Team. They all include a guy who's The Strategist (Hannibal), The Charmer (Face), The Crazy One (Murdock), and The Tough Black Guy (Baracus). However, the substitute teams get increasingly less impressive on these fronts:
  • The A-Team:
    Narrator: One year ago, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you have a ton of money, maybe you can hire the A-Team.
  • A-Team out of your price range? Then how about this?
    Narrator: A different Commando unit was also sent to prison for a crime they might have committed. These men eventually escaped from a medium security facility, to a motel in Fresno. Today, still more or less acknowledged by the government, they survive as soldiers for hire. If you have a problem, if it's sort of urgent, but you don't need anything fancy, you can probably just hire the B-Team.
  • You're really broke, huh?
    Narrator: I'm not sure I should tell you this, but one year ago, a group of drug addicts were sent to a prison for crime they openly confessed to (they, uh, shot the mayor's dog). These men were released after their case was thrown out on a technicality. Today, pretty much forgotten by the government, they get by with odd jobs here and there. If you have a problem, if you're totally spaced, and you just need someone, literally anyone, and if you can offer a hot meal in exchange, you can always hire the C-Team.
  • Wow, really? You can't even afford...you're killing me here!
    Narrator: OK, I don't usually mention these guys, but...one year ago, four idiots started fighting over half a steak left in a dumpster behind a TGI Friday's. These men—-look, you don't really want to hire these men. They just-oh come on! Oh and that crazy guy? He has mild OCD! And he's clearly not black, what is he, Indian? Not even close. Look, I'm gonna level with you here. You're probably just better off taking care of it yourself. Really. Why would you ever hire anyone named the F-Teem?
  • CollegeHumor goes to Hell: it's revealed that Hell the second best of everything, just to frustrate sinners.
    Katie: [Do you have] Backstreet Boys?
    The Devil: 98 Degrees. They come preloaded on your Zune.
• Spider-Man: Parodied. In The Amazing Spider-Man #14, Stan Lee is credited as "the poor man's Shakespeare"; Steve Ditko is "the poor man's Da Vinci"; and letterer Art Simek is "the poor man's rich man".
• In The Venture Bros., Rusty refers to Baron Underbite as a "dime store Doctor Doom."
• Downplayed in the pilot of DuckTales (2017) where Flintheart Glomgold is described as "the poor man's Scrooge McDuck... which to be fair, still makes him insanely rich."
• Beavis And Butthead, when watching an angry-sounding Henry Rollins video:
  Butthead: "Uhh, Jim Rockford is pissed!"
• Played for Laughs in the Family Guy episode "E. Peterbus Unum". Adam West wants to invite Jesse Jackson to open peace negotiations with the micro-state of Petoria with a prayer, but because he can't make it, he hires La Toya Jackson (sister of Michael).
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: Joel and the Bots have a discussion about this trope at the end of Hercules Against the Moon Men. Joel calls it the "Wayne Rogers Effect", after the actor who replaced Elliott Gould in the TV adaptation of M*A*S*H. The conversation gets a bit awkward when Crow points out that Gypsy's Celeb Crush Richard Basehart (from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea) was really the replacement for Walter Pigeon from the original film. Ironically the replacement that prompted all this discussion in the first place—Steve Reeves from Hercules Unchained getting replaced by Alan Steel for Hercules Against the Moon Men—was actually an example of Dub Name Change and Dolled-Up Installment, not this trope. Against the Moon Men was originally a Maciste film; it was the American distributors who changed Alan Steel's character to Hercules and tried to pass the film off as a sequel to the Steve Reeves films.
• Daria once referred to her teacher, Mr. O'Neil, as "the poor man's Kathy Lee Gifford."
• An episode of The Big Bang Theory had Sheldon and Leonard playing a trivia game where each guessed the name of a famous person based on clues given by the other player. For every clue Leonard gave Sheldon about Nikola Tesla, Sheldon assumed Leonard was talking about him, until finally Leonard got annoyed enough to play along with Sheldon's hubris and describe Tesla as "the poor man's Sheldon Cooper," whereupon Sheldon got it immediately.
• Milana Vayntrub's similarities to Zooey Deschanel have become a Running Gag in AT&T's commercials, where Vayntrub's Lily character interviews Deschanel for a job and they have the exact same mannerisms, then Deschanel poses as Lily herself.
• The spider in the Merrie Melodies cartoon "Meatless Flyday" calls the fly he's trying to catch and eat "A poor man's Bugs Bunny."
• In Turning Red, Mei shows up to Tyler's birthday party not in her giant red panda form but in her cardboard red panda costume meaning she manages to be her own Poor Man's Substitute. Tyler is not impressed.
  Tyler: I'm paying for the red panda, not this garbage!

---