Yesterday I was rewatching “Airplane!” for the millionth time. One of the Hare Krishna characters is played by David Leisure (of the old Joe Isuzu commercials). I remember when the movie first came out, I thought for sure that was Harrison Ford.
Sigourney Weaver and Susan Sarandon are probably the same person.
I have a theory about why Kristie Alley and Kirsten Johnston could get confused. Yes, they do look vaguely alike and have first names that are similar. What’s more, they are mostly known as comedic supporting actors. Most of the time people don’t remember precisely how tall some actor is. But it’s also true that they are half a generation apart in age. (No, they aren’t a generation apart in age. It’s rare for well-known actors to have children at 16 years and eight months. Twice that amount, 33 years and four months, is reasonably common though).
I think what happens is that one actor’s career will slow down in their late thirties and another actor in their early twenties will have their career pick up right then. With some resemblance between them, people who haven’t followed the career of the older actor closely will wonder if this person they’re now seeing is the same person as the one they vaguely remember. The one they’re now seeing on TV or in movies looks a little too young, but then a lot of actors will get facial plastic surgery. This would explain why someone would not only look young for their age but also noticeably different. People who don’t follow actor’s careers very closely could easily get confused.
For years I thought that Richard Riehle (Tom Smykowski from Office Space) and Brian Doyle Murray were the same person.
A J Cook and Rachel Nichols are the same person.
Another contributing factor could be the fact that CHEERS was in reruns for a looooong time, perhaps while 3rd ROCK was in production so the age difference might have been mitigated by seeing them when they were only a few years apart in age on the very same day.
I had to look them up, but I concur;* Cook* is the blonde version and Nichols is the dark haired alter ego.
They should do a remake of BEWITCHED and have Cook play Samantha and Nichols play a much more prominent Serena. (As a youth, Serena showing up once or twice a season was not nearly enough! Serena should have been a cast regular.)
I can see where someone would make that mistake, but to me there is a distinction. Murray is the old bald guy who is funny because he is frustrated by incompetence around him, Riehle is a befuddled old bald guy who is funny because he frustrates those around him. Perhaps they are Yin and Yan of the comedic old bald guy universe- if one of them dies, the other will just disappear.
Here’s a section of an episode with both Kirstie Alley and Kristen Johnston:
It's the January 29, 2014 episode of the show *Kirstie* titled "Maddie vs. Maddie", which was on the pay television channel TV Land.I’ve confused so many other actors with Raul Julia that my wife has decided I have a mild form of face blindness.
After a couple rounds Yul Brynner and Richard Kind venn together quite seamlessly.
I always got Steve McQueen and Paul Newman confused. I have no idea why.
I think they look SO different there. KA is wearing three inch heels, and KJ is barefoot, and there’s still a significant height difference. Their hair parts on different sides, and it’s different colors, and if you look at KA’s hands, they look old, really old. I don’t care what she’s done to her face, her hands give away her real age. Plus, their figures are very different. Aside from the fact that KJ is way thinner here, when she does gain weight later in her career, their proportions are completely different. Also, KJ has a very, very animate face-- it’s crazy animate, and I was an American Sign Language interpreter for 15 years, so I know what I’m talking about. KA, for a comedy actress, really doesn’t have an animate face at all-- it’s moreso than a person off the street, but she’s supposed to use her face for a living.
The only thing really similar about them is their eyes, which, granted, is probably the feature people look at the most.
Really? One has lips, the other does not.
But they’re both awesome.
When they booted AJ Cook and Paget Brewster from Criminal Minds they hired Rachel Nichols, who went blonde for the role. I had missed the whole firing/hiring news (and ignored opening credits) and was very confused when the characters started calling JJ Ashley Seaver.
I totally forgot about Katy Perry and Zooey Deschanel. Have they ever been seen in the same room together?
I kept getting two characters in Westworld mixed up - the douchebag brother-in-law and the Mexican outlaw. Both actors looked alike. They had similar builds and facial hair. I kept thinking it was one robot assigned two character roles.
Well, they kept changing time periods, and I lost track of the flashbacks, and sometimes robots got reassigned, and the same model could be used for a different world, so…
For me it was Jim Gaffigan and James Corden. I thought it was the same guy until I heard Corden speak one day. Oops.
Jessica Chastain and Bryce Dallas Howard.
Opie apparently also has this problem.