Okay, so which actors have portrayed an historical
person so well that when you see a picture of the
actual person, you think “That doesn’t look like
that person.”
Like George C. Scott as General Patton.
Dennis Quaid as Doc Holliday
Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison
Ben Kingsley as Gahndi
Charleton Heston as Moses
Steve Railsback as Charles Manson
Needs2know
Spencer Tracy as Clarence Darrow*, and Fredrick March as William Jennings Bryan.* (But damn, March looked so much like the real WJB, it probably doesn’t count.)
And of course, Orson Wells as W. R. Hearst*.
- Yes, I know that the playwrights/screenwriters did not use their real names, but everbody knew who they were supposed to be.
Randy Quaid as Lyndon Johnson (scary how well he did that).
Sam Waterson as Abraham Lincoln (which makes Law & Order very interesting to watch these days).
Milla Jovovich as Joan of Arc
Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra
Kevin Costner as Robin Hood
Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford
scarey.
Brian Keith as Teddy Roosevelt (The Wind and the Lion) is speech about why the rest of the world will never like Americans is great. A close second is his explaining why the Grizzly Bear should be the national animal, instead of “nothing but a dandified vulture.”
William Daniels as John Adams (“1776”)
Stephen Fry as Oscar Wilde (“Wilde”)
Don’t know if this counts, but Jim Carey as Andy Kaufman.
I don’t know how many people will have seen this, but Robert Hardy was eerily good as Winston Churchill in a BBC miniseries called, IIRC “The Wilderness Years.”
Yes, I saw that and you are absolutely right - Robert Hardy as Winston Churchill is the picture that comes to mind for me.
That reminds me - Glenda Jackson as Elizabeth I
Hands down favorite -
Peter O’Toole as T.E. Lawrence
[teeny hijack/] A little while ago I rented the director’s cut and was immediately drawn into the story, the movie, David Lean’s vision, the whole bit. It’s an incredibly romantic story - blew me away when I noted on the credits that it was O’Toole’s first movie - definitely worth the rental. [hijack/]
Anthony Hopkins - C.S. Lewis
Arnold, you’re an evol, evol man.
Katherine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine
Peter O’Toole as Henry II (both Lion in Winter and Becket)
I can’t see Barry Bostwick or Patty Duke anymore without thinking of them as George and Martha Washington. This is particularly disturbing when I’m watching Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Paul Scofield as Thomas More in “A Man For All Seasons”
Orson Welles as Cardinal Wolsey (same picture, a brilliant scene)
(actually, almost all the cast of that movie)
Yul Brynner as the king of Siam and as Pharaoh
Ingrid Bergman as Joan of Arc (so there, A.W.!)
Additional votes for:
Glenda Jackson as Liz I
Peter O’Toole as Henry II
George C. Scott as Patton
Charlton Heston as Moses
William Daniels as John Adams
Cary Elwes as Robin Hood
Mel Brooks as Torquemada
Kenneth Brannagh as Henry V
–sublight.
The InquiSITION, (here we go!)
The InquiSIIIItion, (What a show!)
Heh, Heh…yup, you got it, Sublight.
How about Graham Chapman as King Arthur? (On second thought, let’s not go to Camelot. It is a silly place.)
seriously, though, Robert Downey Jr as Charlie Chaplin - I was amazed. Also, Ed Harris as John Glenn in “The Right Stuff” and the actor (don’t know his name) who played Admiral Yamamoto in “Midway” was an amazing likeness - I had just finished reading a biography of Yamamoto and “Midway” came on a Saturday afternoon movie on TV a couple of days later and my jaw dropped.
[hijack]Hey, kilt-wearing man, yesterday I met the guy who taught Downey to move like Chaplin. He was teaching an acting workshop at Univercity, a big learning festival thing Ball State put on this week.
Apparently, Downey and Chaplin had completely different physical styles, and it took amazing amounts of work to train him. [/hijack]
I have nothing to actually contribute.
–John
Iolanthe, thank you for rescuing my reputation! I was afraid some people would take me seriously and think “what an idiot”.
I agree with zgystardst, Ingrid Bergman was a much better Joan of Arc, but I can’t really see her as the “real” Joan because she appeared much older than I imagine Joan of Arc, who was a teen-ager. I did like Ingrid’s white armour though.
Peter Cook as Satan
I’ll second that Peter Cook as Satan nomination. (Even though, strictly speaking, it’s not a “historical” character.)