Every celebrity worth his or her salt has at least one facial expression, walk, gesture, posture, or other non-verbal attribute that, once you’ve seen it and recognize it, gives the person away every time. And when some comic or another actor wants to mimic this person, they know exactly how to pick that thing to share with their audience.
John Wayne’s walk
Robert Mitchum’s walk
that sort of a pout thing Paul Newman has
Johnny Carson and the finger by the nose
Jack Benny’s folded arms
the Don Rickles rolleyes
David Letterman’s grin
Help build this list of giveaways
A better Johnny Carson copyright would be his golf swing at the end of the monologue.
This is going to be a big list, by the way. I can think of dozens of them just off the top of my head. I think these were much more common in decades past, especially from those performers who worked vaudeville, where a ‘signature’ was an important part of forming a distinct character.
For example of tics and gestures and catchphrases of some of the older entertainers -
Jack Benny’s hand to the face gesture.
Jackie Gleason’s eye roll
Charlie Callas’s “Brrthh” or “yangyang” sound, accompanied by the head bob.
Paul Lynde’s laugh
Groucho Marx’s cigar, and his cigar waving/tapping
Charo’s coochie-choochie
Rodney Dangerfield’s uncomfortable tie adjusting
Bob Newhart’s stammer
David Hyde Pierce and his total deadpan delivery of a line. The man can say the most inane thing and have it come across as totally serious AND totally hysterical, all at the same time.
I tried to describe the thing Robert Redford did in The Sting with his forearms. It was like the Cagney thing but with his wrists rolled out as if he were “shooting his cuffs” in an idiosyncratic way. I’ve seen that same move in other movies and have put it down as a mannerism of his he may not be totally conscious of. He has another thing with his neck, as if his collar itches and he moves his head a little awkwardly. But I realized it would take me this many words to get it said and figured it was too much for the OP.
George Clooney has this whip-fast way of doing a double take that’s very distinctive. You mostly see it in his comedies, but it also shows up in more serious flicks, like in *Michael Clayton * when his car explodes.
Of course, there’s also Harrison Ford and the Finger of Doom.
The guy who played Roman Brady on Days of Our Lives in the '80s . . . . Googling . . . This guy.*
He had a very distict way of throwing a “Concerned Soap Actor Look”, usually right before the “dun duh DUN! /Break to Commercial!” moment. It was so distinctive and cheesy (pursed lips, narrowed eyes, slight turn of the head) that it was the source of a drinking game in our apartment building. We’d all congregate (about 12 of us, guys and girls), watch DoOL, and every time he shot that look, we’d yell ROMAN! and drink. It was pretty fun.
In true soap fashion, this guy apparently was not really Roman Brady, he was John Black, but all that rewriting of the past occurred long after I quit watching, so he will always be ROMAN! to me.
Eastwood has several. The walk/saunter/lope. The clenched teeth. The squint. The whisper.
There was an interview he did with some media type I’m having trouble remembering offhand. The questions were flowing right along and everything was peachy keen until the guy asked the wrong question. I can’t recall whether it was about his love life, his kids, his non-movie ventures, or just what. But it was ** the wrong question ** and you could see in Clint’s and the interviewer’s eyes that the interview was if not over, at least going to take a new tack. It was almost as scary as if The Man With No Name were about to clean out a saloon.