# Actors who imitate other actors **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 23, 2006, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-imitate-other-actors/341248 "2006-01-23T15:28:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-imitate-other-actors/341248/21 "2006-01-24T01:37:32Z")
Sean Penn was doing a great DeNiro copy in that movie, IIRC, Mystic River. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-imitate-other-actors/341248/22 "2006-01-24T02:28:37Z")
> [@anyrose](#): > > Chris Evans in \*\*Not Another Teen Movie \*\* was doing a dead on Freddie Prinze Jr Does that count? I assume it was a deliberate parody. ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-imitate-other-actors/341248/23 "2006-01-24T02:31:16Z")
Jack Nicholson has made a career out of impersonating Christian Slater in _Heathers_. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-imitate-other-actors/341248/24 "2006-01-24T02:40:48Z")
In [The Birthday](http://pro.imdb.com/title/tt0402063/), Corey Feldman does a 100 minute-long Jerry Lewis impression. It’s even worse than it sounds. ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-imitate-other-actors/341248/25 "2006-01-24T02:56:05Z")
Speaking of Corey Feldman, could his performance in [Dream A Little Dream](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097236/) be considered a Michael Jackson imitation? ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-imitate-other-actors/341248/26 "2006-01-24T02:57:51Z")
Watch Christian Slater in “Wolf.” There’s somebody making a living copying him… ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-imitate-other-actors/341248/27 "2006-01-24T12:46:25Z")
OK, I’ll bite: Kurt Russell in _Escape From New York_ cruises on a Clint Eastwood impersonation, although to be fair he hasn’t made a career out of it. And he’s back to doing Disney family comedies now {starts humming “The Circle Of Life”}. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-imitate-other-actors/341248/28 "2006-01-24T12:54:58Z")
I can’t believe that I’m going to admit to having seen this, but in the new version of [The Dukes of Hazzard](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0377818/), the guy who played Billy Prickett (the hometown boy gone professional racer), James Roday, was channeling Ben Stiller so hard that it caught everyone’s attention in the room. We just couldn’t decide if he’d modeled him off of just one performance or a composite. And what? I like Johnny Knoxville. 🙂 It certainly wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-imitate-other-actors/341248/29 "2006-01-24T14:38:42Z")
You know, Christian Slater sometimes emulates Jack Nicholson. And it’s not an imitation, per se, really, but Dennis Farina in **Paparazzi** (forgive my spelling) is totally channelling Peter Falk’s Columbo. The character was written so much that way that I was wondering why they just didn’t hire Falk, as much as I love Dennis Farina. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-imitate-other-actors/341248/30 "2006-01-24T17:35:46Z")
> [@pseudotriton ruber ruber](#): > > Jason Alexander did a straight ripoff of Woody Allen for a year or so before he figured out how to play George Costanza. Compare the first year of SEINFELD to any later year, and George is a completely different character–different mannerisms, different speech, different body language, and most of it was pure Woody Allen. Was he trying to do a Woody Allen imitation, or was he trying to do a Larry David imitation? I mean, George Costanza was supposed to represent the show’s creator, Larry David, a guy who has a lot of Woody-esque mannerisms and neuroses in real life. My hunch is, the first season, Jason Alexander was trying to be Larry David, but gradually let George become a real, separate character in his own right. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-imitate-other-actors/341248/31 "2006-01-25T00:37:26Z")
Hank Azaria’s pretty much made a living out of this. So has Harry Shearer. After all, on _The Simpsons_, Chief Wiggum is Edward G. Robinson, Lou (the cop) is Sylvester Stallone, Moe is a “bad imitation of Al Pacino” (according to the IMDB trivia page for the show), Harry Shearer’s Seymour Skinner is based on Charles Kuralt, voice-wise. Dan Castellaneta’s Krusty the Clown’s voice is based off of Bob Bell, who played Bozo the Clown. ---
**Author:** ![PastAllReason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@PastAllReason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastAllReason)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-imitate-other-actors/341248/32 "2006-01-25T01:28:05Z")
Pierce Brosnan has taken quite a lot of his style from Cary Grant. It’s particularly noticeable in Remington Steele. When I started to see the odd rerun of the Jack Benny show, I was more than a little reminded of Kelsey Grammar. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-imitate-other-actors/341248/33 "2006-01-25T01:32:42Z")
A few years ago, I went to a concert and the opening act was called _Common Rotation_. There was something very familiar about the lead singer, but I figured he was just giving off a very strong Elvis Costello vibe. Later it was pointed out to me that it was Adam Busch, who had a recurring role on _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_. They’re playing here again in a couple weeks. I’ll see if he’s still channeling Costello. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-imitate-other-actors/341248/34 "2006-01-25T01:43:26Z")
> [@faithfool](#): > > I can’t believe that I’m going to admit to having seen this, but in the new version of [The Dukes of Hazzard](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0377818/), the guy who played Billy Prickett (the hometown boy gone professional racer), James Roday, was channeling Ben Stiller so hard that it caught everyone’s attention in the room. We just couldn’t decide if he’d modeled him off of just one performance or a composite. Bradley Cooper did the same as Zack Lodge in _Wedding Crashers_ and since the stars of the movie were Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, I can’t believe it was coincidental. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-imitate-other-actors/341248/35 "2006-01-25T01:48:22Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Was he trying to do a Woody Allen imitation, or was he trying to do a Larry David imitation? > > I mean, George Costanza was supposed to represent the show’s creator, Larry David, a guy who has a lot of Woody-esque mannerisms and neuroses in real life. > > My hunch is, the first season, Jason Alexander was trying to be Larry David, but gradually let George become a real, separate character in his own right. Watching the earliest episodes, I’m going to have to go with Woody Allen, down to the voice. Alexander probably had more access to Woody Allen’s movies than Larry David, face to face. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-imitate-other-actors/341248/36 "2006-01-25T01:51:36Z")
"Let’s speak of Lamarr, that Hedy so fair, Why does she let Joan Bennett wear all her old hair? " IIRC, Jean-Paul Belmondo in **Breathless** was channeling Humphrey Bogart – it’s even mentioned as such. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-imitate-other-actors/341248/37 "2006-01-25T01:56:28Z")
In Poolhall Junkies, Mars Callahan seems to be a sort of Christopher Walken Jr. (right down to the crazy hair). Which is really amusing, because Christopher Walken plays his character’s mentor/backer in the movie 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-imitate-other-actors/341248.md?page=1)