We’ve all seen them, where an actor plays his or her twin (usually completely unknown to his character). It goes back at least to Shakespeare and Comedy of Errors. And usually one or two come every year. A couple of TV shows have been built around the concept (most notably The Patty Duke Show). But I am convinced the best acting job of dopplegangering is Jack Lemon in The Great Race where they throw in a fun parody of Prisoner of Zenda where Ronald Coleman does the doppleganger duties.
Lemon has two distinct and entertaining characters that can do stand alone. I can think of none that come very close to his performance in this film. Any strong opinions on anyone else’s performances? Chaplin did it, Bette Davis, Valentino, Elvis even did it. But who did it best?
For sheer quantity, Brent Spiner played about nineteen different characters in Star Trek: Next Generation, with half of them in one episode (A Fistful of Datas).
Feh. Buster Keaton played a whole theater’s worth of himself in “The Playhouse,” sometimes showing 20 or more of him in a scene. This is especially impressive because the movie was hand-cranked – no motor in the camera.
I saw Jeckyl and Hyde on stage and the actor playing the roles sang a duet with himself.
I would nominate Joe Flynn in Season 1, Episode 31 of McHale’s Navy–“Alias Captain Binghamton.” He did double duty as a doppleganger–first by playing a sailor who happened to look just like Capt. Binghamton, and then even wilder, by doing that sailor’s impersonation of Capt. Binghamton!
Anna Torv did a great job of portraying Olivia’s parallel universe twin, affectionately known as Fauxlivia. Fauxlivia–while just as competent and formidable as Olivia–was more open, quicker with a smile, more jokey and flirtatious.
Of course, there was Walter–the addle-minded, joyful genius–and Walternate–the cruel, bitter, hardened politician–both played exceptionally by John Noble.
And Jasika Nicole played Astrid, whose parallel universe twin was an autistic savant. The scene where our Astrid comforts alt-Astrid over the recent loss of her father is one of the most touching moments in the series.
Not dopplegangers, exactly, but Peter Sellers playing opposite himself in Dr. Strangelove stands out as one of the best efforts ever. Most of the time when there’s an actor in a dual role, I remain aware of it on some level. I don’t know enough about film making to tell you exactly why. It’s obvious when they’re using a split screen, or shooting over one character’s shoulder to show the other, but there’s always something. But the scenes at the end of Dr. Strangelove are different. I knew it was Sellers as the President and the Dr., but it wasn’t until I’d seen the movie several times that I noticed how much they interact with each other. It may be that Kubrick shot so much of the movie in close-ups that when it came to those two characters talking, he could frame each one individually and it didn’t stand out as being different from the rest of the movie.
The name needs work. How about Astrid and Impostrid?
Elizabeth Montgomery as her cousin Serena-had no idea for years that it was Elizabeth (yeah I was a little kid during its first run, but she did get pretty lost in the role).
In the most recent episode of How I Met Your Mother, IIRC there was a total of three Teds and three Barneys and they did a really good job of interacting with each other. Though a lot of that was due to the seamless editing I’m sure.
Another one was Sarah Michelle Geller playing two rolls on Ringer, though they weren’t both on camera at the same time very often and when they were the split screen or the second actress was pretty obvious, so I guess it shouldn’t count for this thread.
In the Route 66 episode, “I’m Here to Kill a King”, Martin Milner played an assassin who was a double for Tod Stiles, his regular Route 66 character. Milner was impressive, giving the assassin an especially menacing countenance. One character who has seen both of them remarks, “Only the eyes are different.”
Edward Norton in Primal Fear. i thought he was excellent playing the very different multiple personalities in the show, especially considering that that was his first film.
Shakespeare was intentionally copying the Menaechmi by Titus Maccius Plautus, from the second century BCE. Plautus himself is thought to have been inspired by a lost Greek original, so who knows how far this goes back? Some caveman thespian, no doubt.
Did anybody else see last week’s episode of Raising Hope? Claris Leachman was fantastic as Maw Maw’s 104 year old mother.
Interestingly enough, the actors who have made a career of playing multiple roles in the same film (Peter Sellers, Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, Mike Myers) are usually graduates of ensemble work. It’s like they all spent the first ten years of their acting careers looking at their co-actors thinking “I could do that better - why do I only get to play one character in this sketch?”
The Devil’s Double a 2011 film about Uday Hussein and Latif Yahia his alleged body double. One actor plays both parts ( Dominic Cooper) and it is absolutely amazing.
That other actor that I just thought of when I saw this thread just two seconds ago but which, in a stunning display of not having its act together, my brain has already forgotten.