What actor or actress do you think looked the most like the real life person they were portraying on screen?
For me Denzel as Malcom X. That dude looked so much like X that when I see pictures of him now I have to make sure Im not looking at a picture of Denzel playing him from the movie.
Who else looked so close? I mostly mean physical appearance not mannerisms.
Ed Harris in Pollock.
Ben Kingsley-Gandhi.
Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison always impressed me.
Jim Carrey looked remarkably like Andy Kaufman in Man On The Moon, but even more striking was how he mirrored his gestures and mannerisms, virtually channeling Kaufman from beyond the grave.
Many of Andy Kaufman’s real-life friends or colleagues (Judd Hirsch, Danny DeVito) remarked on how engrossing the total effect of the performance was, saying that Kaufman would have appreciated the almost eerie quality of the atmosphere on the film set.
If it was just looks, George C. Scott looked a lot like Mussolini in Mussolini, the untold history, but that was when Mussolini was in his later years, and once George C Scott talked… out did the similarity go.
I thought Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb were spot on as Sid and Nancy.
The actor who played Officer Obie in Alice’s Restaurant was a perfect match to the original, William Obanhein. Arlo Guthrie was also a perfect fit as the lead.
Howard Stern in Private Parts.
Geoffrey Rush as Peter Sellers was freaky.
Toby Jones as Truman Capote.
Despite some of the film’s serious flaws, Mommy Dearest did a remarkable job turning Faye Dunaway into Joan Crawford.
Michael Jayston, an actor I wasn’t familiar with, looked remarkably like Tsar Nicholas II in the movie Nicholas and Alexandra.
Helen Mirren as Elizabeth II.
Noah Wiley as Steve Jobs.
Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, which really surprised me, because if you look at a normal picture of Penn, you’d probably never make the connection. But in the movie, the resemblance was stunning.
Ron Livingston as Capt. Nixon in Band of Brothers. A lot of people gave the production shit about it since their short-sighted brains could only think of Livingston as the protagonist from OfficeSpace. But he really did look the part.
Raymond Massey played Abraham Lincoln five times:
Abe Lincoln in Illinois (movie in 1940, two different TV dramas in 1950 and 1951)
The Day Lincoln was Shot (TV drama, 1956)
How the West was Won (movie, 1962)
His lantern-jawed homeliness seemed like a very good fit for Lincoln.
Twickster, I disagree about Helen Mirren and QEII. Their faces are not similar and the strength of her portrayal did not have anything to do with physical resemblance. IMHO.
Roddy
Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain.
