Celebrities you don't, or can't, recognize

Cafe Society
1

There’s a thread about recognizing actors across multiple roles, so this is for the opposite; celebrities you don’t recognize, even once you know who they are.

In the other thread, I mentioned Eli Wallach. He was great in lots of different roles. He was Tuco in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Mr. Freeze on Batman, and lots more. I saw him in roles from decades later. For all that he’d changed over the years, and as great an actor as he was, there’s always something that I can recognize; the graveliness in his voice, or the shape of his eyes, something. I could cite other actors, too. Over the years, the roles, the makeup, and everything else, there’s almost always something about them I can zero in on and realize it’s the same person.

There are two exceptions.

Michael O’Keefe, Danny from Caddyshack. I’ve seen him in adult roles, and I can recognize him across those, but I just don’t see Danny when I look at him. He was on Law & Order a few times. Maybe it would help to see some of his work in the middle of his career.

Carrie Fisher. I know it was her in The Force Awakens, but I just don’t see anything I recognize from her earlier roles. I know there were hard years in between, but she looks like a different person to me. The pitch of her voice, the tempo, everything. Like I said, I know it’s her, but it feels weird to not see anything I recognize.

What say my fellow Dopers? Am I wrong about O’Keefe and Fisher, do you recognize them, and are there other celebrities that you just can’t recognize?

2

You’re not alone. He’s on Your Friends and Neighbors right now as Jon Hamm’s father, and I still question who he is every episode.

3

I recognize Carrie Fisher in the first three Star Wars movies. She played Princess Leia.

4

Sure, I can recognize her across Star Wars IV, V, and VI, plus The Blues Brothers and other roles from that same era. When she came back in SW episode VII, I just can’t see any trace of her younger self.

5

Lon Chaney, I have no idea what he really looked like. It is stretching the concept though since he’s rarely seen without heavy makeup and other image altering techniques.

6

There’s a subset in this topic, of celebrities who’ve had cosmetic surgery (sometimes numerous surgeries), and wound up looking unrecognizable compared to their younger selves. It’s mostly the case with women — Renee Zellweger, Joan Rivers, Tara Reid, and Shania Twain come to my mind as examples, where I think that they look radically different, but there are male examples, such as Mickey Rourke.

7

Fisher mostly dropped out of acting by the mid-‘Nineties to focus on being one of the entertainment industry’s leading ‘script doctors’ (she did mostly uncredited work on an astonishing number of screen plays), only occasionally doing cameos as herself or small uncredited roles. I saw her in a brief role as a holy roller in Wonderland (2003) and while she was recognizable I had to double-check. Chain smoking Marlboros and using every drug she could get her hands on definitely took its toll.

Stranger

8

Jennifer Grey and her infamous nose job. I think she looked attractive and distinctive before and boringly bland after.

9

Most of them.

In fact I wouldnt recognize Clooney either- maybe if i hear him speak, or sat at the same table. Too many years of working in Hollywood, I guess or maybe I am just getting old ( this also happened when i was younger- my parents had to point out lucille Ball at Disneyland and Dennis Weaver at the track.). Mind you, if I do spot or have pointed out a celebrity- I leave them alone- maybe a wave or “big fan!” or something. No selfies, nothing.

10

Amy Adams.

She has such a non-distinctive appearance, I wouldn’t be able to recognize her unless I was reminded she was playing the role.

11

Gary Oldman; even in his non-Dracula roles he’s hard to spot. He seems to be able to change his voice at will, too.

12

Anthony Michael Hall all growed up looks awfully different from his John Hughes movie days.

13

Heck, he looked incredibly different just a few years later when he played the villain in Edward Scissorhands.

Contrast him with his co-star Molly Ringwald; I think she must have a painting hidden in her attic, because she looks practically the same four decades later (at least in my view).

A couple years ago, somebody posted photos of social media of Rory Cochrane; the first was him as Slater in Dazed and Confused; the second was him in the present playing Jerry Tarkanian on the TV series Winning Time. It’s nearly impossible to believe that the two photos are of the same person. I certainly wouldn’t have recognized Cochrane if I had met him.

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I’m sure the picture is a perfect duplicate of the person.

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Mickey Rourke today looks nothing like his '80s heartthrob self.

Linda Hamilton had a fairly significant role in the TV series “Resident Alien”, and if I hadn’t seen her name in the credits I would have never known it was her.

16

I recognized her, but it’s been such a long while since I’ve seen her in anything new that it was a bit disconcerting to see the toll the years have taken. But it was also refreshing to see a woman onscreen aging naturally without resorting to obvious plastic surgery.

17

See also her cameo in Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, as a nun.

18

He looks like (to me) Robert Lansing.

19

Carrie Fischer did voice work for several seasons of Family Guy. She was Miss Ironbox, Peter’s boss at the Pawtucket brewery. She also did the voice of Murphy Brown during many parodies of that show. There is an episode where in a rare moment of genuine sentiment, Peter says goodbye to all the characters who have died. Among them were Miss Ironbox and Quohog’s mayor, Adam West.

20

George Clooney was famously in ER and then he had pretty established career in major movies. I can list a few if that will help.