# Famous actors who have played their eponyms? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [December 7, 2025, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-actors-who-have-played-their-eponyms/1025506 "2025-12-07T22:31:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![TCMF-2L](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tcmf-2l/32/16553_2.png) [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-actors-who-have-played-their-eponyms/1025506/41 "2025-12-08T19:19:00Z")
There is a Porn actor called James Deen (not his real name) who has attempted to move into non-porn acting. Hasn’t portrayed James Dean as far as I am aware. TCMF-2L ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-actors-who-have-played-their-eponyms/1025506/42 "2025-12-08T19:44:58Z")
There was a somewhat famous poet named Elizabeth Taylor. There is a somewhat famous actor named Dave Thomas, like the Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas. The director John Ford (who started as an actor) could have played a early British playwright named John Ford. There was an actor named Ben Johnson, like an early British actor named Ben Johnson. Henry Morgan could have played the pirate of that name. Nicholas Rowe could play the early British poet of that name. Jane Powell could have played the early British actress of that name. The Australian actress Emma Hamilton could play the English model, dancer and actress. The actor Walt Whitman could have played the author of that name. The actor Fred Thompson could have played two other people of that name. The actor and director John Waters could have played an earlier director of that name. The actor Charles Hawtrey could have played the earlier actor of that name. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-actors-who-have-played-their-eponyms/1025506/43 "2025-12-08T20:23:02Z")
Imagine the possibilities for this guy: > **[John Smith (actor)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Smith_(actor))** > > John Smith (born Robert Errol Van Orden; March 6, 1931 – January 25, 1995) was an American actor primarily appearing in westerns and was considered the ideal cowboy. He had his leading roles in two NBC western television series, Cimarron City and Laramie. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-actors-who-have-played-their-eponyms/1025506/44 "2025-12-08T20:23:58Z")
Australian actor John Howard shares his name with a former Australian prime minister. In one episode of _The Games_, a comedy about the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the story line was that they were trying to get the PM to deliver an apology for previous government policy towards indigenous Australians, a very hot issue at the time. They got actor John Howard to do it instead, and disclaimed that it was ever going to be the PM. [Nicely captured here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKZ--NGcK7A). ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-actors-who-have-played-their-eponyms/1025506/45 "2025-12-08T20:24:43Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > Australian actor John Howard shares his name with a former Australian prime minister. Mentioned upthread, in fact: > [@Famous actors who have played their eponyms?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-actors-who-have-played-their-eponyms/1025506/19): > > John Howard [‘John Howard’: ‘I am sorry. We are sorry’, Apology to aboriginal people, ‘The Games’ - 2000 — Speakola](https://speakola.com/political/john-howard-sorry-the-games-2000) “Good evening. My name is John Howard and I’m speaking to you from Sydney, Australia, host city of the year 2000 Olympic Games.” I think the same joke may have been repeated later. For reference JH was Prime Minister of Australia from 96-2007, The other is a well-known Australian Actor. The two men look totally different from each other, it’s a political joke leaning into mist… ---
**Author:** ![anny\_m](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@anny\_m](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anny_m)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-actors-who-have-played-their-eponyms/1025506/46 "2025-12-08T20:54:43Z")
Actor Christopher Lloyd could play producer Christopher Lloyd. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-actors-who-have-played-their-eponyms/1025506/47 "2025-12-08T21:29:28Z")
Given that the actor Christopher Lloyd is 22 years older than the producer of that name, when could he have played him? ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-actors-who-have-played-their-eponyms/1025506/48 "2025-12-08T21:34:26Z")
Oops - so excited to add this one I didnt even check. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-actors-who-have-played-their-eponyms/1025506/49 "2025-12-08T21:39:14Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Given that the actor Christopher Lloyd is 22 years older than the producer of that name, when could he have played him? Just fire up the DeLorean, no problem. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-actors-who-have-played-their-eponyms/1025506/50 "2025-12-08T21:40:07Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Given that the actor Christopher Lloyd is 22 years older than the producer of that name, when could he have played him? In the movie “Fighting the Hypothetical.” As the list of actors who actually meet the OP’s criteria is apparently tiny (if not non-existent), most of the thread has been about hypothetical possibilities, no matter how farfetched. I mean, the two Steve McQueens were mentioned upthread, and the one who is still alive is a black Englishman (and who is a director, not an actor), while the one who’s dead was a white American. As far as the actor playing the director, even more farfetched, as the actor died when the director was 11 years old. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-actors-who-have-played-their-eponyms/1025506/51 "2025-12-08T21:44:35Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Russel Crowe could play a thief who steals a flock of crows …and the guy he steals them from is played by Mike Rowe ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-actors-who-have-played-their-eponyms/1025506/52 "2025-12-08T21:47:49Z")
Close: Mark L. Chapman played John Lennon in a film about Mark D. Chapman murdering John Lennon. Sigourney Weaver has never portrayed fictional character Sigourney Howard in The Great Gatsby (who she named herself after when she thought the name Susan was too ordinary). ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-actors-who-have-played-their-eponyms/1025506/53 "2025-12-08T22:16:54Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Close: Mark L. Chapman played John Lennon in a film about Mark D. Chapman murdering John Lennon. Richard Dreyfuss played Colonel Georges Picquart in a movie about Alfred Dreyfus. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-actors-who-have-played-their-eponyms/1025506/54 "2025-12-08T22:31:26Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Did Engelbert Humperdinck ever act? According to Wikipedia, he was on a number of shows like _Fantasy Island_ and _The Love Boat_. Not exactly getting some major chops in the acting department there. Are we allowing actors who took a famous name as a stage name? Seems like cheating. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-actors-who-have-played-their-eponyms/1025506/55 "2025-12-08T22:38:43Z")
Little-remembered actor [John Marshall](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0550966/) could have played well-remembered Supreme Court Chief Justice [John Marshall.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marshall) ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-actors-who-have-played-their-eponyms/1025506/56 "2025-12-08T23:42:11Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > I know I said eponym in the title but I’ll accept any performance where an actor plays a real life character of an identical or very similar name EXCEPT when there’s a direct family lineage relationship (ie, John Smith Jr plays the character of John Smith Sr). Has that actually happened often? I know Desi Arnaz jr. played Desi Arnaz in _The Mambo Kings_, but your exception makes it sound fairly common. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-actors-who-have-played-their-eponyms/1025506/57 "2025-12-09T00:52:24Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > If it matters, the director Steve McQueen looks nothing like the actor Steve McQueen. Likewise for actor Anthony Edwards and basketball star Anthony Edwards. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-actors-who-have-played-their-eponyms/1025506/58 "2025-12-09T01:10:47Z")
> **[Francesco Zappa (album)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Zappa_(album))** > > Francesco Zappa is a 1984 album by American musician Frank Zappa. It features synthesized arrangements of chamber music by Italian composer Francesco Zappa, who composed between 1763 and 1788. > According to recording engineer Mark Pinske, musician David Ocker introduced Francesco Zappa's music to Frank Zappa because it was popular with some college music students. Ocker discovered the music in what Pinske describes as "the Mormon library or something". The exact location where the scores were f... ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-actors-who-have-played-their-eponyms/1025506/59 "2025-12-09T02:15:55Z")
Mind you, neither within the episode nor within the speech within the episode was John Howard actually playing John Howard. He was merely being John Howard making a speech. If that doesn’t make sense I am sorry. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-actors-who-have-played-their-eponyms/1025506/60 "2025-12-09T02:16:57Z")
Ruth Wilson played her own grandmother in a BBC drama called _Mrs Wilson_. That’s one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-actors-who-have-played-their-eponyms/1025506.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-actors-who-have-played-their-eponyms/1025506.md?page=4)