# Has Anyone Ever Done This? (Making Movies With Star Lookalikes)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 26, 2011, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-done-this-making-movies-with-star-lookalikes/576065 "2011-03-26T15:57:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2011, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-done-this-making-movies-with-star-lookalikes/576065/21 "2011-03-26T23:40:21Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > I think it was [Herschel Bernardi](http://www.nndb.com/people/213/000078976/) who said that an acting career has five stages: > > Stage 1: “Who is Herschel Bernardi?” > > Stage 2: “Get me Herschel Bernardi!” > > Stage 3: "Get me a Herschel Bernardi! > > Stage 4: “Get me a _young_ Herschel Bernardi!” > > Stage 5: “Who is Herschel Bernardi?” Stage 6: “Sorry, Charlie.” ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-done-this-making-movies-with-star-lookalikes/576065/22 "2011-03-27T00:04:53Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > Slight hijack: Allow me to be the first to mention “Bowfinger” which is about a producer who does something much like this (along with some other amusing fraud). And let me be the first to mention Beatlemania and Skeet Ulrich. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-done-this-making-movies-with-star-lookalikes/576065/23 "2011-03-27T01:11:09Z")
Do the names Coy and Vance Duke ring any bells? ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-done-this-making-movies-with-star-lookalikes/576065/24 "2011-03-27T01:38:18Z")
Or how about Crispin Glover in Back to the Future II? > **[Crispin Glover](https://backtothefuture.fandom.com/wiki/Crispin_Glover)** > > Crispin Hellion Glover Crispin Hellion Glover (born April 20, 1964 in New York City but raised in Southern California) is an American actor. He played the role of George McFly in Back to the Future, but declined to participate in the sequels — though... ---
**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:** [March 27, 2011, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-done-this-making-movies-with-star-lookalikes/576065/25 "2011-03-27T01:47:36Z")
. . . who was already mentioned in post #12. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-done-this-making-movies-with-star-lookalikes/576065/26 "2011-03-27T02:10:58Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > And let me be the first to mention Beatlemania and Skeet Ulrich. Huh. They fooled me - I assumed Skeet was related to Robert Ulrich. ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-done-this-making-movies-with-star-lookalikes/576065/27 "2011-03-27T02:47:43Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Do the names Coy and Vance Duke ring any bells? Yes, yes they do. I’d never heard of them before this past week, but someone somewhere else on line linked to a youtube video featuring them in cartoon form. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-done-this-making-movies-with-star-lookalikes/576065/28 "2011-03-27T09:23:04Z")
It only works if the audience knows it’s fake, both in music and in movies. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-done-this-making-movies-with-star-lookalikes/576065/29 "2011-03-27T11:32:11Z")
> [@Eats\_Crayons](#): > > Post-_Back to the Future_ sequels, and the ensuing law suit, SAG in fact made it a rule that you can’t impersonate another performer with the intention of misleading the audience (as in using prosthetics to make it look like Crispin Glover was still playing George McFly). I wonder exactly how that was worded; anyone remember how Gene Hackman refused to reshoot various stuff for SUPERMAN II, at which point they promptly swapped in a body double and just staged the remaining shots to show Lex from behind? ---
**Author:** ![deadindays](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@deadindays](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deadindays)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-done-this-making-movies-with-star-lookalikes/576065/30 "2011-03-27T14:40:27Z")
**BRUCE LEE!** After his death we were given Bruce Li, Bruce Ly, Bruce Lei, etc. ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-done-this-making-movies-with-star-lookalikes/576065/31 "2011-03-27T14:45:59Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > This has been done in the music world-hire studio musicians to sing /record hit songs by real stars. How about the movies? > Suppose you (movie producer) balk at paying Brad Pitt his demanded $12 million-so your talent scouts find a competent actor who looks like Pitt. > The guy wil work for $200,000. > Obviously, you can save a lot of money-so you give the guy a new stage name-say, Bradley Pitte. > Could you get away with this? I realize I’m fighting the hypothetical here, but if you only have $200,000 budgeted for your lead actor, why are you talking to Brad Pitt’s agents in the first place? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-done-this-making-movies-with-star-lookalikes/576065/32 "2011-03-27T14:54:09Z")
Hollywood loves doing this. Consider the movie **Bela Lugosi meets a Brooklyn Gorilla**. It’s an incredibly awful movie, but if you try to watch it you’ll notice that it has very little Bela Lugosi (or gorillas) and a _lot_ of what appears to be Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. Only it isn’t Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin – it’s Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo looking and acting an awful lot like Martin and Lewis. > **[Sammy Petrillo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sammy_Petrillo)** > > Sam Patrello (October 24, 1934 – August 15, 2009) was an American nightclub and movie comedian best known as a Jerry Lewis imitator. > Sammy Petrillo was born Sam Patrello in The Bronx, New York City, New York, to a show-business family in which his mother, Anne Jackowitz Patrello, was Alice Faye's double, and his father, Abraham Patrello, "was a comic and a hoofer" \[dancer\] who performed in Catskills Mountains resorts and went by the stage name Skelly Petrillo. By age six, Sammy would sometim... > **[Duke Mitchell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Mitchell)** > > Duke Mitchell (born Dominic Salvatore Miceli; May 9, 1926 – December 2, 1981) was an American film actor, slapstick comedian, crooner and independent film director of 1970s gangster movies starring himself. Mitchell often performed his nightclub act in and around Palm Springs, California, and anointed himself the "King of Palm Springs." > On May 9, 1926, Mitchell was born Dominic Salvatore Miceli in Farrell, Pennsylvania. In 1951, he teamed with comic Sammy Petrillo for a nightclub act. Mitchell's... ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-done-this-making-movies-with-star-lookalikes/576065/33 "2011-03-27T17:07:28Z")
Old Navy is currently running a commercial that has been dubbed [“Kim Fauxdashian”](http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b228154_old_navy_ad_star_kim_kardashian.html), although the actress insists that she was not hired for her resemblance to Kim. Of course, this is not a movie, but then again, Kim is not exactly a movie star. For the record, when I first saw the commercial, I spent a few minutes trying to figure out whether it really was Kim Kardashian. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-done-this-making-movies-with-star-lookalikes/576065.md?page=1)