I’ve been said to look like Mats Sundin’s younger brother and Clay Aiken
Not sure if it counts as being mistaken as a famous character but once when I walked out of a restaurant when it was pitch black night and I had bright blue hair an old, stoned guy freaked out for a second and thought I was a Sin City character.
One time this hot girl ran up to me wanting my autograph, because she thought I was one of the local radio DJs. Not only have I never been a radio DJ, I had just moved into Portland all of a week previous.
I’ve been mistaken for George Carlin before. On one occasion, the doorman’s error in thinking I was really George Carlin got me to the front of the line and into a popular place.
Of course, now that George Carlin has passed away, that won’t be happening any more.
A woman in a bar in Nashville (it was darkish and I think she had been there for a while) refused to believe I wasn’t Phillip Seymore-Hoffman. I also got the same thing from a Lufthansa stewardess, but she at least believed me.
I’m pretty sure this topic has been around before, and if so I remember saying that on one of our trips to Camden, Maine, in the 90’s I was in a bookshop and asked a clerk about something and every head in the store turned to see who it was with the Southern accent and then at least two of them wanted to know if I was Shelby Foote. I offered to autograph some books if they liked, but that I would just be faking it.
No, but my husband has been told on several occassions that he looks like Beck and has once had a very nervous person excitedly ask him if he was, in fact, the Beckster.
Not in the US, but when I was in China apparently everyone thought I looked like this Canadian guy (who performs under the name “Da Shan”) who is a very famous celebrity over there. I don’t really look much like him at all, aside from the fact that we have the same hair color and we both wear glasses. All white people look the same, I guess.
So, maybe those people aren’t so familiar with the cars in question and were impressed by the brand itself. In the opposite direction, I’ve known a proto-Ronette be impressed by a Miata (no Camaros in Spain).
And no, I’ve never been mistaken for someone rich or famous.
More than once I was mistaken for the crazy guy who used to preach outside of one of our campus buildings. Somehow I don’t think that counts.
I always wanted to put on a red hoodie and jeans (his trademark outfit) and start a little counter-preaching just to freak him out. I already freaked him out enough just by walking past him, because every time I walked near him he would actually stop and get flustered. Maybe he thought I was his Evil Twin.
Someone once claimed I looked like Jack Nicholson, but as he was an Australian con artist in London trying to get to my money I didn’t really believe him.
A crazy woman in a shopping mall once asked me if I was Robert Urich. The more I denied it, the more firmly she believed it. This was around 1990 when I was about 21 and Urich 44. Hard to be offended at being mistaken for someone twice my age when it’s Robert Urich.
You should pretend to be her, and tell people you’ve changed your entire world view, then say something intelligent. They’d stop believing you are her, or you’d turn the flock around…