# Have you ever met any real examples of a doppelgänger? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 29, 2011, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-any-real-examples-of-a-doppelganger/580127 "2011-04-29T04:55:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-any-real-examples-of-a-doppelganger/580127/1 "2011-04-29T04:55:31Z")
The term doppelgänger may not be familiar to everyone. It has several meanings but is commonly used to mean unrelated people who are oddly alike including appearance and personality. I have met a few that were also confirmed by other people. The most notable is a doctor I saw for a while a couple of years. He is a near identical twin of my stepbrother in appearance, speech, and mannerisms. The match is so close that I have a hard time processing that it isn’t my stepbrother playing the role as a doctor although they live 1500 miles apart. My mother went with me to one appointment. I mentioned the fact before we got there but it freaked her out a little as well. Have you ever met any? ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-any-real-examples-of-a-doppelganger/580127/2 "2011-04-29T04:59:45Z")
I have met a couple. One was of me- I worked with a woman that was almost identical to me, and customers of ours were always telling me that they saw me at the store or whatever, and I knew it was her and they had us confused. Another was my mother. I saw this lady at the grocery store one time who looked, I swear, _exactly_ like my mother- she lives in North Carolina and I live in Arizona. I started looking around for her sister, who lives here, that she would be visiting. Right before I walked up to her (my mom’s twin), I realized that it wasn’t her. Whew, that would have been embarrassing. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-any-real-examples-of-a-doppelganger/580127/3 "2011-04-29T05:04:25Z")
About 25 years ago, I ran across a guy that could have been my identical twin at a city festival in Marietta GA. It was eerie. Same hair, same glasses, same build. and we both wearing a white shirt with blue jeans and sneakers. I was with friends, we got separated and they thought the guy was me and started to talk with him like he was me. They were shocked when he didn’t sound anything like me. He had a deep southern accent and at the time, I had a New England accent. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-any-real-examples-of-a-doppelganger/580127/4 "2011-04-29T05:07:35Z")
I apparently just missed meeting mine. I was vacationing in a city that I had never visited before and we were out club hopping. Two separate people stopped at our table and told me that I sang wonderfully the night before. I was a couple hundred miles away the night before and didn’t do any singing that I recall. :eek: ---
**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:** [April 29, 2011, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-any-real-examples-of-a-doppelganger/580127/5 "2011-04-29T05:12:06Z")
Several. One guy resembled me, and was also an artist (crafty rather than paintery) like I was. He was about five years older, but in all other ways looked remarkably like me. I once stumbled across a photo of a guy in a small local magazine who not only looked like a friend of mine, he had the same surname as him. I thought it was his brother, but in fact he looked more like my friend than his real brother did. I also went to a school with a girl who looked like that same friend’s current girlfriend. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-any-real-examples-of-a-doppelganger/580127/6 "2011-04-29T05:15:07Z")
I’ve never met one, but apparently I have a few. In college, I was stopped twice by the same guy, who thought I was a friend of his. Must have been a good resemblance, because he seemed pretty weirded out by it. Another time, in high school, I came home to find my dad spitting mad at me for cutting class. He claimed to have seen me ambling around main street in town, when I was supposed to be in school. Took a bit to convince him that it wasn’t me. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-any-real-examples-of-a-doppelganger/580127/7 "2011-04-29T05:15:35Z")
My brother’s BIL was at a wedding reception earlier this year and he snapped a picture of the bass player in the band. To most people, including me, it looked like a pic of my brother. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-any-real-examples-of-a-doppelganger/580127/8 "2011-04-29T05:20:14Z")
I once saw a picture on the wall at the house of one of my aunts, and wondered why she had a picture of my graduation in such a prominent place. Then I realized that the guy who looked exactly like me was actually handing out the diploma, and the other fellow in the picture (receiving the diploma) was my cousin. ---
**Author:** ![Silophant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Silophant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silophant)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-any-real-examples-of-a-doppelganger/580127/9 "2011-04-29T05:38:20Z")
There’s a guy I see on campus every so often that looks exactly like a friend and former coworker from my hometown. I’ve pretty much stopped saying hi to him by now. ---
**Author:** ![pope\_hentai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@pope\_hentai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pope_hentai)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-any-real-examples-of-a-doppelganger/580127/10 "2011-04-29T09:27:27Z")
there was a local girl that looked EXACTLY like a girl i met in australia over the internet. waaay odd. ---
**Author:** ![conurepete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@conurepete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/conurepete)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-any-real-examples-of-a-doppelganger/580127/11 "2011-04-29T10:36:27Z")
Apparently my dopplegangers are in show business, one the movie “witch board”, and the other in the front row in the video of David Bowie’s " glass spider" tour. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-any-real-examples-of-a-doppelganger/580127/12 "2011-04-29T10:55:15Z")
My wife once met a doppleganger of her best friend M\_\_\_\_\_ on a train platform. Amazed, she tapped her on the shoulder and said, W: “I’m sorry, but you look exactly like this friend of mine…” D: “Is her name M\_\_\_\_\_?” W: “Actually, it is.” D: “I get that a lot.” ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-any-real-examples-of-a-doppelganger/580127/13 "2011-04-29T11:27:20Z")
About 20 years ago, I was visiting my best friend when he showed me a new poster hanging on his wall. I looked at it and saw a picture of him getting a haircut, but strangely the scene looked like a mid-60s setting. And then I realized that it wasn’t him in the photo, but the young Mick Jagger, looking exactly like my friend then (who was about the same age like Jagger in the photo). It was eerie because though my friend does have a resemblance to Jagger, it’s usually not that strong, and I never made the connection before seeing that special poster. But in this shot, you really couldn’t tell the difference between the two. Turned out that his then girlfriend had stumbled somewhere over this poster, had the same eerie impression of it like me (and everyone else who saw it), immediately bought it and gave it to him as a present. He then fooled everybody with it who saw it for the first time. ---
**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:** [April 29, 2011, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-any-real-examples-of-a-doppelganger/580127/14 "2011-04-29T11:44:45Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > I looked at it and saw a picture of him getting a haircut, but strangely the scene looked like a mid-60s setting. And then I realized that it wasn’t him in the photo, but the young Mick Jagger, looking exactly like my friend then (who was about the same age like Jagger in the photo). Is it [this one](http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/pp254/Deltics_photos/Mickhair.jpg)? ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-any-real-examples-of-a-doppelganger/580127/15 "2011-04-29T12:25:48Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Is it [this one](http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/pp254/Deltics_photos/Mickhair.jpg)? Wow, thanks a lot. I’ve been googling endlessly to find the picture to no avail, and while this isn’t exactly the one, it clearly had been shot at the same session. The one from my friend’s poster showed Jagger in profile, and even looked more like him than the one you linked to. But still, when I look at this one, I see my best friend in his mid-20s. Have you found the picture in a context where there’s probably more to find of that session? ---
**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:** [April 29, 2011, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-any-real-examples-of-a-doppelganger/580127/16 "2011-04-29T12:50:07Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I’ve never met one, but apparently I have a few. Same here I can think of 4 outstanding instances when I have been mistaken for someone else or someone else has been mistaken for me. When I was about 18 or 19 I went to the pub one Saturday night to catch up with the guys and everyone that saw me asked how I was and expressed surprise at my being there. It eventually turned out that a story had gone around the pub that night about how, the night before, I had been savagely beaten by a gang of Hell’s Angels in a pub 60 miles away. Everyone marveled at my toughness but I had been at home. The other 3 happened within a few months. I had a woman accost me at lunchtime while I was strolling along and we talked for several minutes about this and that as we walked together. Then she said to me, “That guy you recommended to us has worked out really well.” I explained that I wasn’t who she thought I was and she became really embarrassed. I told her not to worry about it, that it had been a lovely conversation. A little later I was taking a cigarette break out the front of the building and a guy approached me under the impression that he and I used to play in the same band in another city. When I tried to explain that I had never seen him before he started to get the shits, thinking I was brushing him off. My work ID pass convinced him that I was someone else. Shortly after that I was walking down the street with my wife and a younger woman walking the other way grabbed my arm and had a quick friendly conversation. All smiles and best wishes and I didn’t get a word in. She said, “Hope to see you again soon,” and walked off. She was very attractive and dressed in a manner that the more judgmental would consider slutty. My wife asked who she was and I foolishly said, “I have no idea. She’s mistaken me for someone else.” It would have been smarter to say, “Oh she’s Dave’s wife. You know, Dave the young guy I work with,” because my answer was “unbelievable”. ---
**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:** [April 29, 2011, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-any-real-examples-of-a-doppelganger/580127/17 "2011-04-29T13:17:35Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Have you found the picture in a context where there’s probably more to find of that session? No, I found it [here](http://www.iorr.org/talk/read.php?1,1012952,page=9), where there are also pictures of Charlie Watts and Brian Jones getting their hair cut. ---
**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:** [April 29, 2011, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-any-real-examples-of-a-doppelganger/580127/18 "2011-04-29T13:26:55Z")
Wait. Look through [this selection](http://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/52173003/Premium-Archive). He was at the BBC when these were taken. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-any-real-examples-of-a-doppelganger/580127/19 "2011-04-29T13:31:46Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Wait. Look through [this selection](http://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/52173003/Premium-Archive). He was at the BBC when these were taken. You’re great, that’s exactly the one. Thanks again. ---
**Author:** ![Gus\_Gusterson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@Gus\_Gusterson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gus_Gusterson)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-any-real-examples-of-a-doppelganger/580127/20 "2011-04-29T13:50:20Z")
I had a doppelganger in second grade. Dennis and I looked exactly the same. The teachers and priests couldn’t tell us apart. Only our friends could tell the difference. Dennis was a bit of a screw-up, and the priests always seemed to call him by my name when admonishing him. They may not have even known that he was a different person. Perhaps they thought there was one student who seemed to pop up twice as often as any other. Dennis moved away the next year and I haven’t seen him since. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-met-any-real-examples-of-a-doppelganger/580127.md?page=2)