People appearing in public always in character

Cafe Society
21

Magicvians used to do this. In the film The Prestige someone tells a story about a magician who maintained his persona onstage and off, just so that he could keep concealed the “gimmick” that allowed his trick to work. (Later this has significance for the main plot).

This was a real thing among magicians. William Ellsworth Robinson didn’t have much success until he re-invented himself as Chung Ling Soo. He kept to that faux Chiinese identity offstage, as well (The character in The Prestige referred to above was based on Robinson):

22

Here’s a relatively rare video of Don Novello appearing as himself at a public event rather than as Father Guido Sarducci.

23

RuPaul Charles broke character in But I’m a Cheerleader playing the role of Mike.

24

How do you define playing himself. My daughter acted with him, and he is a jerk in real life.

25

I saw Matthew Lesko walking down the street in Chicago and he was wearing one of his trademark suits.

Someone mentioned Larry the Cable Guy. He’s another person I ran into on the streets in Chicago and he was in full character. Of course, he was just leaving a movie set after filming a scene to get to his trailer a few blocks away so it’s pretty understandable.

That Re-Run guy from What’s Happening? always wore his hat and suspenders, but he’s dead now.

26

I’m the only person on the planet who can’t stand one. Freakin’. MINUTE. of the old Batman series. The few times I’ve seen him “out of character,” he seemed like a jerk. I was yelling (at the TV) Don’t you ever break character?

27

I’ve wondered if, to make plain the separation, he might revert to his family’s pronunciation of the last name (‘Coal-bert’ instead of ‘Coal-bear’). But then he did use the “French” version on Jon Stewart’s show for years before becoming the right-winger character.

I guess we’ll know when the announcer’s voice is first heard on Colbert’s *Late Show *premiere night…

28

Jazz mussician Billy Tipton, in public and in private.

29

Clayton Moore

He once said, “Kids don’t want to meet some old actor named Clayton Moore. They want to meet the Lone Ranger.”

30

The main characters from the Canadian show Trailer Park Boys often appear in character in public, as the show is shot in “fake documentary” style.

From Wikipedia:
“Furthering the myth that Trailer Park Boys is nonfiction, many of the actors (particularly Robb Wells, John Paul Tremblay, Mike Smith and John Dunsworth) often make public appearances without breaking character.”

I read an interview with one of the actors (not one of the ones mentioned above) and he asks the interviewer if he (the interviewer) would like to talk to the actor or the character. Same thing for a TV interview with John Dunsworth who asks the interviewer who he’d prefer to speak with but as the interviewer gets snarky, Dunsworth just goes into character to bite back.

31

Arguably, Karl Pilkington.

32

Emo Phillips?

33

I’ve seen RuPaul as himself plenty of times. I’m not on the lookout so he must not be her all the time. OTOH, she’s more or less unrecognizable when she’s not in drag (is that still the right term?) so if you don’t know what you’re looking for you wouldn’t even know it’s her. It’s not like seeing Gilbert or Bobcat speaking in a ‘normal’ voice and having it taking a second to figure out who it is…you just wouldn’t know it was her.

34

Minnie Pearl never performed as anyone other than Minnie Pearl, keeping her real life as Nashville socialite Sarah Colley Cannon very distinct from her character.

35

On a similar note, did Cliff Arquette ever not appear as Charlie Weaver? And who is/was Charlie Weaver?

36

The actors in This Is Spinal Tap did two commentary tracks for the home video release of the movie. One as themselves and one in character.

37

Leon Redbone.

He’s always in character. I met him when I was working at a club where he played, and he was in character when he walked in the door, did the sound check, got paid after the gig…

I talked to a friend who was working in the microfilm room at the library, and he came in the same day to research old newspapers to find out when a particular singer had played the vaudeville houses in town, and my friend said he was in character then as well.

I suppose if you play the same character for fifty years, every waking moment, eventually that is just who you are.

I did some research for the Wikipedia article on him, and the very first appearance, John Hammond talks about Redbone as a “kid from Philadelphia” before he appeared in Toronto. But he’s never given a straight answer to any question about his origins.

38

I’ll be damned. All these years I thought he really sounded like his Bobcat character. In my defense, I’ve lived under a rock for many years and didn’t realize he was still performing. I do like “Wait Wait” but I’ve never caught him on it. For the past 30 or so years, I honestly thought he had some vocal cord issue or neurological condition like Diane Rehm or something. Huh.

39

Randy Quaid always seems to play a half-wit (the Vacation movies, Independence day), but from the news stories I’ve read about him, it’s not an act.

40

This was my first thought upon seeing this thread. I remember seeing something where Ricky says to Julian at an event “Are we in character for this or not?”