70 Celebrities Who Could Easily Play Their Own Historical Counterparts
- - 70 Celebrities Who Could Easily Play Their Own Historical Counterparts
Eligijus SinkunasSeptember 30, 2025 at 8:01 AM
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Despite being unrelated, people can have an uncanny resemblance to strangers due to genetic similarities. It seems that these similar genetic traits can transcend generations, too, as fans have noticed that certain celebrities look nearly identical to some figures from the past. Diving deeper into this interesting phenomenon, our Bored Panda team gathered many such pairs in the list below. To find them, all you have to do is scroll down.
#1 Nicolas Cage Looks Like Civil War-Era Man
Image credits: 60 Minutes
#2 Matthew McConaughey Looks Like The Great Great Grandfather Of Reddit User
Image credits: Netflix Is A Joke
#3 Justin Timberlake Looks Like Old-Timey Criminal Charles Burns
Charles Burns was sentenced to 3 months at Newcastle City Gaol for the crime - false pretences.
Image credits: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
Nowadays, when we come across a stranger who looks nearly identical to us, at most we would laugh about it, snap a picture, and go on our own merry way. But hundreds of years ago, in folklore and ancient myths, seeing your doppelgänger was generally considered an omen of bad luck or even a sign of impending passing.
The expression “doppelgänger” comes from German folklore, which translates to “double-goer”—an invisible spirit double of a living person. While the term itself was officially coined in the 18th century and later came to refer to uncanny lookalikes, myths of spirit doubles have persisted for thousands of years before that.
#4 Jimmy Fallon Looks Like Leader Of People's Liberation Party-Front Of Turkey, Mahir Çayan
Image credits: The Diary Of A CEO
#5 Jay-Z Looks Like Person In Photo From 1939 Labelled "Harlem Loiterers"
Image credits: Letterman
#6 Orlando Bloom Looks Like Nicolae Grigorescu
Image credits: imdb.com
By some, doppelgängers were even seen as the evil twin who encouraged their human counterpart to do bad and unlawful things. Such a gothic trope would often be included in novels by famous writers such as Hans Christian Andersen, Edgar Allan Poe, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. In fact, this trope continues to be popular nowadays, like in the TV series The Vampire Diaries.
#7 Actor Robert De Niro Looks Like Counselor Of Wrocław Johann Vogt
Image credits: reelrave
#8 Mark Zuckerberg Looks Like King Philip IV Of Spain
Image credits: Y Combinator
#9 Andy Samberg Looks Like A Person In HS Yearbook From 1978
Image credits: Late Night with Seth Meyers
Nowadays, we usually don’t have fear or think about bad omens when we face a person who resembles us in an uncanny way. What changed, you may be asking?
Well, the portrayal of doppelgängers started to evolve in the media and became less of a trope about an individual curse and more about a broader society’s struggle with identity. Plus, humankind improved its scientific understanding, and genetic similarities among unrelated people were discovered, explaining their uncanny resemblance.
#10 Rupert Grint Looks Like Self-Portrait Of Artist Sir David Wilkie From 1804-1805
Image credits: imdb.com
#11 Jack Black Looks Like Paul Revere
Image credits: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
#12 Peter Dinklage Looks Like Sebastián De Morra
Image credits: Jimmy Kimmel Live
“There are so many people in the world right now, that eventually, people that share a higher number of [genetic] variants are expected,” a molecular geneticist, Manel Esteller, explained.
Further investigation by Nancy Segal, a professor of psychology, also found that even though doppelgängers share genetic similarities, they don’t share personality traits.
“These unrelated lookalikes were very, very different,” she said. But they could have a similar manner of walking and even addictions, as the length of bones and addictive personality traits can be encoded in our genes.
#13 Maggie Gyllenhaal Looks Like American Journalist Rose Wilder Lane
Image credits: Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
#14 Alec Baldwin Looks Like Millard Fillmore
Image credits: Team Coco
#15 Keanu Reeves Looks Like Paul Mounet
Image credits: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
For example, aTimothée Chalamet lookalike might have a similar walk and voice to him but wouldn’t necessarily have the same charisma and talent. “A lot of these people are going to be disappointed, because just looking like someone does not mean that you're going to be alike,” Segal said.
#16 Peter Greene Looks Like English Writer A.A. Milne
Image credits: sissygamache
#17 Leonardo Dicaprio Looks Like Judy Zipper From The 1960's
Image credits: Access Hollywood
#18 Adrien Brody Looks Like 17th-Century English Philosopher John Locke
Image credits: GQ
All this doppelgänger exploration has taken us from fear to pure amusement. Just last year, lookalike competitions took over the internet, with Timothée Chalamet, Paul Mescal, Harry Styles, and Glen Powell twins flooding the streets of cities all over England and America.
British sociologist and celebrity cultural critic Ellis Cashmore believes these contests have spread like fire because our current society is defined by the idea that you can potentially do anything and be anything you want to be, which causes excitement.
“What (the audience) is looking at is a transition in process,” he said. “They know this isn’t really Harry Styles on stage, but if someone who looks so much like him, could even be him, you’re giving someone an indication of just how malleable and changeable we are as human beings. Humanity isn’t fixed.”
#19 Benedict Cumberbatch Looks Like Polish Artist Zygmunt Waliszewski
Image credits: BuzzFeed Celeb
#20 Edward Norton Looks Like Catalan-French Baroque Painter Hyacinthe Rigaud
Image credits: Remembrance of Things Past
#21 Liv Tyler Looks Like Actress Ava Gardner
Image credits: misslivalittle
There's also the opportunity to build a real community. “These lookalike contests provide us with an opportunity to relate and form new relationships with people we might hitherto not know and would never cross paths with and wouldn’t even say hello to them in a gym, in a club, in a bar, in a supermarket or anywhere,” Cashmore added. “But the fact is, they share a common interest, and that is celebrity.”
#22 Ian Somerhalder Looks Like Actor, Filmmaker, And Entertainment Host Rob Lowe
Image credits: Jimmy Kimmel Live
#23 Tommy Lee Jones Looks Like 17th President Of The United States, Andrew Johnson
Image credits: FilMagicians
#24 John Travolta Looks Like As Time Traveler
After a photo from 1860 was put up for sale on eBay, many Internet users jumped on the striking similarity between the subject and John Travolta, claiming the actor is a reincarnation of the man in the image.
Image credits: ScreenSlam
Interesting, isn’t it? What is even more fascinating is that scientists estimate that one face will have at least seven doppelgänger matches. Would you feel brave meeting at least one of them who looks almost identical to you? For some reason, I still find this idea unsettling. But if you don’t and would like to know more about lookalikes, don’t be shy and check out our previous article on glitches in the matrix.
#25 Christian Bale Looks Like Person In Old Picture
Image credits: People
#26 Kathy Bates Looks Like 7th President Of The United States, William Howard Taft
Image credits: Pach Brothers
#27 Ellen Degeneres Looks Like American Essayist Henry David Thoreau
Image credits: TheEllenShow
#28 Luciana Barroso And Matt Damon Looks Like Redditor's Parents During Their Wedding
Image credits: Nicki Swift
#29 Soccer Star Mesut Ozil Looks Like Enzo Ferrari
Image credits: Sky Sports Premier League
#30 Mayim Bialik Looks Like Actress Margaret Hamilton
Image credits: missmayim
#31 Maggie Smith Looks Like Painting Titled "Lady In Blue"
Image credits: Downton Abbey
#32 John Krasinski Looks Like Danish Businessman Carl Adolf Feilberg
Image credits: Late Night with Seth Meyers
#33 Lily Collins Looks Like Audrey Hepburn
Image credits: The View
#34 Hugh Grant Looks Like Oscar Wilde
Image credits: BBC
#35 Luke Perry Looks Like American Folk Musician Woody Guthrie
Image credits: Splash News
#36 Queen Latifah Looks Like Zora Neale Hurston
Image credits: Yahoo
#37 Robbie Williams Looks Like Jesse Pomeroy
Jesse Pomeroy was the youngest person in the history of Massachusetts to be convicted of murder. He was 15 years old when he was convicted of murdering four-year-old Horace Millen in 1874.
Image credits: The Jonathan Ross Show
#38 Robin Williams Looks Like Nobel Prize Winner Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov
Image credits: Conan O'Brien
#39 George Carlin Looks Like Charles Darwin
Image credits: Official George Carlin
#40 Charlie Seen Looks Like John Brown
Image credits: Netflix
#41 Michael Douglas Looks Like George Washington
Image credits: CBS Sunday Morning
#42 Bill Murray Looks Like Edgar Allan Poe
Image credits: Letterman
#43 Hank Azaria Looks Like Philosopher Rudolf Steiner
Image credits: Team Coco
#44 Sofia Vergara Looks Like Italian Actress Sophia Loren
Image credits: sofiavergara
#45 Nicole Kidman Looks Like Polish Poet, Prose Writer And Painter Elżbieta Szemplińska-Sobolewska
Image credits: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
#46 Ted Cruz Looks Like Businessman And Politician Thomas Burchill
Image credits: Harris and Ewing, photographers
#47 Vincent Cassel Looks Like Dancer And Actor Fred Astaire
Image credits: vincentcassel
#48 Maya Rudolph Looks Like Actress And Singer Dorothy Dandridge
Image credits: princesstagram
#49 Jason Segel Looks Like Lee J. Cobb
Image credits: GQ
#50 Christina Aguilera Looks Like Ginger Rogers
Image credits: Jimmy Kimmel Live
#51 Alicia Keys Looks Like Lena Horne
Image credits: Alicia Keys
#52 Andrew Garfield Looks Like Leon Trotsky
Image credits: Amelia Dimoldenberg
#53 Eminem Looks Like Severus Alexander
Image credits: 60 Minutes
#54 Zach Galifianakis Looks Like Louis Vuitton
Image credits: Netflix Is A Joke
#55 Michael Phelps Looks Like Charles Lamb
Image credits: Hindustan Times
#56 Bill Bailey Looks Like Philosopher Thomas Hobbes
Image credits: Classic FM
#57 Karlie Kloss Looks Like Actress Lauren Bacall
Image credits: karliekloss
#58 George Clooney Looks Like Cary Grant
Image credits: Jimmy Kimmel Live
#59 Daniel Day-Lewis Looks Like Abraham Lincoln
Image credits: FilMagicians
#60 Florence Welch Looks Like Joan Of Arc
Image credits: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
#61 Nick Jonas Looks Like Franklin Pierce
Image credits: GQ
#62 Anne Hathaway Looks Like English Peeress Anne Clifford
Image credits: annehathaway
#63 Rose McGowan Looks Like American Actress And Inventor Hedy Lamarr
Image credits: EdKclips
#64 Michelle Williams Looks Like Actress And Singer Brigitte Bardot
Image credits: paramountpictures.com
#65 Minka Kelly Looks Like Actress Raquel Welch
Image credits: disneyplus.com
#66 Paul Giamatti Looks Like Reincarnation Of William Shakespeare
Image credits: GQ
#67 Brad Pitt Looks Like Hermann Rorschach
Image credits: Variety
#68 Bruce Willis Looks Like Us Military Leader And Chief Of Staff, General Douglas Macarthur
Image credits: Conan O'Brien
#69 Shia Labeouf Looks Like Albert Einstein
Image credits: Jimmy Kimmel Live
#70 Chuck Norris Looks Like Vincent Van Gogh
Image credits: Conan O'Brien
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
