Celebrities thrive on their uniqueness. There aren’t two Tom Cruises or Leonardo DiCaprios… That is, until we take a look at some bizarrely accurate historical doppelgangers. At least, we hope they are doppelgangers, because, in some cases, we might just as well be looking at some genuine time travelers or immortal vampires.
On this list, we’ll go over some of the uncanniest historical lookalikes that prove some of your favorite celebrities might have been around for way longer than you think!
1. Hugh Grant and Oscar Wilde
Beyond their shared British charm, Hugh Grant and the legendary Irish playwright, Oscar Wilde, could have easily been related by blood. The heavy-lidded eyes and that distinctive “floppy” hairdo are enough to convince us that Grant could easily play Wilde in a biopic. Even though Hugh Grant is related to British royalty, there’s no record of any ties between him and Oscar Wilde. Bummer.
Fun fact: Stephen Fry also looks eerily similar to Wilde – so much so that he played the Irish writer in the 1997 biopic, Wilde.
2. Jack Black and Paul Revere
Ever wondered what the American Revolution would have looked like if it had an enthusiastic metalhead warning the Patriots about impending Redcoat attacks? Look no further than Paul Revere, who was a dead ringer for Jack Black. The 1768 portrait of Revere, painted by John Singleton Copley, looks exactly like an old-timey take on the Tenacious D vocalist. The fact that both Revere and Black are known for their powerful pipes is just the icing on the cake for this serving of historical doppelgangers.
3. Justin Timberlake and Charles Burns
Justin Timberlake got himself a rather ‘shady’ doppelganger. Charles Burns, a 19th-century outlaw, bears a striking resemblance to Timberlake. Burns wasn’t as musically gifted as Timberlake (he certainly couldn’t hit that Pusher Love Girl falsetto), but the two shared their piercing gaze and rugged facial structure. Who knows? Maybe Burns was a time traveller who just wanted to prove he could bring Sexy Back in the right time period.
4. Alec Baldwin and Millard Fillmore
The oldest of the Baldwin brothers is famous for playing statesman-like characters, and you just can’t get any more statesman than a POTUS. Millard Fillmore, the 13th President of the United States, looks just like Alec Baldwin. Knowing how popular Baldwin’s political impressions have become in recent years, it would be no surprise to see him portraying Fillmore sometime in the future.
5. Leonardo DiCaprio and Judy Zipper
Put your tinfoil hat on, because this one’s a doozy. While most historical celebrity doppelgangers share the same gender as their modern-day counterparts, the case of Judy Zipper is as bizarre as they come. Redditors came across Zipper, a female 1960s student, who looked just like Leonardo DiCaprio in his younger years.
From the arch of the eyebrows to the enigmatic, Oscar-winning smile, the similarity is uncanny. It is as if Leo took a break from his early acting career to pose for a high school portrait forty years before he was famous… and over a decade before he was born.
6. Jimmy Fallon and Mahir Cayan
Take Jimmy Fallon and put him in a time machine. Now, send him to Turkey in the 1970s, and he would most likely have emerged as the communist revolutionary leader Mahir Cayan. It sounds like the start of a shoddy sketch, but once you look at the two men side-by-side, you start to realize that those eyebrows are unmistakable.
The mathematical proportions of Cayan and Fallon are so similar, there’s just no way they aren’t at least related. At least, that’s what some internet sleuths would like to believe. To be honest, this is one of those cases that makes you at least check the pictures twice – until you start believing in time-traveling vampires.
7. Brad Pitt and Hermann Rorschach
The father of the world’s most famous inkblot test was famously good-looking. So much so, that internet conspiracy theorists have become convinced he must be a vampire – one that now lives under the name “Brad Pitt”.
Both men share a rugged “golden boy” facial structure, characterized by piercing eyes and a strong, defined jawline. Prime Rorschach looks like a dead ringer for Pitt’s Aldo Raine character, from Inglorious Basterds. One thing is for sure: if there were ever a movie about the creator of the Rorschach test, we know who should play the lead role.
8. Mark Zuckerberg and Philip IV of Spain
Look, we’ve all heard everything about Zuckerberg’s unique looks. The Facebook founder has a very recognizable face… so recognizable, in fact, that some people are sure they’ve seen those unmistakable proportions before, perhaps in a historical setting. Enter King Philip IV of Spain, as painted by Diego Velázquez.
Could the Meta founder be a vampire from the 1600s? Probably not. But it is entertaining to think that one of the world’s most powerful technocrats of today bore an unmistakable likeness to a historical head of state. If Philip IV wore a gray hoodie and became obsessed with the Metaverse, he would most certainly look exactly like the Zuck.
9. Keanu Reeves and Paul Mounet
Rumors about Keanu’s seemingly eternal youth have been around for decades at this point. Even if the John Wick star has finally started to sprout some gray hairs in recent years, there’s no denying how great he looks for being 61. At least, that’s if you believe the “official” story. Real internet truth seekers know Keanu is actually a vampire, and there’s evidence of his past lives.
Paul Mounet, a French actor born in 1847, looks nearly identical to Keanu. To make things even more mysterious, Mounet died in 1922… but his body was never found. Could this be evidence of his “transformation” into Keanu Reeves? Maybe. At least, we can admire how the two actors shared a love for stylish facial hair patterns, despite the century or so between them.
10. Nicolas Cage and Civil War soldier
Nicolas Cage chewed scenery in Vampire’s Kiss and rode hellfire in Ghost Rider. Then eBay got weird. Dealer Jack Mord listed a Civil War photo of Lieutenant G.B. Smith, a Confederate prisoner photographed in 1864 at Johnson’s Island in Ohio, from Bristol, Tenn., and priced it at $1 million. He wrote, “150 years from now, he might be a politician, the leader of a cult or a talk show host.” Well, it does look a lot like him.
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