Doppelganger Digest
Ray Liotta & yours truly headline this whimsical exploration of likenesses
The past 48 hours, I haven’t been able to go anywhere online without my Hollywood doppelganger1 looking back at me.
That’s right, a year after actor Ray Liotta’s death, we now know the cause of his demise at 67: respiratory insufficiency, pulmonary edema and acute heart failure. The news has led to a spate of click-bait articles.
For the past decade or two, I have been 93% certain of what’s coming next when someone has blurted out, “You know who you look like?!?”
It happened just a few weeks ago at a party — in the middle of the kitchen, in the middle of my asking this computer science / security genius 1.3 zillion questions, he proclaimed my resemblance to Liotta with a gusto that was slightly unnerving.
There are exceptions to this universal rule of likening me to the late Goodfellas and Field of Dreams thespian. As I was making a blood donation last year, a medical technician was adamant that it was another actor I was channeling: David Hasselhoff.
I suspect I was having an especially big-hair day that afternoon.
Sigmund + Paul Williams=Sir Karl Jenkins
There was a lot of buzz about a distinctive-looking chap at the coronation of King Charles last weekend. Sir Karl Jenkins, a renowned composer who was sitting next to Andrew Lloyd Webber, has given folks ample opportunity to wield their adjective-employing skills in their descriptions of him.
A sampling: “signature shaggy white hairstyle and matching moustache…grey-haired man sporting a mullet and moustache…incredible mullet and moustache.”
What I see is (below), a blend of Paul Williams (another composer, as well as singer/actor) and Sigmund, the endearing character from the Saturday morning show of my childhood, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters.
I make this comparison with respect: I happen to think the 5-foot-2 Williams (now 82 years old!) is a pretty cute fellow…and there’s absolutely no debating the adorableness of Sigmund.
As for me and the late Ray Liotta, I used to have a mixed reaction about the perceived similarities between us. He was what one might call “ruggedly handsome,” a euphemism for “the guy’s got some skin issues.” But I have come to embrace it. Rather than resent the comparison, I really resemble it.
In the comments, let me know: who is your celebrity doppelganger? And how do you feel about it?
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Doppelganger is German for “double walker” or “double goer.” Translated, it means “exact double” of another person. Here’s a story about the genetic link between real-deal doppelgangers: https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/25/health/doppelganger-dna-study-wellness/index.html
For the record, Tobey Maguire.
A few thought exercises. Would you rather be told you looked like a celebrity or just told flat out that you are good-looking? Since 98% of celebrities are good-looking, that's often how one takes it. I guess that's Hollywood celebrities, though. With sports celebrities, it's hit or miss, and politicians often aren't beauty-contest winners or former beauty-contest winners, although male politicians do tend to be tall.
I suppose it could cause cognitive dissonance if you really didn't like the person you resembled. I don't completely dismiss physiognomy, but I think I would restrict its potential to analyzing one characteristic, rather than thinking certain wholes portended well or didn't. So I am at peace with my one-time resemblance to Maguire.
I think to some extend our look leads to people imputing personality characteristics that aren't there, though. I've heard Maguire described as sensitive and unconventional Hollywood, and I think that might be more about how he looks than the way he is. So people might think Tobey and I are alike, just because of how we look. People might work from certain premises of physiognomy, without knowing it.
If you feel you have a soulmate, and let's keep it to people of the same sex, you don't expect to look like him or her.
It is odd how you can feel much more similar to a friend than a sibling, despite the genetic relation. But presumably a relative is the only case where you might really hit the jackpot of looking like someone and being like that person. Unless I'm underrating physiognomy, I guess.
Mmmm... Matt, I gotta admit I Never saw the Liotta lookalike .. guess it's an Eye of the Beholder thing.. or maybe your kind & gentle temperment is so far removed from the characters that I loved watching Ray portray.. nah, you ain't Ray...