A young Joseph Stalin and Zayn Malik, formerly of One Direction. Wikimedia Commons, Jason Merritt/Getty Images
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Actress Hedy Lamarr in 1942 and Rose McGowan. Pinterest
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An unidentified archival photo of one particularly dapper gentleman and Eddie Murphy. Tumblr, Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic/Getty Images
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Egyptian actress Zubaida Tharwat and Jennifer Lawrence.YouTube, Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
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An unidentified photo of one particularly well-dressed man and Matthew McConaughey.Imgur/CC BY-SA 3.0, Georges Biard/Wikimedia Commons
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Russian immunologist Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov and Robin Williams. Hulton Archive/Getty Images, Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic/Getty
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A young Albert Einstein circa 1905 and Shia LaBeouf. Imgur
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A young Vladimir Putin and Macaulay Culkin.Wikimedia Commons, Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic/Getty Images
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An unidentified uniformed man and Channing Tatum.Tony Shek/Wikimedia Commons, Imgur/CC BY-SA 2.0
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Writer Zora Neale Hurston in 1940 and Queen Latifah. LOC/Wikimedia Commons, aclu_socal/Flickr
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Swiss psychoanalyst Hermann Rorschach, the inventor of the inkblot test, and Brad Pitt.Wikimedia Commons, Eamonn McCormack/WireImage/Getty
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A girl named Judy Zipper, pictured in a high school yearbook circa the 1960s and Leonardo DiCaprio.Imgur
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An unidentified Civil War–era man and Nicolas Cage. Kirk Weaver, Wikimedia Commons
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World War I soldier (and later noted economist) Harold Innis and rapper Eminem. Facebook
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An unidentified gentleman from the distant past and Steve Carell.Imgur, Wikimedia Commons
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An unidentified vintage mugshot and Justin Timberlake. Tyne and Wear/Flickr, Georges Biard/Wikimedia Commons
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Rose Wilder Lane — the daughter of author Laura Ingalls Wilder — and Maggie Gyllenhaal.Wikimedia Commons, Sylvain Gaboury/FilmMagic/Getty
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German World War I pilot Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, a.k.a. "The Red Baron" and Arcade Fire's Win Butler.Wikimedia Commons, Facebook
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Nicolae Grigorescu, a pioneer of modern Romanian painting, in 1860 and Orlando Bloom.Wikimedia Commons, Imgur
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U.S. Army General Douglas MacArthur in 1945 and Bruce Willis. Wikimedia Commons, Gage Skidmore/Flickr
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Congressman Thomas Burchill in 1943 and Senator Ted Cruz.Wikimedia Commons, Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons
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An old Italian poster for the comedic opera The Barber of Seville and Jack Black.YouTube, Dominique Charriau/WireImage/Getty
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Jesse Pomeroy, the youngest convicted first-degree murderer in the history of Massachusetts (1874) and English singer Robbie Williams.Wikimedia Commons, Dave Hogan/Getty Images
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An unidentified man from the 1860s and John Travolta. Wikimedia Commons, Pinterest/CC BY-SA 3.0
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Union Army soldier (and Louisiana State Senator) Marshall H. Twitchell and Conan O'Brien. Wikimedia Commons, Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Turner
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Soviet politician Leon Trotsky and actor Ben Schwartz. Wikimedia Commons, Eric Appel/Flickr
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Mugshot of a convict named Albert Johnson in 1885 and Gary Oldman.Nebraska History, Dark Knight Wiki
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Writer Henry David Thoreau and Ellen Degeneres. Wikimedia Commons, AOL
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A wide-eyed, unidentified young soldier and Jerry O'Connell.Pinterest, Ron Davis/Getty Images
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Actor Lee J. Cobb in 1955 and Jason Segel. Hulton Archive/Getty Images, Imgur
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Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader Mahir Çayan and Jimmy Fallon. Wikimedia Commons, Rob Rich/Flickr
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An unidentified Civil War–era man and Robert Pattinson. Imgur, Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
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British painter David Wilke in 1805 and Rupert Grint. Wikimedia Commons, Joella Marano/Wikimedia Commons
33 Celebrity Look-Alikes From The Past That Are So Similar It’s Scary
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Whether we're talking about famous figures who helped shape our world or common people whose names are no longer even remembered, the internet has turned up a number of people who are dead ringers for modern-day celebrities.
Sometimes it's one feature, and sometimes it's a lot of features. Other times it's an expression, an attitude, or a detail you can't even really put your finger on. But either way, these photos might just make you wonder if some of your favorite celebrities are actually immortal time travelers.
And as if these photos of celebrity look-alikes themselves weren't spooky enough, there's also a spooky mythology behind the notion of doppelgängers. Ancient Norse and Finnish mythology, for example, are full of stories of people who showed up at prearranged appointments only to be told that they had already been there and left.
Needless to say, many cultures believed that running into your double was a bad sign. Tudor stories from 17th-century England even say that Queen Elizabeth I walked into her room one evening and saw herself lying on her bed, looking pale and weak. Shortly after that, she fell ill and died in that very bed.
Wikimedia CommonsThe Death of Elizabeth I, Queen of England by Paul Delaroche. 1828.
Though tales like these add a little chill to the idea of celebrity look-alikes and celebrity doppelgangers, logic tells us that there are simply a finite number of ways in which a human face can appear. Given the vast number of people who have walked the earth, there are bound to be some similarities.
When you find a photo of someone from the past, it's easy to compare them to people you see often — and celebrities' faces are everywhere all the time. So as more old photos hit the internet, instances of dead-ringer celebrity look-alikes will surely only increase.
After this gallery of celebrity look-alikes from the past, check out this collection of vintage mugshots and see if you can spot any more doppelgängers. Then, peruse these bizarre historical photos that prove just how strange the past really was.
An All That's Interesting writer since 2013, Erin Kelly focuses on historic places, natural wonders, environmental issues, and the world of science. Her work has also been featured in Smithsonian and she's designed several book covers in her career as a graphic artist.
John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime.
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Kelly, Erin. "33 Celebrity Look-Alikes From The Past That Are So Similar It’s Scary." AllThatsInteresting.com, December 13, 2018, https://allthatsinteresting.com/celebrity-look-alikes-history. Accessed April 25, 2024.
