Celebrity Impersonator

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Carmen Miranda, Carmen Miranda, Carmen Miranda, and Carmen Miranda

There are those who look like famous people, and there are those who make a living impersonating them, either by imitating their voice, or dressing up like them in their most iconic outfits. Ether way, Celebrity Impersonators make a name for themselves by acting like famous people (or at least the most popular depiction of them), making appearances at parties, in lookalike contests, or in porn. Sometimes the impersonators do such a good job at this that the original is told Your Costume Needs Work.

Popular targets are Marilyn Monroe (who may need her own subtrope someday) and Elvis Presley. See also Body Double, who's expected to impersonate an assassination-prone ruler.

Examples of Celebrity Impersonator include:

Fan Works

• Played with in a vignette that is part of the Drunkard's Walk fic cycle, set after the end of Robert A. Heinlein's Podkayne of Mars. In it, the former socialite "Girdie" mentions how she's making money by impersonating herself.

Film

• In L.A. Confidential, there's a prostitute service that specializes in them.
• In Rat Race, there was an entire busload of Lucille Ball impersonators. Not all of them were women.
• Ocean's Twelve had an extended gag in which the character played by Julia Roberts impersonates... Julia Roberts.
• Pulp Fiction and the waiting staff at Jack Rabbit Slims. "That's the Marilyn Monroe section. That's Mamie Van Doren. I don't see Jayne Mansfield, she must have the night off."
• In Dave, the titular Dave is a dead ringer for the president and often takes side jobs impersonating the president to advertise local businesses. He gets recruited to be the president's body double, but continues to pretend to be the president when the real one suffers a stroke.
• Moon Over Parador: Basically the entire premise. A moderately successful stage actor is recruited to portray a recently deceased dictator of a Central American banana republic.
• In Bubba Ho-Tep one half of the cast is a infirm Elvis impersonator (the other a black-man who believes himself to be the real JFK) only the twist is he believes he really is Elvis who preformed a Trading Places like switch with a normal impersonator.

Literature

• The Truth: This is what happens to the fake Patrician after he's exposed; he signs up with the Guild of Actors and starts appearing at children's parties as a Lord Vetinari impersonator. The real Lord V suspects that being locked in a dungeon with an iron mask on might be preferable.

Live-Action TV

• In one episode of CSI New York, the killer commits suicide by re-enacting Marilyn Monroe's death. Another episode of involved a man who impersonated former tennis star John McEnroe—and who was played by the real John McEnroe.
• One episode of Nip Tuck centers on two Marilyn Monroe impersonators (and rivals). Each goes to a respective brother to get a surgical leg up on the competition. After one nearly dies of medical complications, they're given the inspirational speech to work together to make even more tips. The episode ends with them both curled up in bed with the advising doctor. A Michael Jackson impersonator has also appeared on this show.
• Maid Marian and Her Merry Men: Parodied when they discover there is a celebrity impersonator of Robin Hood, whom the Sheriff hires to frame Robin. That's right, professional celebrity impersonators in The Dung Ages.
• The Mentalist had a corpse found by a Charlie Chaplin and a Marilyn Monroe impersonator who were walking home from their jobs; they had to stand there and be gawked at along with the crime scene until they were interviewed by the cops.
• Roseanne: When asked to plan the wedding of her homosexual boss and his partner, Roseanne hired impersonators of Judy Garland and Liza Minelli to entertain at the reception.
• The Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch Court Scene with Cardinal Richelieu features a "professional Cardinal Richelieu impersonator".

Web Original

• Employed for comedic value by Improv Everywhere when they stationed a lookalike for King Philip IV of Spain (1605-1665) to sign autographs in front of his portrait at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Western Animation

• In The Tick, there's Joseph Stalinov, who's an impersonator of Josef Stalin. Yes, that Stalin. He appeared in one episode, and most of the major cast thought he was real Stalin even after he explained he wasn't. Even those who personally knew Stalin believed that the impersonator was real.
• In Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension, Doof-1 tried to persuade Doof-2 to keep him as an impersonator for boring events.
• In Back to The Future, Marty will have impersonators in the future. One hundred years after the series' "present" time.

Real Life

• Actor Robert Sacchi has made his entire career on the fact that he's a dead ringer for Humphrey Bogart. In The Man With Bogart's Face, he effectively plays himself, a man who's a dead ringer for Humphrey Bogart.
• Female wrestler Shelly Martinez, better known as Ariel in WWE and Salinas in TNA, has done Bettie Page porn.
• The vast majority of Scott Innes' voicework is impersonating the late Casey Kasem's higher-voiced roles, such as voicing modern adaptations of Shaggy and parodying Casey's Gatchaman work in Megas XLR.
• Rich Little mostly just does voice impressions, but for The Movie of The Late Shift, he played Johnny Carson.
• The Universal Studios theme parks have celebrity look-alikes wander around occasionally as photo/autograph opportunities for the tourist. Why someone would want an autograph from a Marilyn Monroe or Charlie Chaplin impersonator...
• Mikheil Gelovani managed to impersonate Josef Stalin so well (essentially Stalin's romantic vision of himself), that Stalin forbade him from doing any other role until his death. Arguably, he's more Stalin than Stalin.
• Quite a few rulers (especially dictators) would have a Body Double of themselves to make public appearances so that if an assassination attempt happened, they wouldn't be in any danger.
• Fred Travalena was nicknamed "Mr. Everybody" for this reason.
• John C. Sherwood is the reason so many people in the world can claim to have personally met Sherlock Holmes.
• Improv Everywhere had their own fun with this, by positioning a double for King Phillip IV of Spain (1605-65) in front of a 400-year-old painting of the king,.