Famous Authors and Celebrity Look-alikes: Opposites Brought Together
Everyone has a double, or so it’s been said. My latest search attempts to compare another unlikely sampling of figures. Celebrity visibility is easy, but not always the product of genius.
This is my favorite top-ten list of famous authors throughout history paired with their pop-star doubles, set side-by-side. Each paring is opposite in personality, career or background. With just a little blurb on the classic authors to guide the reader, here are my top ten in no particular order.
1. Oscar Wilde
1854-1900 Irish writer, poet and athlete. Known for his dramas influenced by aestheticism and his early death.
The look-alike is
Hugh Grant, actor
Born 1960
2. Sarah Orne Jewette
1849-1909. New-England bred novelist and short story writer.
The look-alike is:
Laura Innes, actor.
Born 1957
3. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1749-1832. One of the most important German language authors. Creator of works as a writer, poet, dramatist, theologian and scientist.
The look-alike is:
Bob Newhart, actor
Born 1929
4, George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)
1819-1880. Superb Victorian-era novelist who worked under a male pen-name in order to be taken seriously.
The look-alike is:
Sandra Oh, actor
Born 1971
5. Willa Cather
1873-1947. Pulitzer Prize winning American author, known for her novels on frontier life, including O Pioneers! and The Song of the Lark.
The look-alike is:
Golda Meir (in 1917) Prime Minister of the State of Israel
1898-1978
6. Virginia Woolf
1882-1941. English Modernist author, one of the greatest innovators of the English language. Works include Mrs. Dalloway, To The Lighthouse and Orlando.
The look-alike is:
John Kerry, United States Senator, Massachusetts
Born 1943
7. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 1859-1930. Scottish writer and physician. Known primarily for his crime fiction but also wrote historical novels and science fiction
The look-alike is:
Theodore Roosevelt, US President, 1901-1909
1858-1919
8. Lewis Carroll
1832-1898. Pseudonym for Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, known for his Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
The look-alike is:
Jason Robards, actor
1922-2000
9. Mark Twain
1835-1910. American Author who enjoyed immense professional and personal popularity, both during and after his lifetime. He is known for the great American novels, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
The look-alike is:
Hal Holbrook (portraying Mark Twain), American actor
Born 1925
10. Gloria Steinem
Born 1934. Journalist and Feminist and spokesperson for the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 1960’s – 1970’s.
The look-alike is:
Diane Keaton, actor
Born 1946
6 comments
Great piece. I really enjoyed this; some of them are uncanny. Virginia Wolf and John Kerry is my favourite.
Yes, indeed. If People Magazine were around in the 1880's, Oscar Wilde would have been the sexiest man alive. But I also love his work.
Interesting comparisons.