Actors With False Identities (or who keep their real lives secret)
 

This may sound like a paradox since being an actor means you pretend to be fictional characters that don't exist in reality. But this is about actors who've created alternate identities that are supposed to exist in reality, yet are fictional.

(Or those whose supposed true identities themselves are not their true selves or are so steeped in mystery that no one actually knows who they really are or what they're really like.)

Probably the best known for this was Andy Kaufman who both created false identities and kept his real life & identity such a mystery that people even questioned if his death was real.

Kaufman created an obnoxious stand-up comedian character named "Tony Clifton" and a lot of people didn't know Kaufman was Clifton (which was understandable since sometimes the character of Clifton was not played by Kaufman!) Clifton even appeared onstage with Kaufman and after Kaufman's death, adding to the questions of Clifton's identity.

https://media.gq.com/photos/5583e9ba...ufman-tony.jpg


Another honorable mention is John C. Reilly's character "Dr. Steve Brule."
Brule is obviously Reilly just by sight, yet Reilly claims he does not play Brule and doesn't know Brule.

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Please post if you know of any other characters or actors like this.

Not an Actor but Adam Yauch aka MCA of the Beastie Boys is really Swiss filmmaker Nathaniel Hornblower.

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Re: Actors With False Identities (or who keep their real lives secret)
 

The rock band Spinal Tap was created for the documentary-style comedy film This Is Spinal Tap (1984).

https://www.freefilmfestivals.org/wp..._poster_01.jpg

As the movie took on cult status, some people thought it was about a real band. And over time, some didn't realize the band was concocted by actors for a movie.

In the tradition of other fictional bands (like the Monkees and the Partridge Family) Spinal Tap even went on to have actual live concerts & tours, reinforcing the idea in some younger generation minds that Spinal Tap was a real heavy metal band from the late 70's.

(People who thought the band was real weren't entirely wrong, because, in a sense, fact followed fiction as the fake band actually became a real band, though still made up of actors playing musicians with different names from the actors playing them.)

In an early 1990's, and again in late 90's / early 2000's, Spinal Tap tour, Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, and Christopher Guest opened for themselves as The Folksmen - a group also created by the same artists in 1984 (same year as Spinal Tap) for a Saturday Night Live sketch and went on to be featured in another musical "mockumentary" called A Mighty Wind (2003).

https://media.gettyimages.com/photos...1149?s=612x612

Large portions of the audience at the concerts did not know either group was comprised of actors (the same 3 actors in both groups, wearing different makeup, that played & sang different styles of music).

"The Folksmen" were the same group as "Spinal Tap," but were booed during the first act, while fans screamed for Spinal Tap, as people did not know that the two bands were one and the same! :)

Re: Actors With False Identities (or who keep their real lives secret)
 

In the early films of John Waters, a guy by the name of Glenn Milstead created the large, opulent drag queen, Divine, the queen of filth. Divine starred in several of Waters' films, but never appeared in public except for brief, scripted occasions. I even knew a couple of Waters' minor cast members, who grew up in my Baltimore neighborhood, and they were mum about who Divine was. "She" was a guy named Glenn Milstead, who could walk around town and not be noticed.

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This one's a bit iffy... but Super Dave Osborne (SDO).

https://www.athletespeakers.com/imag...UuanBn/267x367

Now, I knew Super Dave was obviously a comedian who was spoofing daredevils like Evel Knievel.
And I knew his act was obviously a comedy bit because Dave's stunts would always go comically wrong.
But I thought the comedian was named "Dave Osborne."

The thing is SDO didn't start out as a character on a sit-com (although he would eventually get his own show) but he usually appeared as a guest on talk & variety shows in the same way they'd sometimes have real people as guests explaining their craft or skills (SDO's craft & skill was being an incredibly inept stuntman).

Well, Super Dave was comedy writer & actor Bob Einstein - not sure why he created Super Dave since "Super Bob Einstein" sounds like a pretty neat name! :)

Bob is brother to famous actor Albert Brooks (who's birth name was Albert Einstein!) ;) and Clifford Einstein. Bob started out working with the Smothers Brothers and was a comedy character actor both before and after his career as SDO. He's probably best known in modern times playing "Marty Funkhouser" on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Bob passed away 01/02/2019.

Excellent entry, skizz! Fits the category perfectly.

Divine reminded me of Dame Edna - although the actor who created her (Barry Humphries) acknowledges he plays her, a lot of people think she is an actual person and some don't realize she's played by a man.

"Although Humphries freely states that Edna is a character he plays, Edna refers to Humphries as her "entrepreneur" or manager. Humphries and his staff of assistants and writers only refer to Edna as "she" and "her", never mixing the character with Humphries."

https://www.gstatic.com/tv/thumb/per.../817_v9_ba.jpg

Not sure if this fits your description, but Jayne Mansfield created a fictional identity for herself that she never, ever dropped in any live appearances or films. The image of a platinum blonde raw sex symbol of low intelligence was natural for her, given her physical attributes, but in real life she had a high I.Q. and spoke several languages.

She was different in that way, say, from Marilyn Monroe, who, despite her yearning for intellectualism, did not have the intelligence or acumen to rise to that level.

It fits just fine, Gulfport! Public personas that defy the real or whole person are also what this topic is about. Plus... I didn't know these things about Jayne Mansfield!

https://www.latimes.com/includes/pro..._mansfield.jpg

Re: Actors With False Identities (or who keep their real lives secret)
 

Pee Wee Herman

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These days we know Pee Wee was played by comedian Paul Reubens, but such common knowledge wasn't always the case.

The strange man-child character started out as a stand-up night club act, then became an adult-themed stage show spoofing children's shows, then the character got his own movies, then an actual children's show that retained the bizarre aspects of the stage show, but without the adult innuendo.

Through all this, few people knew the name Paul Reubens, and for those who did; knew little about him, his career, or his real life... as Pee Wee Herman was his dominant public persona. It was obvious Pee Wee was a character played by a comedian, but most of the public was oblivious to the man who brought Pee Wee to life...

"Throughout his film and television programs, Pee-wee Herman's background has remained relatively ambiguous. During interviews, he has been portrayed as though he is a real life stand-up comedian who expanded his career by playing himself in his films and TV series. This is echoed by the fact that a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was awarded to Pee-wee Herman rather than Paul Reubens."

We have since come to learn more about Reubens' real life (both the good and not so good).

Are you saying that women with large breasts are not intelligent?

Harsh judgement IMO. We know nothing about Monroe’s intelligence levels though, to me, she seemed very intelligent & desperately wanted to educate herself.

This one's a stretch and may not even apply, but... Jiminy Glick.

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/e5/45/76/e...eel-better.jpg

I think most people realize Martin Short played Jiminy Glick from the outset. (Short created many recurring characters for various skit TV shows.)

But Jiminy Glick (a character with prosthetic makeup that made him almost unrecognizable as Short) seemed to take on a life of his own as he ultimately obtained his own interview shows.

I include him here because he seemed to exist in our reality as more than just a skit character since he made a career of interacting with and interviewing lots of actual celebrities (who themselves would sometimes admit that they'd forget this was Martin Short playing a character and respond as if Glick were his own persona).

Only if that description fits you.

Look, you've been ragging me for a couple of months, and I don't appreciate it. I have no history of making snide comments about any of your silly posts, so stop trolling me.

You don't need to answer this post. Just stop.

Foreign Man
Another entry for Andy Kaufman

https://compote.slate.com/images/18b...c2299e22bc.jpg

He's here because he was a character Kaufman would play on stage before he was famous and he'd have audiences convinced he was a nervous, naive, foreign man who spoke broken English with a strong accent.

The humor lied in the fact that Foreign Man did not have a firm grasp of the English language and that his jokes were not funny or were not relatable to an American audience.

As the awkwardness of the performance grew along with the discomfort of the audience, Foreign Man would then launch into a dead-on impression of Elvis Presley (or lip-sync to a recording of the Mighty Mouse song!) before resuming his accent and subdued affect.

Early in Kaufman's stand-up career he'd remain in this character (exempting the musical impressions) for the entire set, thus he convinced audiences that he was a foreign amateur trying his hand at American stand-up comedy.

Of course, we know Foreign Man later evolved into the beloved character of Latka on the TV sit-com Taxi (but by then most people knew Kaufman's name and knew Foreign Man was only an act).

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You can post whatever you like. And I have the right to post whatever I like. My two comments were perfectly legitimate.

You can’t bully someone into silence.

Trailer Park Boys:
When the show began getting traction in 2002, most people thought it was real and they were not playing characters. Much of the time they would appear in public or on other shows in character as Ricky, Julian, or Bubbles. The only people notable on the show were Shelley Thompson (Barb Lahey, who was in Labyrinth) and Jonathan Torrens (J-Roc, who was known for hosting the CBC show Street Cents).

Re: Actors With False Identities (or who keep their real lives secret)
 

Brother Theodore

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20190511013253

This one I'm really not sure about as I don't know much about the man's personal life or if he ever broke character.

Theodore Isidore Gottlieb (1906 - 2001) had a varied career in America as a stand-up comedian, actor, monologist and philosopher known for rambling, stream-of-consciousness monologues which he called "stand-up tragedy."

During WWII, at age 32 he was a prisoner at Dachau - the Nazi concentration camp!

He garnered a cult following in the late 50's through the 70's and made a comeback by appearing frequently on the Late Night with David Letterman show.

I include him here because it would be hard to believe that someone with a stage persona that was this genuinely angry would have pursued a career in entertainment. ;)

I got one for you, and I better post it before I forget it: Iron Eyes Cody...He was in 216 movies and TV shows IMDB filmography Iron Eyes Cody

Several generations grew up with him as the noble Native American who deeply loved the land. Many years later it was found out he wasn't Native American at all, but an Italian American actor who had gotten work posing as an 'Indian'.

Whoa! Good one, Rules!
Normally, I'd say an actor playing a recurring character in commercials might not apply. But Iron Eyes Cody went beyond simply appearing in PSA commercials - he became a national icon for (as you said) generations, he literally passed himself off as an American Indian to his associates (according to the blurb you posted), and virtually everyone thought he was a real Native American.

Larry "Bud" Melman

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This one's a bit obscure, but late in his career, character actor Calvert Deforest (1921 - 2007) took on the role of "Larry "Bud" Melman" after being hired by the Late Night with David Letterman show.

For decades I (like so many others) thought this little old man's name was Larry Melman and his nickname was "Bud"!
But not so - the name and persona most knew him by was created as a character.

I thought his name was Larry 'Bud' Melman up until I just read your post! I use to watch Letterman all the time and just figured that was his name.