Double Takes
The Bridgeman archive is brimming with wonderful portraiture. This Hollywood awards season, in order to celebrate the art of portraiture, we bring you our favourite celebrity look-a-likes.
Our first two ringers are this year's Academy Awards show hosts. This self-portrait by Leon Cogniet has the swagger of nominee James Franco, while Renoir's ethereal portrait of Madame Henriot could just as easily be of actress Anne Hathaway.
Nominated for 12 Academy Awards, The Kings Speech, is a favourite for Best Picture. Colin Firth, brilliantly cast as George VI, resembles the Russian Price Alexander Ivanovitch (right). Helena Bonham Carter does an skillful job portraying his Queen. This portrait by Ford Madox Brown (left) could be the actress as a young girl.
From the Best Supporting Actor group, Sir James Clark Ross (left), a 19th century British explorer, looks very much like Christian Bale, who is nominated for his role in The Fighter. And, need we even say who Ferdinand II (right) resembles? Hint: he gave an outstanding performance alongside Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter in the above mentioned movie, although Ferdinand II's costume brings forth memories of this actor's earlier role as a down-and-out theatre owner in Shakespeare in Love.
The 17th century portrait of a lady (left) could be a long lost ancestor of Michelle Williams. Williams has been nominated in the Best Actress category for her role in Blue Valentine. And the George Romney portrait (right) looks like Amy Adams decked out in 18th century costume, a la Enchanted. Although her nominated performance in The Fighter is the polar opposite of this proper, refined lady.
Rounding off our Academy Award nominee look-a-likes is Henri I, Duc de Guise (left), looking very much like Winter's Bone supporting actor, John Hawkes. We can't see her face, but we know that this postcard cowgirl (right) posseses True Grit, much like Best Supporting Actress nominee, Hailee Steinfeld.
As we were looking for images for this feature, it became apparent that there were just too many excellent ones to show on one page (like this gorgeous portrait (right) of Penelope Cr....Pavonia by Frederic Leighton).
Check out more celebrity look-a-likes here. See if you can identify each one's celebrity double.
(We know it's subjective, but if you'd like to see our answers scroll to the bottom of this page.)
Row 1: Lady Gaga, Meryl Streep, Mila Kunis, Emily Blunt / Row 2: Joan Cusack, Daniel Day Lewis, Al Pacino (or Sean Connery), Emma Watson / Row 3: Catherine O'Hara, Javier Bardem, Robert DeNiro, The guy who played "Blue" in Old School / Row 4: Rufus Sewell, Kevin Kline, Olympia Dukakis, Kim Raver / Row 5: Penelope Cruz, Charles Grodin, Henry Winkler, Jim Carrey w/ a beard! / Row 6: Emilio Estevez, Justin Timberlake, John Corbett, a young Susan Sarandon / Row 7: A young Kate Hudson, Charlize Theron, Robert Downey Jr., Tim Curry / Row 8: Ben Affleck, Orlando Bloom, Bob Hope, Jon Cryer / Row 9: Paul Newman, John Malkovitch, Randy Quaid, Kristin Scott Thomas / Row 10: Will Farrell, Rachel Griffiths, Sarah Gilbert, Saffron Burrows