Why Celebrity Look-Alikes Fascinate Us
The fascination with celebrity doubles existed long before social media.
For generations, people have made careers impersonating famous singers, actors and political figures. Some performers naturally resemble celebrities, while others use makeup, hairstyles, costumes and carefully practiced expressions to strengthen the effect.
Certain celebrities have attracted particularly large communities of impersonators.
Elvis Presley is perhaps one of the most famous examples. Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin and other cultural icons have also inspired generations of professional and amateur look-alikes.
Michael Jackson is no exception.
His distinctive fashion, hairstyles, dance movements and changing appearance over the course of his career gave impersonators numerous recognizable visual elements to reproduce.
But sometimes no deliberate impersonation is involved at all.
Two unrelated people can simply share certain facial characteristics.
When those similarities line up with the appearance of someone extremely famous, the effect can be startling.
Photography can make that resemblance appear even stronger.
