Over the years I have been told that I bear a resemblance to various famous men. In some cases I have literally been mistaken for these famous men. Why this happens to me more than other people, I don't know. In any event, although I was tempted to provide you with side-by-side photos comparing me with each of these guys, it seemed a bit too vain and would definitely be too time-consuming. If you don't know what I look like, you can find plenty of photos of me in the Updates section, then do a Google image search for the more famous faces and come to your own conclusions.
- Nate Ruess. Of all the people I've been compared to, this one is the most spot-on. Ruess, the lead singer for the currently popular band fun., has blue eyes and a different nose, but otherwise I have to admit that the resemblance is eerie. As a friend of mine put it, Ruess could be my lovechild with Guy Pearce.
- Eddie Redmayne. The young British star of Les Misérables and My Week With Marilyn has, like Nate Ruess, my squinty eyes, tousled locks, and weird mouth. Otherwise, I don't totally buy the resemblance.
- Clay Aiken. Though the American Idol runner-up is now rather doughy in the face and his hair is quite different, back during his 2003 Idol days I was told that I looked like him by at least half a dozen people, including my own sister. One woman, pulling out of a shopping mall as I was walking by, even rolled down her car window and exclaimed, "I thought you were amazing on American Idol!"
- Beck. This one may seem like a stretch today, but you have to understand that in 1999 I experimented with growing my hair out. (A bad look for me.) Now, combine my shoulder-length hair, lightened by the sun, with my late '90s taste for '70s era disco shirts and my wiry frame... Well, okay. My face still looked absolutely nothing like the hipster icon's. Nevertheless, as I strolled up Fairfax Avenue one afternoon, my features slightly hidden behind prescription sunglasses, some starstruck young lady actually whispered "Beck?" at me as I walked past her.
- Michael Emerson. My own wife noted that Emerson, best known as the cold-blooded Benjamin Linus on Lost, shares some of my traits, specifically the spiky hair and prominent nose. Sporting eyeglasses, as he does on the TV series Person of Interest, Emerson appears - as my wife put it - like a cross between me and Paul Reubens.
- Wes Anderson. If you can find a photo of the Moonrise Kingdom director back in his Bottle Rocket/Rushmore days, before the long hair and the corduroy suits, the then-bespectacled Anderson made for a decent doppelganger. It's amazing how much hairstyles and eyewear can influence one's perception of another person's looks.
- Bill Gates. As stated above, the sheer fact that I wear glasses once inspired an executive at a company I worked for in the mid-'90s to come up to me and joke, "You look like Bill Gates, so that's gotta be a good thing for us!" I'm certain he had no idea that I was a graphic designer, not a programmer. (As a side note, this fellow was the son of legendary director William Wyler. He was still kind of an ass.)
- William Fichtner. Just a couple of months ago, some dude at a party - who himself was the spitting image of actor/comedian Brad Garrett - told me that my Hollywood lookalike was actually fiftysomething character actor William Fichtner (best known for... ah, just look him up). Gee, thanks? Personally, I think Fichtner looks more like Barry Manilow than he does me. But I guess we share a prominent forehead and narrow eyes.
- Kevin Bacon. Not long after the William Fichtner thing, some Latina stopped me in my tracks as I walked past her near the LA County Museum of Art and informed me that I looked like Kevin Bacon, "when he was younger." Thanks for the soothing addendum, señora. But I still don't see it. In my mind's eye, I always thought I looked more like a young Harrison Ford. But my mind's eye probably needs glasses too.