Real People Behind the Movie Characters

It is truly amazing how much the actors in Hollywood resemble the characters they play. As the photos in this post show, their transformation is uncanny. It is such a gift they have to be able to play these characters but to look like them as well is remarkable.

In the pictures, the actors are shown on the right and the real characters are on the left.

Related Post: The Best Movie Make-Ups Ever

Tom Cruise in the role of Ron Kovic, a veteran of the Vietnam War, in Born on the Fourth of July (1989)

Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute and a serial killer, accurately portrayed by Charlize Theron in Monster (2003)

Woody Harrelson in the role of Larry Flynt and in The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)

Robert De Niro in the role of boxer Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull (1980)



Leonardo DiCaprio as Jim Carroll in The Basketball Diaries (1995)

Frank Abagnale, a security consultant and a former confidence trickster, check forger, skilled impostor, and escape artist featured by Leonardo DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can (2002)

Leonardo DiCaprio together with Frank Abagnale

Russell Crowe in the role of John Nash in A Beautiful Mind (2001)

John Nash and his wife Alicia and Russel Crowe with Jennifer Connelly in A Beautiful Mind (2001)

Gene Hackman in the role of Jimmy Doyle inThe French Connection (1971)

Hilary Swank as Brandon Teena in Boys Don't Cry (1999)

Javier Bardem as Ramon Sampedro in The Sea Inside (2004)



Al Pacino in role of Frank Serpico in Serpico (1973)

John Lone in the role of Pu Yi, Chinese Emperor in The Last Emperor (1987)

Robert De Niro in the role of the casino executive Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal in Casino (1995)

Bernard Hill played Edward Smith, the captain of Titanic, in the movie Titanic (1997)

Victor Garber featured Thomas Andrews, shipbuilder of the ocean liner RMS Titanic, in the movie Titanic (1997)

Macaulay Culkin played Michael Alig, a member of Club Kids in the movie Party Monster (2003)

Daniel Day-Lewis featured Gerry Conlon, wrongfully convicted for the Guildford pub bombings in the ovie In the Name of the Father (1993)

Denzel Washington in the role of Frank Lucas, a drug lord, in American Gangster (2007)

Russell Crowe as Jeffrey Wigand, the vice president at Brown & Williamson in The Insider (1999)

Val Kilmer in the role of Jim Morrison, in the movie The Doors (1991)

Jamie Foxx in the role of American musician Ray Charles, a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s in the movie Ray (2004)

Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash in Walk the Line (2005)



Gary Oldman featured Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy (1986)

Salma Hayek in the role of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo in Frida (2002)



Jeffrey Wright as Basquiat in Basquiat (1996)

19th-century French poet Arthur Rimbaud played by Leonardo DiCaprio in Total Eclipse (1995)

Johnny Depp playing journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

One of America's most controversial and colorful authors Truman Capote featured by Philip Seymour Hoffman as in Capote (2005)

Jim Carrey as comedian Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon (1999)

Vincent Cassel in the role of French criminal Jacques Mesrine in Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1 (2008)





Marion Cotillard featured Edith Piaf in the movie La vie en Rose (2007)