# Composer lookalikes



## Rubens (Nov 5, 2017)

Composer biopics nearly always choose actors that look nothing like the composers they portray!

Now here are some TRUE lookalikes of famous composers:

Mozart: young Jonathan Pryce









Beethoven: Colin Firth









Chopin: Tim Roth









Rachmaninoff: Paul Reubens (yes that's PeeWee, who would've thought)









Scriabin: Chad Lowe


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## Guest (Jun 15, 2019)

Mozart really isn't that good-looking though.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Shostakovich: Harry Potter








Chopin: Professor Snape


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## Guest (Jun 15, 2019)

Also, this guy positively reminds me of Franz Liszt

Must have been the hair.


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

Often thought that Liszt looked like King Richard III. Wonder what anyone else think?


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Michael Lonsdale - Debussy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Lonsdale


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

John Cage and Leonard Nimoy?


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Grieg and Mark Twain?


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## Open Book (Aug 14, 2018)

.....................................................


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

Nikolai Medtner









Mark Margolis


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## Rubens (Nov 5, 2017)

Orfeo said:


> Nikolai Medtner
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Totally. Good one.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I don't know about composers looking like anyone but themselves,

(and I certainly prefer them to sound like themselves rather than somebody else!),

but I've long thought Mr. French from the old television show "Family Affair" was actually Luciano Pavarotti.


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## Aleksandr Rachkofiev (Apr 7, 2019)

How about Krystian Zimerman and Chopin? I've always thought they looked oddly similar at a young age.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

SONNET CLV said:


> I don't know about composers looking like anyone but themselves,
> 
> (and I certainly prefer them to sound like themselves rather than somebody else!),
> 
> ...


Surely Pavarotti was a doppelganger of the great Michael Flanders?


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

Bohuslav Martinů and James Cromwell


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

Judith said:


> Often thought that Liszt looked like King Richard III. Wonder what anyone else think?


Imagine Liszt being buried in a car park somewhere in Budapest??

Franz Liszt and Max Wall


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)




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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I don't know if George Bernard Shaw ever commented about Tchaikovsky, but he should have.















I do know that both men commented about Brahms.

I have played over the music of that scoundrel Brahms. What a giftless b*****d! It annoys me that this self-inflated mediocrity is hailed as a genius. Why, in comparison with him, Raff is a giant, not to speak of Rubenstein, who afterall is a live and important human being, while Brahms is chaotic and absolutely dried-up stuff.
-- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, diary, 1886

The real Brahms is nothing more than a sentimental voluptuary... He is the most wanton of composers... Only his wantonness is not vicious; it is that of a great baby... rather tiresomely addicted to dressing himself up as Handel or Beethoven and making a prolonged and intolerable noise.
-- George Bernard Shaw, 1893

In their opinions of Brahms, the two men were similar. I wonder if Tchaikovsky was aware that he and Brahms share a birthday, May 07. I suspect Tchaikovsky would not hold much stock in horoscopes.

*_____________________*

While I'm comparing composers and writers, I offer for your consideration Grieg and Mark Twain.















And, if some of you intuit a resemblance with another famous fellow, remember only that we're talking geniuses here, all round.


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

^Somehow I can actually see Tchaikovsky being a big horoscope guy. That journal entry on Brahms is hilarious. I love reading composers' thoughts on their contemporaries. Especially Pierre Boulez and his thoughts on everyone. 

Sadly I don't have any good lookalikes to offer. I'm pretty bad with faces.


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## David Phillips (Jun 26, 2017)

Brahms and Tchaikovsky would eventually meet and they got on well to the extent of going drinking together:

http://en.tchaikovsky-research.net/pages/Johannes_Brahms


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## Open Book (Aug 14, 2018)

Kelsey Grammer as Scrooge looks like Beethoven.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Ligeti and Klaus Kinski


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

maybe also Luigi Nono and Michel Piccoli?


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## Open Book (Aug 14, 2018)

I watch Berlin Philharmonic broadcasts and some orchestra members resemble composers, although these particular photos may not do them justice.

Mozart, just put a wig on him:









Schubert:










Berlioz, or at least he has his 19th century haircut:


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## 1996D (Dec 18, 2018)

Scriabin, Dostoevsky, and Tchaikovsky look like brothers.


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

John Candy and Luciano.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I suspect actor Richard Deacon (from the old _Dick Van **** Show_) could have pulled off convincing performances as the lead character in a biopic of either Sergei Prokofiev or Igor Stravinsky!





















Or, maybe even _both_ in a one-man play on Broadway! The title? _Prokofiev Meets Stravinsky_!


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Can you tell which is composer Peter Mennin, and which is actor Vincent Price?


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

SONNET CLV said:


> I suspect actor Richard Deacon (from the old _Dick Van **** Show_) could have pulled off convincing performances as the lead character in a biopic of either Sergei Prokofiev or Igor Stravinsky!
> 
> Or, maybe even _both_ in a one-man play on Broadway! The title? _Prokofiev Meets Stravinsky_!


I'm not a big lover of the theatre but I would pay to see that :lol:


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Aaron Copland and Larry David.


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## Barelytenor (Nov 19, 2011)

SONNET CLV said:


> Can you tell which is composer Peter Mennin, and which is actor Vincent Price?
> 
> View attachment 120311
> View attachment 120312
> ...


I might be able to tell the difference in the two men if I could bear to look. After _The House on Haunted Hill,_ Vincent Price still scares the everlovin' @#$% out of me. I used to go (ca. 1960s) to the real, old-fashioned indoor Crest Theatre in my hometown (they got an extra nickel a ticket for the British spelling), and they had some creative employees there who liked to do creative things to give the spectators an extra scare for the horror movies.

The theatre had little side doors on either side of the big screen, and for the movie they had run a little invisible wire from one side door to the balcony. There was a scene where Vincent Price was saying a bunch of evil things (he did that a lot): he had killed someone and hooked a metal hook through their head to conveniently lower them into a big vat of acid. After a proper cook time, he was reeling the smoking, flesh-dropping skeleton back up out of the acid--and they opened the little side door of the theatre and a full-length plastic skeleton rolled along the invisible wire to the balcony, brushing the heads of all the big-haired teenie-boppers and their slicked-back Lucky Tiger boyfriends. (Fortunately, they forwent the flesh dropping off of the bones.) Nonetheless, I think I browned my jeans. It was many years before I could see another horror movie.

And I wish you pleasant dreams.

Kind regards, :tiphat:

George


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Barelytenor said:


> I might be able to tell the difference in the two men if I could bear to look. After _The House on Haunted Hill,_ Vincent Price still scares the everlovin' @#$% out of me. I used to go (ca. 1960s) to the real, old-fashioned indoor Crest Theatre in my hometown (they got an extra nickel a ticket for the British spelling), and they had some creative employees there who liked to do creative things to give the spectators an extra scare for the horror movies.
> 
> The theatre had little side doors on either side of the big screen, and for the movie they had run a little invisible wire from one side door to the balcony. There was a scene where Vincent Price was saying a bunch of evil things (he did that a lot): he had killed someone and hooked a metal hook through their head to conveniently lower them into a big vat of acid. After a proper cook time, he was reeling the smoking, flesh-dropping skeleton back up out of the acid--and they opened the little side door of the theatre and a full-length plastic skeleton rolled along the invisible wire to the balcony, brushing the heads of all the big-haired teenie-boppers and their slicked-back Lucky Tiger boyfriends. (Fortunately, they forwent the flesh dropping off of the bones.) Nonetheless, I think I browned my jeans. It was many years before I could see another horror movie.
> 
> ...


Mennin is second. The picture of suave. His music is good too.


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## Minor Sixthist (Apr 21, 2017)

Edgard Varèse and lesser known British actor Rufus Sewell.



































Both pretty dashing, in my opinion..


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I'm starting to become convinced that maybe_ no_ composer ever looked like just himself, but rather had a doppelganger.

How about Howard Hanson and Burl Ives?















and















Of course, Burl Ives was quite a musician, too.









Or is that Howard Hanson performing his as yet unknown to me Guitar Concerto!


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Is this Ravel playing De Niro, or De Niro playing Ravel?















I don't know. But I'm certain De Niro could play anybody he wanted to. And I certainly enjoy playing anything by Ravel!


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

We don't want to leave the ladies out of this one, either.

Let's consider American composer Amy Beach and American actress Alyson Hannigan.


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## Minor Sixthist (Apr 21, 2017)

flamencosketches said:


> ^Somehow I can actually see Tchaikovsky being a big horoscope guy. That journal entry on Brahms is hilarious. I love reading composers' thoughts on their contemporaries. Especially Pierre Boulez and his thoughts on everyone.
> 
> Sadly I don't have any good lookalikes to offer. I'm pretty bad with faces.


Dear diary,

I have just premiered my sixth symphony nine days ago. Unfortunately, my Mercury is in retrograde, so my horoscope tells me as a Taurus this should have me feeling testy and irritable... I'm afraid that's correct, as I am feeling very choleric.

Wish me luck, or maybe don't.
xoxo
Pyotr


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I remain convinced that when Finnish composer Jean Sibelius retired from writing music, which he did in the mid 1920s, a stunning and perplexing 30 year absence from composition commonly referred to as "The Silence of Järvenpää" named for his place of residence, he took up acting in horror movies under the name Tor Johnson.





























In fact, I sometimes think Sibelius himself was much more frightening looking than ever was his acting persona Tor Johnson! I mean, what would _you_ do if you ran into _this_ fellow under low lighting at the local concert hall?


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Actually Sibelius, falling on hard times since he had difficulty producing new works, made a few bucks playing Uncle Fester.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

SONNET CLV said:


> In fact, I sometimes think Sibelius himself was much more frightening looking than ever was his acting persona Tor Johnson! I mean, what would _you_ do if you ran into _this_ fellow under low lighting at the local concert hall?
> 
> View attachment 120378


I would kiss his feet.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)




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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

I'm clueless when it comes to posting pictures of myself on the internet, but whenever I show people pictures of Glazunov, they say I look a lot like him !


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

How about Penderecki:










And quite brilliant philosopher, Daniel Dennett:


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## Highwayman (Jul 16, 2018)

Alban Berg and Oscar Wilde:

















I`m not exactly sure which one of them is which. :lol:


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## Aleksandr Rachkofiev (Apr 7, 2019)

More look-alikes within music performance:

Emmanuel Ax and Itzhak Perlman!


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## Rubens (Nov 5, 2017)

Aleksandr Rachkofiev said:


> More look-alikes within music performance:
> 
> Emmanuel Ax and Itzhak Perlman!
> 
> ...


Yo-Yo Ma must be thinking "they all look alike!"


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Aleksandr Rachkofiev said:


> More look-alikes within music performance:
> 
> Emmanuel Ax and Itzhak Perlman!
> 
> ...


They even dress the same. I suspect they're twins!


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## Felix Mendelssohn (Jan 18, 2019)

Cyprien Katsaris and Richard Feynman


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

George Lloyd and Margaret Rutherford


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Alban Berg and poet Humbert Wolfe.


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

SONNET CLV said:


> We don't want to leave the ladies out of this one, either.
> 
> Let's consider American composer Amy Beach and American actress Alyson Hannigan.
> 
> ...


No comparison here - pretty lady on the right and ugly duckling on the left.


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