25 Celebrities And Their "Past Lives"

Time travel does not happen, there is no proof, and it's all based on science fiction novels. No one has ever been able to travel across time or live an eternal existence.
Then an actual Civil War photo surfaced last year, the soldier's similarity to actor Nicolas Cage caused quite a stir. Some people joke that this isn't simply a humorous coincidence but that it poses some interesting considerations, like: Is Nicolas Cage a time traveler? And had he been warring for centuries?
But Cage isn't the only celeb that has a historical look-alike. People have found plenty of other celebrities with their doppelgängers from the past. From John Travolta impersonating a man from the 1860s to Jay Z hanging out in Harlem in 1939. And some believe celebrities are vampires, others believe they are clones or progeny of past leaders, artists, philosophers, and even criminals.
We'll find out who they are in this post. Remember to vote for the best celebrity look-alike, and "time traveler"!

#1 Keanu Reeves looks a lot like an actor from 150 years ago.

Source: Wikimedia Commons, Eric Charbonneau/AP Images

Keanu Reeves is 52 years old, although he hasn't changed much since his twenties. He also has a strong likeness to the 19th-century French actor Paul Mounet, leading some to believe they are the same person.

#2 Did Andrew Garfield engineer the Soviet takeover during the October Revolution and found a Marxist school of thought?

Source: Wikimedia Commons, Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Andrew Garfield has a striking resemblance to Leon Trotsky, right down to the swooped-up hair. His origins, however, cannot be traced back to Russia.

#3 Dan Radcliffe looks like a lot of stern-looking old ladies.

Source: YouTube, Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

In ancient photographs, Radcliffe resembles several individuals. In 2016, when Radcliffe attended Jimmy Fallon's late-night program, Fallon showed up the images and had him respond to — and imitate — some of the characters in the photos.
The image above of a serious woman dressed in black, pearls, and what appears to be "Harry Potter" glasses is our fave.

#4 Oscar Isaac looks suspiciously like one of Raphael's friends.

Source: Wikimedia Commons, CBS Films

Raphael, an Italian Renaissance painter, produced "Self-Portrait with a Friend" somewhere between 1518 and 1520. His friend's identity is unknown; some historians believe it was one of his close pupils, while others believe it was one of his contemporaneous painters. I'll tell you what this enigmatic figure's true name is: Oscar Isaac.

#5 Bruce Willis may or may not have been the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers.

Source: AP Photo, Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

He looks just like Douglas MacArthur, the five-star general who commanded the United States and its allies throughout WWII.
Movie companies know who to cast in a future MacArthur biography.

#6 Nicolas Cage famously looks like this Confederate prisoner of war.

Source: The Thanatos Archive, Jerod Harris/Getty Images

In 2011, a Seattle man attempted to sell an image of Lt. Robert M. Smith, a Confederate prisoner of a war photographer who looked just like Nicolas Cage.The eBay listing was titled "Nicolas Cage is a Vampire."
According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Personally, I believe it's him and that he is some sort of walking zombie/vampire, et cetera, who quickens/reinvents himself once every 75 years or so." "In 150 years, he may be a politician, a cult leader, or a talk show presenter."
In several of his films, Cage may have hinted at his existence as an eternal vampire. In the 1988 cult film "Vampire's Kiss," he portrayed a guy who believes he is a vampire, and in the 2010 film "The Magician's Apprentice," he played Balthazar, a 3,000-year-old magician.
Cage appeared on David Letterman's talk program a few months after the photo was released to deny being an eternal vampire.
"Now, see, I don't drink blood, and the last time I looked in the mirror, I saw myself," Cage explained.
The assertion is rated "uncertain" by Snopes.

#7 Cage is allegedly in a centuries-long battle with John Travolta.

Source: eBay, Hulton Archive/Getty Images

A similar auction for a 150-year-old photo of a man who looked a lot like John Travolta appeared on eBay shortly after the Cage incident. Their eyes, hairline, facial shape, and preference for longish sideburns are all similar.
"I realize you're stating John Travolta is still alive in 2011, but he doesn't look 151," the vendor stated in the listing. "Many Scientologists believe in reincarnation, and John Travolta is a Scientologist. Of course, time travel is also a possibility."
Both Cage and Travolta featured in the 1997 film "Face/Off," in which they portrayed characters that tried to kill one other and changed faces, according to the AV Club. Perhaps it was a metaphor for their dissatisfaction with eternity and the monotony of living after a long life.

#8 Just how long has Jay Z been in Brooklyn?

Source: Sid Grossman/New York Public Library, Harry How/Getty Images

The photo "Harlem Loiters," by Sid Grossman, was placed on the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture's Facebook page, sparking a fury in the comments area. The unnamed individual in the center, according to fans, looks a lot like Jay Z.
The New York Times covered the entire incident in detail. In the meanwhile, Wikipedia maintains that Jay Z was born in 1969.

#9 Just when exactly did "Game of Thrones" take place?

Source: Museo del Prado, Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

Peter Dinklage looks a lot like the figure in Diego Velázquez's 1645 artwork "Dwarf Sitting on the Floor." The facial hair, in particular, contributes to the likeness.
Dinklage likewise has a similar appearance to Velázquez.

#10 Mark Zuckerberg looks like a former king of Spain and Portugal.

Source: Wikimedia Commons, David Ramos/Getty Images

Velázquez had an uncanny ability to portray people that resembled prior celebrities. His image of a youngish Philip IV of Spain, who ruled from 1621 to 1640 and was also Velázquez's patron, resembled Mark Zuckerberg in appearance.
They appear particularly similar in the photo above, which was shot while Zuckerberg was in Spain.

#11 Serena Williams resembles civil rights advocate Betty Shabazz.

Source: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images, AP Photo/Jim Wells

The tennis champion resembles Shabazz, Malcolm X's ex-wife, an educator, and a fierce civil rights activist in her own right.
Williams would be ideal in any historical drama about Shabazz, from his powerful jaw to his prominent cheekbones.

#12 Queen Latifah and Zora Neale Hurston had the same taste in hats. Coincidence?

Source: Library of Congress, Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

According to the Atlanta Black Star, Latifah's preference for wide-brimmed hats is reminiscent of this photograph of Hurston, the author best known for "Their Eyes Were Watching God." Could they be the same person?

#13 Conan O'Brien may have been making jokes since the Civil War.

Source: PBS, Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

During the American Civil War and Reconstruction, he resembles Marshall Harvey Twitchell, a Union soldier, carpetbagger, and Louisiana politician.

#14 Rupert Grint resembles a fellow British artist — from 200 years ago.

Source: National Galleries Scotland, Julian Finney/Getty Images

David Wilkie, a Scottish painter, had the same flaming red hair. His self-portrait from the early 1800s, when he was approximately 20 years old, demonstrates how much he resembles the "Harry Potter" actor.

#15 Halle Berry, the first black woman to win the Oscar for best actress, looks a lot like the first black actress to be nominated for the award.

Source: AP Photo, Anthony Harvey/Getty Images

Berry made history in 2002 when she won the Academy Award for Best Woman for her role in "Monster's Ball," becoming her the first black actress to do so.
For her performance in "Carmen Jones," Dorothy Dandridge became the first black actress to be nominated in that category over half a century before. During their Oscar appearances, both women had the same haircut style.

#16 Orlando Bloom looks a lot like one of the founders of modern Romanian painting.

Source: Wikimedia Commons, Star Max via AP Images

Orlando Bloom, around 2005, has long wavy hair, a confident brow, and a thin mustache that resembles Nicolae Grigorescu, a famous Romanian painter, writer, and soldier from the 1800s.
Bloom is also a passionate art collector. Perhaps it's because he has some firsthand knowledge of the art form.

#17 Did Jack Black coordinate American militia forces before the outbreak of the Revolutionary War?

Source: Wikimedia Commons, Charles Sykes/AP

Black, the humorous actor and voice of a kung-fu-knowing panda in the "Kung Fu Panda" film trilogy, looks strikingly like Paul Revere.
We don't have any images of Revere because he lived during the Revolutionary War. The most renowned portrait is of him as a silversmith in Boston, painted by John Singleton Copley in 1768. Jack Black has a fascination with metals and collects antique coins as a pastime.

#18 The abolitionist movement had a lot of celebrity lookalikes. Ellen DeGeneres looks like Henry David Thoreau.

Source: Wikimedia Commons, Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Their beautiful eyes and swept-aside hair are identical. All Ellen needs now is a scruffy beard to play the author of "Civil Disobedience."

#19 Donald Trump is not the only president Alec Baldwin can play.

Source: Library of Congress, Annie I. Bang/Invision/AP

He sure does look like Millard Filmore, the 13th president of the United States, who was also from New York.

#20 Brad Pitt resembles the guy who made Rorschach inkblots.

Source: Wikimedia Commons, Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images

The actor resembles Hermann Rorschach, the Swiss psychologist who created the Rorschach test in the nineteenth century. They even have similar neckwear preferences.

#21 Another famous Civil War-era figure, John Brown, looks like Charlie Sheen.

Source: Library of Congress, Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

Brown resembles the notorious "Two and a Half Men" actor, who helped organize multiple slave revolts in the 1850s, most memorably with the movie-ready account of the attack on Harpers Ferry.

#22 Albert Einstein is usually associated with his unruly hair and a big mustache. But when he was younger, he looked quite a bit like Shia Labeouf.

Source: YouTube, AP Photo/Thibault Camus

They both had naturally curled hair, a tiny chin, an intense stare, and a similar face shape.
In addition to acting, Labeouf has recently dabbled in high-concept performance art projects. Perhaps he'll address the remaining flaws in the Standard Model soon enough. Who can say?

#23 Danny Pudi resembles some guy in a Berlin Wall documentary from 1962.

Source: DannyPudi/Twitter, Michael Kovac/Getty Images

The "Community" actor's mother noticed the resemblance, and Pudi agrees.

Is Pudi making a joke about his invincibility? Did he truly forget about his time manning the Brandenburg Gate during the Cold War?.

#24 Meanwhile, Tommy Lee Jones can play the 17th president.

Source: Library of Congress, Star Max via AP Images

After Abraham Lincoln's assassination, Andrew Johnson became President of the United States.
He resembles Tommy Lee Jones, who portrayed a vastly different character in Lincoln's life. Jones portrayed Thaddeus Stevens, a Republican member from Pennsylvania who pressed Lincoln to ensure full abolition despite the Civil War in Steven Spielberg's film "Lincoln."

#25 Robert De Niro looks a lot like the Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Source: Wikimedia Commons, AP Photo/Jose Goitia

Both have a powerful chin and persistent stubble. When comparing De Niro in 1993 to Rousseau in 1753, the likeness becomes even more apparent. Is it true that the actor who played "Taxi Driver" also wrote "Discourse on Inequality"?