10 Actors Who Played Their Character’s Children or Ancestors
Sometimes a script calls for a child to look like the spitting-image of their parent, and sometimes having an actor play a dual role has a deep, thematic significance. It takes careful planning to pull off the illusion that different characters performed by the same person are interacting with each other. Simple editing tricks, body doubles, or greenscreen can help sell the illusion. Over the years, more sophisticated techniques have also been developed. For example, special computer controlled dollies like the VistaGlide, which Robert Zemeckis and his team created for the Back to the Future sequels, allows actors to perform multiple passes in the same moving shot. In the world of motion capture, an actor can inhabit a limitless number of roles. However, more important than any trick or technical achievement is a fully committed actor who is willing to spend hours in the makeup chair, and capable of creating characters who feel different from each other. So we've put together a list of ten actors who have played their character’s child, grandchild, or ancestor in a live-action or motion-capture film.
Michael J. Fox - Back to the Future Part II (1989), Part III (1990)
The Back to the Future sequels didn’t just have Michael J. Fox suiting up to reprise his role as the time traveling teenager Marty McFly; Parts II and III also featured Fox playing an older version of his character and acting opposite himself as his children and ancestor. In the then future-set follow-up to the original, Fox wore subtle prosthetics to play his son, Marty, Jr., and looked surprisingly believable in makeup and a wig as his daughter, Marlene. In Part III, he rocked facial hair and an Irish accent to play Seamus McFly, Marty’s great-great-grandfather who lived in the old west and was married to a woman who looks quite illogically like Marty's mother.
Thomas F. Wilson - Back to the Future Part II (1989), Part III (1990)
Thomas F. Wilson played most of the branches of his character’s manure-covered family tree in the Back to the Future films. In addition to playing the young bully Biff Tannen in the first two films, Wilson played a middle-aged version of the character in at least three alternate timelines throughout the trilogy. He also played Biff's equally disgruntled grandson, Griff, in Part II. In Part III, Wilson portrayed the most dangerous and loathsome member of the Tannen family, Biff’s outlaw great-grandfather, Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen.
Alex Winter: Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991)
The sequel to Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure was a Bogus Journey indeed. In addition to Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves playing their own evil robot twins who are sent back in time to kill and replace their characters, Winters also played Bill's grandmother, Granny S. Preston, Esq. The Preston family matriarch appears when Bill and Ted are sent to Hell, where they are tormented by Satan himself and are forced to face their fears — one of Bill’s fears being Granny Preston.
Mike Myers - So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993)
In the romantic comedy So I Married an Axe Murderer, Mike Myers' played both Charlie Mackenzie and his grumpy Scottish father, Stuart, whom he based on his own father. The part of Charlie was originally written for Myers' fellow Saturday Night Live alum Chevy Chase, then passed on by other SNL forebears Martin Short and Albert Brooks (Brooks wrote and directed shorts for the show). In yet another SNL connection, a version of Stuart appeared in an SNL sketch prior to the making of the film.
Ben Stiller - Heavyweights (1995)
Ben Stiller played both Tony Perkis Jr. and Tony Perkis Sr. in Disney’s summer camp comedy Heavyweights, even though his real life father and mother, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, also starred in the film. His parents played the beloved owners of the fat camp who reluctantly hand over the reigns to Tony Perkis Jr. Prior to Heavyweights, Ben and his father co-starred in Hot Pursuit, and would go on to appear together in Zoolander and The Heartbreak Kid.
Eddie Murphy - The Nutty Professor (1996), The Klumps (2000)
Believably transforming Eddie Murphy into the seven different characters he played in the remake of Jerry Lewis' The Nutty Professor earned the picture an Academy Award for Best Makeup. In addition to Professor Sherman Klump and Buddy Love — the thin but obnoxious person Sherman transforms into after taking a special weight loss chemical, Murphy also played Papa Cletus Klump (Sherman's father), Mama Anna Klump (Sherman's mother), Granny Klump (Sherman's Grandmother), Ernie Klump, Sr. (Sherman's brother), and Lance Perkins (a parody of Richard Simmons). While Murphy once again earned praise for his performance as the Klump clan in the sequel, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, the movie itself received mostly negative reviews.
Embeth Davidtz: Bicentennial Man (1999)
In Bicentennial Man, the late Robin Williams played a robot who seeks to become fully human as he acquires emotions. Though it's Williams' character who undergoes the biggest transformation, it was actress Embeth Davidtz who took on the dual role of “Little Miss” Amanda Martin and her granddaughter Portia Charney. Portia’s striking resemblance to her grandmother prompts Williams’ character (unaware of genetic traits) to ask, “What right do you have to look like her? There is and can be only one Little Miss!”
Tom Hanks - The Polar Express (2004)
The Polar Express marked Robert Zemeckis’ first foray into motion capture and his third film with Tom Hanks, whom he had previously directed in Forrest Gump and Castaway. Hanks played six characters in this holiday adventure, which was the first all motion capture feature film and the first feature released in IMAX 3D. Along with portraying classic Christmas figures like Santa Claus and Scrooge, Hanks played both the main character, Hero Boy (whose real name is never revealed in the movie), and his father.
Ray Winstone - Beowulf (2007)
While most of the actors in Robert Zemeckis’ adaptation of the epic poem Beowulf closely/eerily resembled their computer-generated counterparts, Ray Winstone, who was in his early 50s during production, bore little resemblance to any of his characters, who had only minor elements of the actor’s face incorporated into them. Along with playing the title character and a dwarf performer, Winstone also provided the voice and motion-capture performance for the Golden Man/Dragon, who is the son of Beowulf and Grendel's mother — the succubus portrayed by Angelina Jolie.
Jack Black - Tropic Thunder (2008)
Tropic Thunder depicted a group of prima donna actors shooting a war movie who face real danger when their director drops them off in the jungles of Vietnam. Ben Stiller directed and co-wrote the film-within-in-a-film, which opened with faux trailers for motion pictures starring the fictional actors. Jack Black played Jeff Portnoy, a comedian known for playing multiple roles in films, much like Eddie Murphy. The fake trailer for Portnoy’s film, The Fatties: Fart 2 (which directly spoofs the flatulent dinner scene from The Nutty Professor), featured Black in heavy make-up and prosthetics portraying three generations of “America’s favorite obese family.”
