12 Actors Who Played Other Actors From the Past and Helped Us Travel Through Time

Playing a famous actor on-screen looks like a tough job, even for a talented actor. We know legendary actors very well — we’ve seen them on the big screen hundreds of times and have noted their looks, gestures, and intonations. Now and then modern actors challenge their skills and try to portray movie stars from the past on-screen, bringing something new to the image we all seem to know too well.

Here at Bright Side, we’ve prepared 12 examples of when famous actors from the past were portrayed by modern-day actors on-screen. Have a look at these, and together, we’ll decide whose looks were closest to the originals.

Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon, 1999

Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn, 2011

Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate in Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, 2019

Robert Downey Jr. as Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin, 1992

Kate Beckinsale as Ava Gardner in The Aviator, 2004

Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator, 2004

James Franco as James Dean in James Dean, 2001

Jason Scott Lee as Bruce Lee in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, 1993

Jennifer Love Hewitt as Audrey Hepburn in The Audrey Hepburn Story, 2000

Ben Affleck as George Reeves in Hollywoodland, 2006

Lindsay Lohan as Elizabeth Taylor in Liz & Dick, 2012

Kurt Russell as Elvis Presley in Elvis, 1979

Did you watch any of these movies? In your opinion, which actors from our list were best at portraying legendary actors from the past and why?