When shooting a biographical film or biopic in short, there are a lot of different things to consider because the movie is based on actual events and people. One of the most important things to consider is casting, the director needs to chose his leading actor wisely and choose someone who will not only look similar to the real person he plays, but also have the right acting style to pull it off. However even after casting the perfect actor, things don’t end there, a good makeup team is needed to help create the character and bring the famous figure to life through the actor. Many actors and directors consider biopics to be most difficult to create and one of the most rewarding when done right. The historical characters have a lifetime of stories behind them and the actor playing the role must understand their story and state of mind to be able to convey the part. Check out this massive list of 65 actors who played a real person in a biopic.
1: T.E. Lawrence played by Peter O’Toole
2: Colonel Joshua Chamberlain played by Jeff Daniels
3: Bernie Tiede played by Jack Black
4: Dorothy Dandridge played by Halle Berry
5: Little Edie played by Drew Barrymore
6: David Foster Wallace played by Jason Segel
7: Abraham Lincoln played by Daniel Day‑Lewis
8: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi played by Ben Kingsley
9: Adolf Hitler played by Bruno Ganz
10: Steve Jobs played by Ashton Kutcher
11: Steve Jobs played by Michael Fassbender
12: Malcolm X played by Denzel Washington
13: Selena Quintanilla played by Jennifer Lopez
14: Margaret Thatcher played by Meryl Streep
15: HM Queen Elizabeth II played by Helen Mirren
16: Alfred Hitchcock played by Anthony Hopkins
17: Johnny Cash played by Joaquin Phoenix
18: Hunter S Thompson played by Johnny Depp
19: Alfred Hitchcock played by Toby Jones
20: Grace Kelly played by Nicole Kidman
21: Frida Kahlo played by Salma Hayek
22: Harvey Milk played by Sean Penn
23: Ludwig van Beethoven played by Gary Oldman
24: Bruce Lee played by Jason Scott Lee
25: Georges Méliès played by Ben Kingsley
26: Howard Hughes played by Leonardo DiCaprio
27: Che Guevara played by Benicio Del Toro
28: Sarah Palin played by Julianne Moore
29: Buddy Holly played by Gary Busey
30: Claus von Stauffenberg played by Tom Cruise
31: Stephen Hawking played by Eddie Redmayne
32: Richard Milhous Nixon played by Anthony Hopkins
33: Édith Piaf played by Marion Cotillard
34: Winston Churchill played by Albert Finney
35: Jackson Pollock played by Ed Harris
36: Andy Kaufman played by Jim Carrey
37: Muhammad Ali played by Will Smith
38: Niki Lauda played by Daniel Brühl
39: John Eleuthère Du Pont played by Steve Carell
40: June Carter Cash played by Reese Witherspoon
41: Truman Capote played by Philip Seymour Hoffman
42: Sam Riley played by Ian Curtis
43: Truman Capote played by Toby Jones
44: Alan Turing played by Benedict Cumberbatch
45: Sid Vicious played by Gary Oldman
46: Pablo Escobar played by Andrés Parra
47: Pablo Escobar played by Wagner Moura
48: Marilyn Monroe played by Michelle Williams
49: Bob Dylan played by Cate Blanchett
50: Princess Diana Mountbatten-Windsor played by Naomi Watts
51: Mark Zuckerberg played by Jesse Eisenberg
52: Coco Chanel played by Audrey Tautou
53: George S Patton played by George C Scott
54: Fanny Brice played by Barbara Streisand
55: Jim Morrison played by Val Kilmer
56: Jimi Hendrix played by André 3000
57: Ray Charles played by Jamie Foxx
58: Salvador Dali played by Adrien Brody
59: Vincent Van Gogh played by Kirk Douglas
60: Pablo Picasso played by Anthony Hopkins
61: Charlie Chaplin played by Robert Downey Jr.
62: Oscar Wilde played by Stephen Fry
63: Oskar Schindler played by Liam Neeson
64: Nelson Mandela played by Morgan Freeman
65: Sylvester Stallone played by Alfred Matthew Yankovic 😉
Source: Imgur
