Are you always having a hard time distinguishing between a certain pair of actors that you swear are the same person?

The main two I always mixed up were Thomas Cavanaugh and Zack Braff. If you'd asked me who was in Garden State a couple of months ago, I would've told you "that one guy from Ed".

Same thing with Kelly Bishop from Gilmore Girls and Jessica Walter from Arrested Development. They could both end up switching roles and everything would basically be the same. The both play the matriarch of a dysfunctional family, and have the same WASP-y air.

So who else do you think is interchangeable?

Which is why Tom Cavanaugh plays Zach Braff's brother on Scrubs...

Mike Conners, who played Mannix, used to talk about getting mistaken for David Jansen all the time, even after Jansen had left the scene. Conners stated once, on a talkshow, that a guy came up to him and said, "You're him!"

Conners asked, "Who" to which the guy said, "The guy who died".

Conners said, "You mean David Jansen?"

"Yeah, him" the guy said.

Am I the only one who thinks that Carlos Bernard (Tony of 24) and Scott Patterson (Luke of Gilmore Girls) look and sound a lot alike? I think their really similar, but my friends think I'm crazy.

I was watching the Second Sight episode of Without a Trace, and in the scene where Sam (Poppy Montgomery) is pissed at Martin for sitting at Viv's desk, I could have sworn I was watching Abby (Maura Tierney) from ER. Although maybe it was just because Sam was behaving in a very Abbybitch manner, but if I hadn't been looking at the screen I would have sworn I was watching ER.

Perry King = Bruce Boxleitner

It took my mother years to be able to differentiate between Neve Campbell and Holly Marie Combs.

To end our confusion over Mekhi Phifer (ER) and Omar Epps (House), my friend and I just refer to them as OmarMekhiPhiferEpps.

The 4400 has two FBI agents who IMO, look eaxacly alike. The fact that the two characters have some sort of rivalry makes it even worse.

Gary Busey and Nick Nolte. I always got them mixed up with eachother. As well as Barbara Streisand and Bett Midler.

Dude, totally!! I thought I was the only one mixing them up. I thought the agent's son (the coma kid) and his cousin/friend (the one who got abducted from their camp out) look a lot alike too.

I sometimes mix up Stan and Kyle on South Park. Does that count?

interesting topic! I know years ago, I used to get Dean Cain and Eddie Cibrian confused. They have different body types, but they can literally pass for brothers.

cal, I still have no idea wich one's Stan and wich ones Kyle.

Oh, and the first time I saw The Tribe I thought it was some show Heath Ledger did before he hit it big.

Also, in the first season of Are you afraid of the dark? there was a character named Dan who looked and sounded like Ryder Strong from Boy Meets World. I didn't think they were the same person, but I was sure they were brothers.

It took me years to keep Bill Paxton and Bill Pullman straight.

Nathan Fillion(Firefly) and Josh Randall(Ed) look alike to me.

Amy Brenneman and Kim Delaney

Elliot Gould and Saul Rubinek

John Hurt and Sir Ian McKellen

Chazz Palminteri and Joe Mantegna



Yeah, and they both can't act, which makes it even more difficult.

When I was little, my family had a long-running joke about how we couldn't tell William Hurt, John Heard, and Harrison Ford apart. Harrison Ford is no longer a problem, but I doubt I could tell the other two apart even now. Then again, has either of them actually had any roles lately?

I used to mistake Skeet Ulrich for Johnny Depp. Also, I used to mix up Adam Baldwin with that guy who originated the role of Seth on As the World Turns, though I think Baldwin may have originated the role, then he was replaced by some guy who looks like him. At any rate, I used to mix up those two.

This might not qualify, but even though they dress and look differently these days (eg, one is blond, one has brown hair), for the life of me, I don't know which one is Mary-Kate and which one is Ashley.

(And, I, too, often confuse Kyle and Stan.)

I have yet to figure out the Corys and the Baldwins.

Kirsten Dunst and Julia Stiles. I just can't figure them out.

On Spin City, when Michael J Fox's character dumped Paula Marshall and started dating Carla Gugino, I could'nt tell the diffrence.

Another person that resembles Julia Stiles is Erika Christensen.

I recently realized that if they were the same age, I'd never be able to tell JAne Curtin and Kirsten Dunst apart.

(Oddly, Julia Stiles and Jane Curtin? Totally distinguishable.)

If he was still alive, John Candy and Horatio Sanz. Or John Candy and Chris Farley. Maybe all three.

I honestly cannot tell the difference between Burt Reynolds and Tom Selleck. My mum thinks this is some sort of blasphemy.

Billy Connolly and John Cleese!

See, I used to get Erika Christensen and Elisha Cuthbert mixed up. I think it's because they both had a lot of buzz surrounding them when their respective careers were taking off which, if I recall correctly, was about the same time.

Glenn Close and Meryl Streep.

If it wasn't for The Shield, I would probably still get them confused.



ETA: The thing I primarily remember about Tom Selleck (Magnum aside, of course) is the shouting match about gun control he got into with Rosie O'Donnell. The thing I remember Burt Reynolds for is "100 Rifles" (a movie from the late 1960s). Weird, huh?

For the life of me, I cannot differentiate between Marisa Tomei and Mira Sorvino. I don't know why but I always confuse one for the other.

I seriously believe that as they age the Baldwin brothers are becoming a single entity.

Dylan McDermott, Dermot Mulroney and D.B. Sweeney.

Holland Taylor is their triplet.

Leelee Sobieski is playing the roles Helen Hunt is too old for, but it's like they're from the same DNA pool.

For some reason, I always mix up Daniel Craig and Clive Owen.

Clive Owen and Dougray Scott.

Dermot Mulroney and Dylan McDermott are the same person. As are Holly marie Combes and Neve Capmbell.

Aw, crap. That's another one I'm going to be mixing up.

Hee-hee! Gugino was the original romantic co-lead; Marshall came a season or two later if memory serves. Also, she's taller. I think.

I often get confused between Nicholas Brendon and Adam Kaufman (guested as "Parker" on Buffy), to the point where I seriously thought Brendon was in the last few episodes of Taken.

See, I think those two look totally different. But Nathan Fillion and Jason Bateman? Unless I know what I'm watching or if Nathan's doing his cowboy voice, I totally need to do a double take to figure out who's on the screen.

Easy way to tell them apart: John Candy was tall (6'2"), Chris Farley was not (5'7"). But they were about the same weight.

It's a good thing Dan Marino doesn't act, because it would be impossible to tell the difference between him and David Hasselhoff.

John Candy was Canadian, and funny as hell. Chris Farley was from Chicago, and his style of humor wasn't humorous to a lot of people. (I am not one of them) Maybe I shouldn't respond to this because I've watched SCTV since I was a baby, so I think I have John Candy lurve imprinted on me from childhood.
They are both very controversial Oscar winners. There was a lot of "bitch don't deserve it" muttering after they won. Marisa's shorter and darker haired. And, in Hanes commercials. Because nothing says "Oscar winner" quite like shilling undies

OMG. I thought that for years. Then one day I finally could tell the difference.

I get John Favreau and Jeremy Piven confused. My mom gets confused with Mena Suvari and Mira Sorvino. Probably because they both have the same initials and their names are so similar.

These folks are more TV personalities/athletes than actors, and you have to look at them as they appeared in the mid-70s: I submit that Pete Rose, Jimmy Connors and Bruce Jenner were the same person.

Mark Ruffalo and Vincent D'Nofrio. Interestingly enough I like both of these quirky actors imensely.

I remember when people would constantly make a similar mistake with Lindsay Lohan and Alison Loman. 'course, that was before the later became overated and orange.

But, niether has it as bad as the two Dermot(t)'s. I don't find that they look the same (Dermot's much more average looking), but I do often stop myself and wonder if I'm thinking of the right one.

For like a week I thought Maggie Gylenhal(sp?) and Zooey Dashenel were interchangable. Now I don't think they look anything alike.

For the South Park-challenged: Stan wears blue and has a blue hat with a red pompom. Kyle wears green and has a hat with ear flaps.

For years I thought Rick(y) Schroder was the kid who played Tiny Tim in "Scrooge!" until I realized I had the time frame all screwed up. How could this kid who was a child star in the '80s have been a child star in the '70s? Thanks to IMDb, I learned the kid who played Tiny Tim was Ricky Beaumont. Hey, first name identical, last name had same number of syllables and same vowel sound in first syllable -- so sue me.

Also tend to confuse Janeane Garofalo and Paula Marshall. Resemblance is eerie between Paula's guest appearance on "Seinfeld" as the student reporter who "outs" Jerry and George, and Janeane's on "Ellen" as the fellow mammography patient.

Ron Rifkin and Joel Grey. Until I learned both actors' names, I thought that Joel Grey was the one that played Arvin Sloane on Alias. Needless to say, the end of Pandora, with Grey as the other Mr. Sloane, was quite a mindfuck.

When David Boreanaz joined Buffy, for a moment I thought it was Craig Sheffer. Those two favor a lot.

I thought Ron Rifkin had some mask like make-up a la Mission Impossible 2 and Joel Grey was some extra or Euro-bar owner on the show. They both look so similar it's freaky. Good job casting the role, they almost had me fooled.

Now I know D.B. Sweeney right of the bat, but Dylan McDermott and Dermot Mulroney....it took years to get these two straight.

The TV Land PTB thought those of us in the audience didn't know the difference between Dick York and Dick Sargent.

I always used to confuse Ghostbusters-era Bill Murray with some other famous actor whose name I can't even remember right now. (Argh.)

And I love "Groundhog Day". I have probably seen that movie literally a hundred times. But I still always got the names mixed up. And when "Lost in Translation" came out, I somehow completely forgot the other actor's name.

Yesterday, I caught a rerun of the ABC Family movie "Celeste in the City" with Nick Brendon (yes, Buffy love knows no bounds when it comes to watching the cast in other things...).

But the main actress in this movie was Majandra Delfino, who I had never seen in anything else. After she underwent a makeover, I thought she was a spitting image of Scarlett Johansson, if a little less top heavy.

For the first few episodes of "Veronica Mars," I seriously thought Jason Dohring was that kid from "The Nanny," Benjamin Salisbury.