Double Take

At some point in our lives, most of us have probably been mistaken for someone else.

Maybe it was the shape of your eyes, a chin inherited from a parent or the freckles sprinkled across cheeks. These are facial features that most would assume are one-of-a-kind, but it turns out that these characteristics can also be found on complete strangers.

While that may sound eerie to some, it’s also fascinating to others, including French-Canadian photographer François Brunelle.

He found look-alikes so intriguing that he decided to start a project photographing doppelgängers, the term used to describe two people who have an uncanny resemblance but are not blood-related.

What Brunelle, 72, discovered, not only made a difference in the lives of his subjects, it also inspired scientists to research how two people who are complete strangers can look so much alike.

“I’m Not A Look-Alike”

The word doppelgänger is a German word that means double walker.

If you believe in folklore, seeing your doppelgänger as an apparition is an omen for death. It is said that Abraham Lincoln saw his doppelgänger in 1860 and his wife, Mary Todd, believed it meant he wouldn’t live a long life. Lincoln was assassinated five years later.

Then there was Catherine the Great, who ruled Russia in the late 1700s. Her servant saw her doppelgänger sitting in her throne while the actual Catherine the Great was asleep in bed. The servant woke Catherine who, the story goes, also saw her doppelgänger and ordered the servant to shoot it. Catherine died of a stroke a few weeks later.

Although there are many other tales similar to these, not everyone believes doppelgängers signify impending doom.

Doppelgängers are known to many as twin strangers, and some people believe that we all have a look-alike out there somewhere, wandering among the 8 billion people in this world.

Brunelle managed to find 250 pairs of look-alikes in more than 30 cities across the globe.

The artist, who lives in Montreal, Canada, happens to have his own doppelgänger — English comedic actor Rowan Atkinson, known to fans as Mr. Bean. Brunelle was stunned at how similar they looked.

“Seeing myself on TV and that person not being me triggered something,” he says.

And suddenly an ambitious photography project called “I’m Not a Look-Alike” was born.

Even today, 22 years later, Brunelle is still working on his project, adding pairs of doppelgängers bit by bit.

In the beginning, he was able to find 20 pairs of doppelgängers on his own, but only 10 pairs agreed to be part of his project. Struggling to find additional subjects, he eventually turned to media for help and that’s when he became overwhelmed with inquiries. One of the people who reached out was Michael Malone from Georgia.

Malone met his doppelgänger, Charlie Chasen, through mutual friends in 1997. They’ve since become close friends, having been there for each other in good and bad times. They have similar heights, a great sense of humor, share the same political views and started growing their hair long at the same time without telling each other. But they are nowhere near related.

Doppelgängers provide an interesting observation on the human race, Malone says, and how patterns can repeat themselves.

When he heard about Brunelle’s project, he asked Chasen if he would be a part of it, and Malone is happy Chasen said yes. Malone calls the project a cherished memory.

“We saw it as another opportunity to do something fun together as over the years we have had some fun incidents when we were living in the same city,” Malone says.

Still today, Brunelle hears from people like Malone and Chasen from all over the world about their experiences with their own doppelgängers.

“I’ve received literally thousands of emails with stories, photos, comments,” he says.

Brunelle took black and white pictures of his subjects. There were no fancy props — just two people who look strikingly similar standing close together. They’re wearing the same clothes, and, if you look close enough, you might notice minor differences. But, at first glance, you assume you’re looking at pairs of twins.

Brunelle was fascinated by the pairs who first focused on their differences.

“I realized what’s interesting about the photos,” he said in a 2017 article in dailybeast.com, “is not that they look exactly alike, it’s the fact that they don’t. The mind starts to pick up on subtle differences. The nose, mouth, eyes and ears, something is always different, but there is still a bizarre similarity.”

Genes Play A Part

Brunelle’s project was also the catalyst for scientific studies, as researchers were eager to learn more about unrelated twins.

One of the studies, published in August 2022 in life science journal Cell Reports, has garnered international media attention, casting a welcoming spotlight on Brunelle’s photo project.

The research team, led by Dr. Manel Esteller, a researcher at the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute in Barcelona, Spain, tested the DNA of 32 pairs of doppelgängers that participated in Brunelle’s project. The team also used facial recognition software to study the similarities between each pair and researchers found that 16 of the pairs scored as high as actual identical twins have scored in the past.

They then compared the DNA test results of the 16 pairs. Esteller found that each pair shares important parts of the genome, which means that their genetic material is incredibly similar.

In an August article published by The New York Times, Esteller noted that though it’s always been assumed look-alikes probably share similar genes, it has never really been proven until now.

The results may also help in fields like law enforcement when trying to track down criminals. If DNA samples are collected at a crime scene, for example, that DNA could be used to create sketches of a suspect’s face.

The study’s findings did not surprise Gary Villa, the Dean for Lynn University’s College of Arts and Sciences in Boca Raton, who believes that we are all, in some way, related.

Villa says most of us don’t usually count any relation beyond a certain degree of separation (like your 10th cousin on your mother’s side for example). And because we are all related to differing degrees, it is possible that a version of a gene you carry could be found in virtually any other person in the world.

“The likelihood of that becomes less the more distantly related you are,” he says, “but it’s never impossible.”

All gene versions are created by random mutations, Villa says, so it is also possible that two separate mutations could still create identical gene versions among strangers.

Even Villa has been said to have a doppelgänger. He recalls being out of the country on business and employees from the hotel he was staying in mentioning he looked identical to another man who had been there a few weeks earlier.

“They had a picture of the person,” Villa says, “and if I hadn’t known I wasn’t there at the time, I would have absolutely sworn it was me myself.”

Searching For Your Doppelgänger

If you search the word doppelgänger online, you might be surprised to see how eager people are to find their own look-alikes.

An estimated 10.5 million people worldwide have registered with a website called twinstrangers.net. After registering, you upload pictures of yourself, fill out a questionnaire and wait for the website to use its own special algorithm to see if it can find your twin (it searches through pictures of other people who have also registered on the website). Pictures of potential prospects are sent and it’s up to you to decide if any of them are a match.

There’s also a similar website called ilooklikeyou.com and others use an app called Face Find. You can even find out if you have a celebrity doppelgänger by logging onto starbyface.com, and if you want to connect with others also searching for doppelgängers, you can find groups on social media outlets like Instagram and Facebook.

James Mehegan oversees the Facebook group called Find Your Doppelgänger from his home in South Carolina. His grandmother, Susan, started the group eight years ago, after being accused of snubbing a male friend on the street. But Mehegan’s grandmother insisted that she wasn’t even in the same area that particular day.

“He told me the woman he had seen looked so much like me, it could have been my twin sister, but I don’t have a sister. That was the day I became fascinated by the idea that everyone must have a doppelgänger,” says Susan, who did not wish to reveal her last name. “While I never found my twin, social media gave me the opportunity to set up a site to help people work together to find theirs.”

Mehegan, 33, now oversees the group, which has more than 11,000 members.

The members post pictures of themselves and ask other members if they know anyone who could pass as their twin. Most of the time, Mehegan says, people respond with celebrity names. Mehegan has been compared to comedian/actor Bill Burr and professional boxer Tyson Fury.

According to familysearch.org, there is only a one in 135 chance of locating even just one pair of doppelgängers in the world.

But don’t let those numbers deter you.

Thanks to the internet, and to artists like Brunelle, finding your doppelgänger may be a little easier than one might think. Even Malone says he’s been told that he and Chasen have yet another doppelgänger in another town.

So maybe you have one, too.

“With the amount of facial recognition technology out now, it’s probably easier than 10 or 15 years ago. Be patient,” Malone says. “It will happen.”