Lookalikes: Durning & Dennehy

Celebrities don't have to be separated-at-birth twins to be confused for each other. It's enough to have a similar build or appearance and feature in the same kinds of movies. Brian Dennehy admits he's often confused for the heavier and older Charles Durning.

Charles Durning

Durning bio: Born February 28, 1923 in Highland Falls, New York. Was among the first troops landing on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France on D-Day during the Second World War. Durning was awarded the Silver Star and three Purple Heart medals for his service during WWII.

Durning's best movies: The Sting (1973); Dog Day Afternoon (1975); Sharky's Machine (1981); Death of a Salesman (1985); O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000).

Durning's worst movies: Solarbabies (1986); Far North (1988); Spy Hard (1996); Dirty Deeds (2005).

Brian Dennehy

Dennehy bio:Born July 9, 1938 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Dennehy enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1959, actively serving until 1963. He lied about serving in Vietnam during the war there. Dennehy admitted: I lied about serving in Vietnam and I'm sorry. That was very wrong of me. There is no real excuse for that. I was a peace-time Marine, and I got out in 1963 without ever serving in Vietnam. I started the story that I had been in 'Nam, and I got stuck with it. Then I didn't know how to set the record straight.

Dennehy's best movies: Rambo: First Blood (1982); Never Cry Wolf (1983); Presumed Innocent (1990); Fail Safe (2000);

Dennehy's worst movies: Summer Catch (2001); 10th and Wolf (2006); Righteous Kill (2008).

Critic's view: Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat write of Dennehy's performance as Stourley Kracklite in Peter Greenaway's The Belly of an Architect: Brian Dennehy gives a towering performance as a middle-aged American architect who arrives in Rome to organize a large-scale exhibition of the work of Etienne-Louis Boullee (1728 - 1799), a visionary French architect.

Dennehy on his relationship with his journalist father: I remember coming back after doing Gorky Park, '81 or '82. I was sitting in the little house right outside of Long Island where he lived for his whole life. He never, ever asked me about money. He had worked hard at the Associated Press; I don’t think he ever made more than 25 thousand a year, which was a lot of money for the AP. All of a sudden it came out: How much do they pay you? I knew if I gave him the real number [about $150,00], it would somehow diminish what he had done his whole life.

Filmalike: In the play, Inherit the Wind, based on the Scopes trial, Charles Durning plays Matthew Harrison Brady (based on anti-Darwinist politcian William Jennings Bryan). Brian Dennehy plays lawyer Clarence Darrow (who defended the teaching of evolution) in Alleged, a 2009 movie version of the Scopies trial. Durning also performs in The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial , a radio drama based on the Scopes trial.