Mirror Images: Guinn Williams and George W. Bush

If we told you the picture on the right was George W. Bush in Ronald Reagan drag, you’d almost believe it, wouldn’t you?

It certainly looks like Dubya, only with the Gipper’s hair.

But it’s not—it’s character actor Guinn Williams, often called “Big Boy,” whose career began in 1919 and lasted until the 1960s.

Big Boy and Dubya share more than just facial features. They’re both Texans, though Williams was the genuine article, born and raised in the Lone Star State. They both shared a name with their fathers. And they both were sons of politicians, though Williams’ dad began his career as a rancher (and we’re guessing he did more than clear brush) and a banker before first becoming county clerk of Wise County, Texas, from 1898 to 1902, serving as a member of the State senate from 1920 to 1922, and then serving in the House of Representatives from 1922-1933.

Oh, and the senior Williams was a Democrat, another key difference.

Rep. Williams’ son Guinn was given the nickname “Big Boy” by none other than Will Rogers. Guinn stood 6 feet, 2 inches tall and was muscular, so the handle was an apt one.

Though he acted in many other types of pictures, Williams was perhaps best known for his work in westerns, in which he generally portrayed a dim but likable second banana to the picture’s rootin’-tootin’ hero.

We’ve never seen a Guinn Williams picture without being reminded of Dubya; we find the resemblance striking. Watch the clip below, taken from Rafter Romance (1933) and also featuring Robert Benchley and Ginger Rogers, and see if you don’t agree.

Mirror Images: Jane Leeves and Lillian Bond

What sweeter treat could exist for any classic movie buff than to see oneself (or a more-than-reasonable facsimile thereof) on the silver screen in a movie from the 1920s, ’30s, ’40s, or ’50s?

No, we’ve not discovered our own cinematic doppelganger, though we’d like nothing more.

But we have found, over time, a handful of actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood who very strongly resemble prominent contemporary figures (and we’d love to hear from you, the members of the Cladrite Community, if you’ve found some we’ve missed).

Our first pair of (nearly) identical twins separated by several decades is the lovely contemporary actress Jane Leeves, best known for playing Daphne Moon on the long-running hit television show Frasier, and her Golden Age lookalike, actress Lillian Bond.

Don’t you agree that, allowing for differences in the hair and make-up styles of their respective eras, these two are very close to a matched set? At the very least, Leeves would be an ideal choice to play Bond if ever there were a biopic called “The Lillian Bond Story” produced.

   

These very alluring mirror images are/were both English by birth, with Bond having been born and raised in London and Leeves making her debut in lford, Essex, and growing up in East Grinstead in Sussex.

Bond often played the “other woman” in pictures (as she does in the clip below), while Leeves has long specialized in comedic roles.

So while their careers may not have been similar, we think their facial features are strikingly so. And we envy Jane Leeves that—not because we wish we resembled Lillian Bond, but because we think it’d be fun to be watching an old movie late one night and suddenly see “yourself” acting in it.

Below are two clips featuring the actresses. The first features Leeves in an episode of Frazier; the second finds Bond appearing opposite the lovely Sylvia Sidney in a 1933 picture called Pick-Up. See if you don’t agree there’s a very strong resemblance.