A sense of déjà vu as powerful as an ocean wave came crashing over me around twenty minutes into the movie.

There I was ready to fully submit and watch the heck out of this Tony Scott directed, ripped-from-the-headlines terrorist flick come time-travel love story come FBI thriller I’d recorded from television the night before, only to be unnerved by an ache of familiarity so powerful that I’d seen it all before.

Not the movie itself or any of it’s individual scenes but strangely, simply just the title.

The movie I’d been sitting down to enjoy was the 2006 Denzil Washington starring DEJA VU. The film I’d been reminded of was one I’d seen ten years before that at the cinemas starring Venessa Redgrave also titled DEJA VU. Content wise the movies are about as alike as the wallpaper in my living room and the engine design of my Mazda CX-5 – which is to say not alike at all.

It got me thinking what other films down through the years have copied each other’s titles while showcasing completely unrelated, dissimilar stories? And by ‘copied’ I don’t mean ‘approximated’.

‘Approximated’ is a separate category (‘genre’ if you prefer the more high- falutin term) unto itself of ‘copyright be dammed’ infringement – often accomplished via the sly inclusion of the word ‘the’ – as these non-identical twin examples show –

Another non-identical twin title-ling technique is the ‘ol lowercase vs uppercase work-around. That one looks like this…

Now onto the main event – identical twins by the bucket load. Where’s an intellectual property lawyer when you need one, eh?

Know of any other identically titled movies?

Favourite thespians?

I’ve had a few.

Maybe a few too many.

Stripping it down to a list of just fifty was no easy thing.

Here you’ll find old school, real old school and not too many new school. Unless of course you count Leonardo DiCaprio as new school, which my money says few people would.

Notable omissions from this list include Arnold Schwarzenegger, Pamela Anderson, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and The Hoff (David Hasselhoff). Okay, joking about the last three.

Actors share parts of themselves and the human condition that most of us, most of the time, try to keep hidden. The ones gathered here all manage to lay bare that emotional nakedness while at the same time being captivating and likeable. The innate talent for performing and entertaining shows itself in the way each of these actors move, deliver lines of dialogue and simply just their on-screen presence.

It’s said a great actor can read the phonebook (when we used to have phonebooks) and still hold an audience. That’s how I feel about each of the individuals on this list.

Time to hitch your wagon for the next few minutes to the most star-studded show in town and enjoy the chauffeur-driven ride in all its crazy-gloat glory.

Let the star-athon begin!

1944 –

1937 –

1940 –

1943 –

1921 – 2003

1946 –      

 An added entry means I should rename this list AREA 51?

1930 –

1949 –   

1937 –

1925 –

1921 – 2004

1964 -1997

1918 – 1981

1951 –

1930 –

1925 – 2001

1927 – 2004

1926 – 2017

1950 – 1994

1930 –

1952 – 2009

1923 – 2008

1963 –

1933 –

1915 – 1998

1974 –

1949 –

1916 – 2020  (RIP ‘ol Sparticus)

1925 – 2010

1923 – 2012

1930 – 1980

1899 – 1957

1949 –

1917 – 1997

1927 – 2017

1925 – 1984

1963 –

1940 –

1936 – 2018

1935 – 1991

1956 –

1903 – 2003

1966 –

1908 – 1997

1932 – 1992

1948 –

1950 –

1928 -1998

1913 – 1988

1951 –

1961 –

A. Elvis Presley    B. Michael Yorke    C. Don Knotts     D. Barbara Stanwyck    E. Christopher Lee   F. James Coburn     G. Lea Thompson

Ps. What’s better than a bonus read? A bonus read with coffee, of course! Pour it HERE.