impostor

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An impostor or imposter is a person who pretends to be somebody else, often to try to gain financial or social advantages through social engineering, but just as often for purposes of espionage or law enforcement.

False pretenders to various thrones used to be common. Numerous men claimed they were the Dauphin, the heir to the French throne who disappeared during the French Revolution, and there were three false Dimitris who were serious pretenders to the throne of Russia. Other notable royal pretenders include Perkin Warbeck, Anna Anderson, and, more recently, Robert Brown, who claims to be the son of Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend (RAF officer).^[1] The case of Anna Anderson is unusual in that it is believed that her claim to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia was the work of a third party, as she was not considered to be in sound mind. It also differs from many other impostures in that although hard, irrefutable scientific proof has arisen making her (or the third party's) claim without a doubt false, many still refuse to discount it.

Very daring impostors may pretend to be someone else who really exists, although the rapidity of modern news coverage has made this difficult in the case of notable individuals. Usually, however, impostors simply take on a new and completely fabricated identity, misrepresenting their financial status, educational status, social status, family background and, in some cases, gender. Impostors are usually aware of not being who they say they are. However, there are borderline cases who may end up believing their own tall tales, and some (often children or those suffering from a mental illness such as dementia or schizophrenia, as in the case of Anna Anderson) whose imposture may be the creation of a third party. People may make false claims about their past or background without being full-blown impostors; common false claims include having seen military action and involvement in well-known disasters such as the sinking of the RMS Titanic or the September 11, 2001, attacks. It is sometimes said that if every person who claimed to have "just missed" the Titanic's departure had been on board, the ship would have sunk like a lead weight in Southampton Harbour.

Many temporary impostors are criminals who maintain a façade temporarily to defraud their victims (such as Wilhelm Voigt). Others, such as US prankster Joey Skaggs, commit an imposture as a prank or to make a point of some kind. The latter usually reveal the truth sooner or later. Still others, such as John Howard Griffin, have adopted other identities for purposes of research, investigation or experiment. Although impostors usually misrepresent their backgrounds, their intentions may or may not be criminal as such. They may wish to start afresh with a new identity or "go native"; i.e. adopt the identity and customs of other people. John List is an example of a criminal who adopted a new identity in order to evade justice; in List's case, he was wanted for the mass murder of his entire family, including his three young children.

Women have masqueraded as men to obtain privileges only men can have or to work in male-dominated professions. Some have fought as men; examples are known from the Napoleonic Wars and the American Civil War.

An organization or individual who has been fooled may keep quiet to avoid embarrassment; this may allow the imposter to evade disclosure.

Notable impostors

Fraudsters

• Frank Abagnale, who passed bad cheques as a fake pilot, doctor and lawyer.
• Cassie Chadwick, who pretended to be Andrew Carnegie's daughter.
• David Hampton, who pretended to be the son of Sidney Poitier.
• Frederick Emerson Peters, US celebrity impersonator and writer of bad checks.
• James Reavis, who claimed he owned Arizona.
• Christopher Rocancourt, a US fake Rockefeller.
• Tichborne Claimant, claimed to be the missing heir Sir Roger Tichborne.
• Wilhelm Voigt, the "Captain of Köpenick".
• Lobsang Rampa, who claimed to be a deceased Tibetan Lama possessing the body of Cyril Hoskins and wrote a number of books based on that premise.
• Aleksey Vayner, star of the "Impossible Is Nothing" video résumé, who pretended to be the CEO of a capital management company and a charity in order to gain an entry level job at UBS.

Exotic impostors

• Mary Baker, who pretended to be Princess Caraboo of Javasu.
• Youree Dell Harris, better known as Miss Cleo, claimed to be from Jamaica.
• Joseph Howard Lee, who claimed to be the African native Bata LoBagola.
• George Psalmanazar, who claimed to be from Formosa.

Royal impostors

• Anna Anderson, who may have really believed she was the Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.
• Alexis Brimeyer, a Belgian who claimed connection to various European royal houses.
• Harry Domela, who pretended to be an heir to the German throne.
• Eugenio Lascorz who claimed connection to the royal house of the Byzantine Empire.
• Eugenia Smith, another woman who claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia.
• Perkin Warbeck, a pretender to the throne of England.
• Pierre Plantard, the mastermind behind the Priory of Sion hoax who claimed to be Merovingian, a pretender to the throne of France.
• Charles Stopford, an American man who has claimed to be an English nobleman since 1983, using the name of a dead infant.
• Count Dante is the real name of John Keehan. Many don't recognize his rationale for assuming the title, and allegedly rightful, name of Spanish nobility. In his campaign to promote his system of martial arts, he also claimed victories in various secret deathmatches in Asia, and mercenary activity in Cuba, none of which carried documented proof.
• Mary Carleton who was, amongst other things, a false princess and bigamist.
• Frederick Rolfe, who is better known as Baron Corvo.
• False Dmitriy I, False Dmitriy II and False Dmitriy III, who all impersonated the son of Ivan the Terrible.
• False Margaret, who impersonated the Maid of Norway.
• Terence Francis MacCarthy, an Irishman, who has claimed to be a Prince of Desmond
• Andrew Lee, an Australian who claimed to be Lord Leitrim, alternatively Lord Battenberg and has even claimed to be Prince Philip's love child.^[2]

Academic impostors

• Dr Charlotte Bach, fringe evolutionary theorist, who was neither a doctor nor a woman.
• Marvin Hewitt, who became a university professor without real credentials.
• James Hogue, who most famously entered Princeton University by posing as a self-taught orphan.
• Marilee Jones, Dean of Admissions at MIT and a best selling author who claimed advanced degrees in science fields. After ten years in the post, she was revealed to have only a high school diploma.
• Brian MacKinnon, who went back to being a teenager in order to re-enter medical school.
• Azia Kim, who posed as a Stanford University student for eight months, before finally being caught.

People who "went native"

• Grey Owl, an Englishman who wanted to be Ojibwa.
• Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance, an African American who claimed to be a Native American.
• Iron Eyes Cody, an Italian American actor (the "crying Indian" in anti-litter commercials), who claimed to be a Native American.
• Two Moon Meridas, herbalist and faux Amerindian.
• Jamake Highwater (aka Gregory Markopoulos, Jay Marks), author.
• Forrest Carter, author of The Education of Little Tree.
• Carlos Castaneda, writer and self-styled anthropologist.

Multiple impostors

• Jerry Alan Whittredge, dubbed the "Great Astronaut Impersonator" pretended to be an Astronaut, CIA Regent for Life, Medal of Honor winner and Top Gun Trophy winner, according to the affidavit of the arresting agent Joseph Gutheinz. In 1998 he was arrested after talking his way into NASA's Mission Control during a Space Mission, after being given VIP tours of two Navy bases and after receiving information about the space shuttle. He claimed his attorney was President Bill Clinton. ^{[3] [4] [5]}

• Ferdinand Waldo Demara, "The Great Impostor".
• Stanley Clifford Weyman.
• Laurel Rose Willson, who has claimed to be victim of satanic ritual abuse "Lauren Stratford" and Holocaust survivor "Laura Grabowski" (see also Binjamin Wilkomirski).
• Frederic Bourdin, "the French Chameleon".
• Barry Bremen has entered multiple sporting events pretending to be an MLB umpire, an NBA All-Star, and Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader, among other things.
• Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, German who claimed to be a member of the Rockefeller family among other things.

Women who lived as men

Many women in history have presented themselves as men in order to advance in typically male-dominated fields. Not all were transgender in the current sense. See also: Crossdressing during wartime.

• James Barry, who successfully lived as a "male" British military surgeon.
• Frances Clalin, who served in Missouri artillery during the United States Civil War.
• Catalina de Erauso, Basque nun-soldier under Spanish colonial army.
• Dorothy Lawrence, an English journalist who wore uniform during World War I.
• Deborah Sampson, a female soldier during the American War of Independence.
• Mary Anne Talbot, an Englishwoman who became a sailor during the Napoleonic wars.
• Billy Tipton, jazz musician.
• Loreta Janeta Velazquez, who supposedly was a Confederate soldier under the name Harry T. Buford.
• Nadezhda Durova, a woman who became a decorated soldier in the Russian cavalry during the Napoleonic wars.
• Hua Mulan, who disguised herself as a man to join the Chinese army, when her father was too old for it.
• Stanisława Walasiewicz, a Polish athlete who became an Olympic champion by competing among women, even though it was later learned that Walasiewicz had ambiguous genitalia and could not easily be identified as either biologically male or female.

Military impostors

Several people who have never served in the military have claimed service, often with decorations or membership in highly selective units. Others have actual military service, but either embellished or exaggerated their accomplishments.

• Joseph A. Cafasso, former Fox News military analyst who claimed to have been a highly-decorated Special Forces soldier and Vietnam War veteran. He actually served in the U.S. Army for only 44 days.
• Wes Cooley, a US Congressman who claimed to have fought in the Korean War. He served in the U.S. Army for two years, but was never in Korea.
• Brian Dennehy, a famous American actor who claimed to have fought in the Vietnam War; he served in the United States Marine Corps for four years, but never in Vietnam.
• George Dupre, who claimed that he had been working for the SOE and the French Resistance during World War II. Dupre served in World War II, but was never in France or with the SOE.
• Joseph Ellis, American professor and historian who claimed a tour of duty in the Vietnam War. He served in the military during the war, but never left the U.S.
• Jesse Macbeth, anti-war activist who claimed to be an Army Ranger ordered to execute innocent civilians in Iraq. He had been discharged from the Army as unfit for duty before completing basic training.
• Alan Mcilwraith, a call centre worker from Glasgow who, among other things, claimed that he was a decorated captain in the British Army. An investigation proved that he had no military service.
• Micah Wright, an anti-war activist who claimed to be an Army Ranger involved in the United States invasion of Panama, and several other covert operations. He was an ROTC student in college, but never took a commission and did not serve in the military.
• James Shortt, (born 1953), British, SAS/Para impostor, Baron of Castleshort, DG International Bodyguard Association. His only military service was a few months as a medic with the Territorial Army (the British Army reserves).

Others

• Bampfylde Moore Carew, a Devonshire man whose popular Life and Adventures included picaresque episodes of vagabond life, including his claim to have been elected King of the Beggars.
• Chevalier d'Eon, who lived the second half of his life as a woman.
• Robert Hendy-Freegard, bogus MI5 officer.
• John Howard Griffin, who darkened his skin and travelled in the American South as a black man in 1959, to write Black Like Me.
• Pavel Jerdanowitch, father of the Disumbrationist movement.
• Ashida Kim, believed by many to be Caucasian author and self proclaimed ninja Radford Davis (alternate pen name Christopher Hunter), who wrote numerous books on ninjutsu during the '70s and '80s, noted for refusing to provide details about his teachers, or the lineage of the martial art in which he claims expertise.
• Louis de Rougemont, who claimed to be an explorer.
• Steven Jay Russell, who has impersonated judges.
• Treva Throneberry, who became a younger Brianna Stewart.
• Arnaud du Tilh, who took the place of Martin Guerre.
• Binjamin Wilkomirski, a fake Holocaust survivor.
• Enric Marco, who presided over an association of Spanish survivors of the Nazi camps, when in fact he went to Germany to work in the Nazi war industry.
• Alan Conway, who impersonated Stanley Kubrick during the early 1990s.
• Graham Tumber, who (despite looking nothing at all like him) impersonated Status Quo frontman Francis Rossi for a whole year, duping Dover council into providing free hospitality and transport services after promising to appear at a charity concert in the town.^[6]

In fiction

Books

• The Count of Monte Cristo
• The Man in the Iron Mask

Film

• A Knight's Tale - A peasant poses as nobility to compete in a jousting tournament
• Big Momma's House - Martin Lawrence disguises himself as a rotund grandmother
• Coming to America - A rich African prince pretends to be poor
• Connie and Carla - Two women pose as drag queens
• Dave - A look-alike fills in for the President
• Face/Off - John Travolta and Nicolas Cage pose as each other
• House Guest - Sinbad pretends to be a rich dentist
• I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry - Two straight firefighters pose as homosexual lovers
• Just One of the Guys - A female high school reporter poses as a man
• Juwanna Mann - A male basketball player dresses as a woman to play in the WNBA
• Little Man - A diminutive, but adult, criminal pretends to be an infant
• Mrs. Doubtfire - Robin Williams disguises himself as an old British nanny
• The New Guy - A high school geek poses as a dangerous criminal to be more popular
• Overboard - A poor carpenter convinces a rich heiress into believing that he is her husband
• The Ringer - Johnny Knoxville pretends to be mentally challenged to enter the Special Olympics
• She's The Man - A female soccer star pretends to be a boy to play on their team
• Sister Act - A Reno lounge singer pretends to be a nun
• Some Like It Hot - Two men pretend to be women
• Soul Man - A white man undergoes treatment to appear black
• The Associate - A black woman disguises herself as a white man to get a job on Wall Street
• The Secret of My Success - A kid from the mail room pretends to be an executive
• Tootsie - A struggling actor pretends to be a woman
• Tropic Thunder - Robert Downey, Jr. plays an Australian actor that undergoes a "racial transplant" to play an African American role
• Two Much - A man wants to date two different women, so he pretends to have a twin brother
• Victor/Victoria - A woman poses as a drag queen
• Wedding Crashers - Two party crashers trick a wedding party into believing they were invited
• While You Were Sleeping - A subway fare collector fools a family into believing she was engaged to their comatose son
• White Chicks - Two black men disguise themselves as young white women
• Working Girl - A secretary takes the role of her boss, a player on Wall Street
• Zelig - A man yearning for social acceptance develops the ability to imitate features and habits of the persons around him.

See also

• Capgras syndrome
• Charlatan
• Confidence trick
• Identity deception
• Identity theft
• Impersonator
• Impostor syndrome
• List of Messiah claimants
• Political decoys

References