Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his photographic twin

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The likeness between the faces of the great "New Deal" American president and the current Australian Prime Minister is extraordinary:

http://cheezburger.com/2251412224

If the Australian guy would lose 5-10 lbs, he'd be a spitting image.

His mother, Coral Landsbury. was a cousin of the actress Angela Landsbury, who (though not American) emigrated to America in the 1940s, where she became famous as an actress. An earlier ancestor was an American colonist, so it is possible that there are distant family connections to FDR as well as the quite extraordinary physical likeness. It would be very interesting if the genealogy programme "Who Do You Think You Are" explored his lineage connections.

FDR has a longer face, the distance between brows and mouth is shorter on Malcolm. The ears are more angular rather than rounded at the top.

The feature that matches is the forehead and to some extent the chin.

http://www.pictriev.com gave around 62% similarity.

I don't grok any but a superficial resemblance. but I can see how others would deem them doppelgangers.

Interesting. I notice that I see far more resemblance when focusing on their faces as a whole. Conversely, focusing on details lessens the resemblance. Maybe see what happens if you are able to switch back and forth between the two perspectives, maybe (the highly visual ??) will find this easier (I wonder)..

regarding FDR's physiognomy, he has a gravity about him of which his doppelganger seems to have somewhat less.

War might have that effect on FDR? They were very serious years when he was president..

also dealing with a recalcitrant reactionary conservative continent in congress who fought him nearly as badly as today's GOP does Obama. also dealing with the near-collapse of the economy. so mebbe the AUS PM would turn out similarly under similar conditions. I like to think that he is the reincarnation of FDR.

I think that FDR and his wife were the most interesting political couple of the 20th century - in substance, far more interesting that the 'glamorous' Kennedys, and the New Deal was FDR's exceptional legacy. He was the president that the USA needed then, I hope that this will be true of Turnbull too, in Australia, because these are also very dangerous times.. What they have in common is that they both chose wives who seemed a perfect match for them and their chosen path. (I didn't know until today that Eleanor Roosevelt and FDR were cousins though..)

Some interesting footage and commentary:

http://www.history.com/topics/us-presid ... -roosevelt

This is quite diverting. Some lookalike pairs here really really jumped out at me - especially Cary Grant/George Clooney, Hugh Grant/Oscar Wilde, David Bowie/Tilda whatshername, Woody Guthrie/whathisname. Couldn't see the likeness General Patton/Donald Trump though...

http://www.biography.com/people/groups/ ... _1_418x616

Frankly, Auntblabby presented us with two pictures of people who look quite dissimilar, unlike B19's presentation.

Auntblabby's is more purely frontal; B19's is sort of a quarter-profile.

FDR nose is thin even at the tip. Also when, he smiled it changed his face quite a bit.

I would like more equal pictures of the two so I can better discern the features.

You could average a large collection of their photos and use the two composites for comparison.

I'm probably being too anoraky about this.

They part their hair the opposite way.

The Australian guy has more weight in the tip of his nose.

You would have see them both posed to the camera the exact same angle to compare.