Fake Shemp - Examples

Examples

• There have been many Fake Shemps over the years. The most notable ones are Bruce Campbell, A. L. Bakst, and Ted Raimi, who have Fake Shemped frequently throughout their careers and have had Fake Shemp cameos in nearly all of Raimi’s movies, most notably in the Spider-Man franchise. Campbell is known to Fake Shemp in many Coen brothers movies. The Coens were involved in the editing process of The Evil Dead.

• In Superman II, there is a Fake Shemp standing in for Gene Hackman during scenes director Richard Lester re-shot in order to earn full director's credit after Richard Donner was fired during production. Hackman refused to come back and re-shoot scenes upon hearing of Donner's firing.

• Most of the scenes in Trail of the Pink Panther that have Inspector Clouseau in them are actually pieces of reused or previously unused footage from previous films in the series with its star, Peter Sellers, who died two years before the film's release. The last scene, which contains new footage of Clouseau, shows him from the back.

• In Back to the Future Part II and Part III, scenes with George McFly in them are either shots recycled from the first film, or Jeffrey Weissman wearing prosthetics while being filmed from the back, upside-down, or while wearing sunglasses. Original actor Crispin Glover did not return for the sequels due to contract disagreements.

• Bruce Lee was replaced by a number of Fake Shemps in Game of Death and Game of Death 2, both of which were released posthumously using combinations of stock and original footage of Lee and body doubles. In one scene, the director resorted to creating Lee's "reflection" by pasting a photo of Lee to a mirror.

• After the death of Brandon Lee on the set of The Crow, the film, still unfinished at the time, was completed with a stand-in and computer-generated visuals.

• Plan 9 From Outer Space famously used an obvious stand in for Bela Lugosi who had died two years before filming began. Test footage of him shot by director Ed Wood for a different movie was used as the basis for this movie, and to finish the scenes, Wood's wife's chiropractor Tom Mason was used. He was a foot taller, and held a cape over his face for the remainder of the movie.

• A CGI fake shemp of actor Arnold Schwarzenegger was used in the 2009 film Terminator Salvation in the scenes featuring the T-800 model 101 terminator, not only because this specific terminator was intended to look identical to the one that appeared in the first film and Schwarzenegger was too old to play the role, but also because he was the governor of California by then. This fake shemp was played by Roland Kickinger. If Schwarzenegger had decided not to lend his appearance to the film, then John Connor would have shot the T-800's face off before the audience got a good look at him.