Body Double

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When important figures feel they need extra insurance, someone takes on the appearance and role of someone else, especially in dangerous situations.

This is very much a Truth in Television, and generally the more paranoid a leader the more doubles they will have. Saddam Hussein reportedly had over 50 doubles that he used at various times, and other notorious leaders like Josef Stalin and Hitler have also had confirmed body doubles.

In Japan this practice was known as kagemusha (literally "shadow warrior"), and was fairly common during the Feudal Era for warlords. Oftentimes the kagemusha were convicted criminals who took the opportunity in exchange for not being put to death. Of course, given the perilous position they were in, this rarely guaranteed their ultimate survival.

In a less notorious case, General Bernard Montgomery employed a double to confuse the Germans during World War Two. This story became a book and a film, called I Was Monty's Double.

Related to Emergency Impersonation, I Am Spartacus. If the double is covering up for the fact that the leader is actually dead, it's an El Cid Ploy. See also Decoy Getaway for a practical application of a Body Double. See also Decoy Leader, when a leader uses someone else to pose as them, while not necessarily looking anything alike. Not to be confused with the Real Life practice of actors using body doubles for stunts and/or nude or sex scenes. Also not to be confused with the thriller starring Melanie Griffith. For other types of impersonators, see Celebrity Impersonator.

Since this trope is often part of a Shocking Swerve, be warned that there are inherently SPOILERS below.

Examples of Body Double include:

Anime and Manga

In Samurai Deeper Kyo has two: One for Tokugawa Ieyasu (the real ones turns out to be Hattori Hanzo) and one for Sanada Yukimura, who is actually a woman (the body double, not the guy, though it's an easy enough mistake to make).
In Gundam Seed Destiny, aspirant singer Meer Campbell fills this role for Lacus Clyne, though she's actually working for the Big Bad, who has told her that she'll be able to help keep the fragile peace if she poses as Lacus. Meer eventually began to crack under all the stress and self-esteem problems, she decides that she doesn't care that she's being used to further Durandal's goals and only wants to continue to pretend being Lacus. Lacus herself talked Meer out of it... only for poor Meer to be shot to death while Taking the Bullet for Lacus and perish in her arms.
In Murder Princess the maid Milano takes princess Alita's place during an invasion and dies, causing the body-swapped Alita to take on her dead maid's name and role.
Makoto in El-Hazard: The Magnificent World reluctantly agrees to impersonate Princess Fatora (to whom he bears an uncanny resemblance) after she is captured.
In the second-to-last episode of Samurai 7, Ukyo uses other clones of the Emperor, who are all genetically and physically identical to him as his body doubles. It almost works.
A fairly innocent example occurs in Cardcaptor Sakura through Sakura's use of the Mirror card to stand in for her when she has to do some emergency card-catching. However, Sakura's spiritually aware brother Touya is fully aware that it's not really Sakura, but plays along anyway.
In Code Geass, C.C. occasionally stands in for Zero/Lelouch when he needs to keep up the Masquerade of being a normal student. Given that C.C. is also immortal, there's also a practical application of this, as if she were to take a bullet for Lelouch she could just walk it off.
- In R2, Sayoko masquerades as Lelouch while he's off doing his Zero thing. It actually causes some minor problems for him; upon his return, he has to deal with the repercussions of Sayoko mistakenly playing him as a Casanova. That and Sayoko is a highly athletic ninja and Lelouch gets tired from running a block.
In Ashita no Nadja, Rosemary becomes Nadja's Body Double and the accomplice of Smug Snake Hermann.
Captain Kuro of One Piece hypnotized one of his crew members to think that he was Kuro. After a good get-up, Captain Morgan took him in, and Kuro was assumed captured while he went on to put together a three year long plan.
Played with (in both versions) at the beginning of Dance in the Vampire Bund. In both cases a tall, voluptuous, raven-haired beauty in vampish attire is initially introduced as the Princess of Vampires. Of course when Mina Tepes makes her first actual public appearance, her aide Vera becomes completely useless as a decoy.
Dix-Neuf Noinheim from the Gundam Wing novel Frozen Teardrop was this for his brother-in-law, Milliardo Peacecraft aka Zechs Merquise. And was killed for it, but his sacrifice let Zechs escape safely.
Parodied in Fushigi Yuugi. Hotohori needs to leave the Imperial Capital to help Miaka and the group, but since he's The Emperor he just can't go and step out. Chichiri offers to help and morphs into Hotohori with his Master of Disguise powers... but the extremely vain Hotohori is displeased because Chichiri can't flawlessly recreate his beauty.
One episode of Golgo 13 had a situation where Golgo was hired to kill a client's double so he could fake his death. The double arranges for the real man to take his place, taking over the mob boss's life after his death. Unfortunately, he makes the mistake of turning Golgo into an enemy.
One chapter of Franken Fran is about a mobster who frequently makes use of her services to create body doubles. Then, his latest double tries to turn over a new leaf with his company, he assassinates him, and things get a bit hectic.
Subverted in Detective Conan. Kogoro is given the supposedly easy work of spying on a certain man... and said man turns out to be a Body Double. The guy that said actor was impersonating? He's found dead some days later -- and the dude who hired Kogoro not only was the killer, but he actually used Kogoro to have an alibi, which pisses off Kogoro greatly but he has no evidence to get to him. Of course he doesn't pass through Conan's deducing skills, though.
- Again subverted in a case where the Body Double is the killer. She actually was an aspiring actress who worked as the double for a famous idol, then her envy and jealousy peaked to the point of killing her boss, hiding her body, and then impersonating her until the dead woman was found. Again, Conan sees through her.
In one Naruto filler episode, Ino serves as the body double for a princess who greatly resembled her, until she started binge eating out of stress in anticipation for meeting her fiance, and now doesn't want him to think she's fat. Ino finds the prince obnoxious and refuses to continue setting the princess up with her, so Naruto steps in to do things his way, inadvertently resulting in the prince encountering the real princess and revealing he's attracted to heavyset women.

Comic Books

The premise of the DC character The Human Target was that he was one of these. The Vertigo series played with it by having him literally disappear into each persona he adopted, having to be broken out of the new personality with psychological triggers.
In Cerebus, Lord Julius (a parody of Groucho Marx) hired several "Like-a-looks" to stand in for him (lampshading the fact that anyone with the right build, walk, fake mustache and attitude can look like Groucho Marx.) It was never entirely clear who was the real Lord Julius after that, especially after a mob of increasingly absurd Like-a-looks (including the Elrod the Albino!) invaded the palace and all claimed to be the real one.
- In a reprint, Sim mentioned the story was inspired by the scene from Duck Soup where Chico and Harpo both impersonate Groucho using greasepaint and the right props.
In Lone Wolf and Cub, each member of the Yagyu clan has their own double. One of them cheerfully commits Seppuku so that Retsudo can tell the shogun his son is dead (and show his severed head as proof).
The in-canon Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic book has her using body doubles to spread misinformation. It helps that All the doubles have her durabillity and healing powers as well.
- One of those was RetConned in an episode of Angel.
Marvel's 616 Universe has created LMD (Life Model Decoys) which can fill in whenever needed. Handy for retcons as well. Nick Fury, among others, has used them.
Doctor Doom, of course, has his Doom-Bots. Which can pass for him so well that writers use this to retcon story arcs they don't care for, to the point that the practice occasionally undergoes Lampshade Hanging.
In the Yoko Tsuno story "The Prey and the Shadow", a secretary named Margaret is blackmailed into becoming the double of Cecilia, her boss's unstable adoptive daughter. As time passes, she's more and more aware that something horrible will happen, but she's completely trapped in the web of lies that her boss extended around her. Once the titular Action Girl and her Power Trio spend a night in the boss's castle, Margaret confides on her so they can both save Cecilia from her "father" and free Margaret from him as well.
The Silver Age Superman used robot doubles to help him conceal his Secret Identity. These were phased out by the Bronze Age.

Film

Kagemusha, the famous Akira Kurosawa movie, has a convicted criminal offered the role of warlord Takeda Shingen in exchange for sparing his life.
Star Wars Episode I had one for Amidala when she switched into her Padme persona, and it's only in the novelization that it becomes clear who was what where. That said, Padme seems to masquerade as a handmaiden so much that her double really does handle a fair bit of actual governmental concerns.
- Amidala keeps this up when she's a senator in Episode II, and the double is killed early in the film. Padme is extremely distressed that the person whose entire job was to be killed in her place... was killed in her place.
The King of France does this in History of the World Part I.
In Vantage Point, it turns out that the President who was assassinated was actually his body double, which sucks for the guy, but is good news for the rest of the American population. Seeing as the double was shot on camera some skilled maneuvering is used when the President is revealed to be alive, so they make it look like he was only wounded. It helps that the President actually was hurt in a subsequent kidnapping.
One of the plot twists of Batman Begins is that the East Asian man identified as Ra's al Ghul was just a front for the real Ra's -- the man who until this point had called himself Ducard.
A non-action example: The Georgian movie Comrade Stalin's Trip to Africa is about a Georgian Jew who is recruited to double for Stalin.
In the 2007 movie Hitman, Agent 47 kills Russian President Mikhail Belicoff in a public appearance, only to discover Belicoff is still alive and well. In a twist, it turns out the living Belicoff is actually a body double who has usurped the murdered Belicoff.
Diamonds Are Forever has multiple copies of Blofeld; they all die painful deaths.
Prince Philip in Princess Of Theives.
The film The Eagle Has Landed is about a group of Nazi paratroopers who sneak into England in an attempt to assassinate Winston Churchill. The last member of the team succeeds in doing so before being shot, but after he dies, it is revealed that the Prime Minister was out of the country at a secret conference in Teheran - the man who was just killed was a double.
The Devil's Double, based on the Real Life Latif Yahia, a body double for Saddam Hussein's son Uday.
Played with in Spaceballs:

Captain of the Guard: You idiots! These are not them! You've captured their stunt doubles!

Literature

Crown of Slaves by David Weber and Eric Flint opens with Berry Zilwicki being offered the job of body double for Princess Ruth of Manticore.
Mary Hoffmans' Stravaganza has this in the first book, as the Duchessa of Belleza uses different doubles for all the flashy ceremonies, such as the Marriage with the Sea. She began this procedure when she became pregnant with her daughter, Arianna. One such double thinks she can outsmart the Duchessa, rat out her secret, and throw her lot in with the di Chimici with no ill consequences. She's wrong.)
In one of Francoise Rivier and Michel Laponte's Jonathan Cap books, a dangerous Xanatos Gambit to overthrow an Arab Sheik depends on one of these, a Middle-Eastern Ordinary High School Student named Jamil who is groomed by the terrorist group to serve as the double to the Crown Prince (whom they plan to kidnap, kill, and then replace with the kid, whom they have trapped in a complicated web of lies to make sure he can't escape). Coincidentally, the Big Bad chooses a Parisian private clinic as its hideout since the gambit's supposed to take place during the Prince's visit to France, and a girl named Juliette is operated there... and she happens to be the best friend of Jonathan's Kid Sidekicks and nephews Alex and Nico...
- Used in a lighter note later. Once the deal is defused and Jamil is released from his captors's control, the Crown prince forgives him on grounds of being an unwilling accomplice. Then he makes Jamil replace him during official activities (therefore, making him a full-blooded Body Double, while he goes outside to have fun with Alex and Nico.
Near the end of Robin McKinley's Spindle's End, the characters attempt to thwart an evil fairy's curse on secret princess Rosie by having Rosie's best friend Peony claim to be the princess in her stead. Unfortunately, while everyone else is fooled, the fairy is not.
In the Discworld stories, Ankh-Moroprk's Charlie the Clown makes a meager living as a Lord Vetinari impersonator - and a more lucrative but far more dangerous living filling in for Lord Vetinari when the Patrician doesn't want it known he's away from Ankh-Moroprk. Raising Steam shows that most of that danger comes from Vetinari himself.

Live Action TV

Ba'al on Stargate SG-1 created numerous clones of himself to act as decoys, and aid in some elaborate schemes of his.
Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, in Acts 44 and 45, it's revealed that Takeru is a kagemusha for the true 18th head, Shiba Kaoru. He is later adopted by Kaoru and made her official successor in Act 48.
In the Castle episode "A Dance With Death", the person Beckett found dead and thought she'd identified, turned out to actually be the supposed murder victim's hired body double, who, after the nominal victim died a year previously, had been pulling a Dead Person Impersonation.

Music

Imogen Heap's song "Bad Body Double" plays with this. The singer talks of a woman who looks a lot like her, although she's "...got some greys, a little extra weight on the side, and dimply thighs..." And once the lookalike finds this out, she starts stalking her, trying to look more like her. There's also the interpretation that the body double is really the personification of her insecurities about herself.
The Real Hussein, a parody of Eminems "The Real Slim Shady" highlights Saddam Husseins use of these.

Saddam: And there's a million of us just like me, who dress like me, walk, talk, oppress like me, mustache like me, a big piece of trash like me, and just might be a piece of sh*t, but not quite me!

Real Life

Another real-life example: North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il is strongly speculated to have a double. One journalist went so far as to suggest that the real Kim has been dead since 2003.
- Though now that he is actually dead, we will likely never find out.
Another Real Life example: Allegedly, Empress Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary aka Sissi often asked one of her hairstylists, a German lady who bore quite the resemblance to her and had similar Rapunzel Hair, to replace her in several official acts.
The whole Paul is dead theory thrives on this.
Adolf Hitler is said to have had a variety of doubles, particularly on big speeches and propaganda marches. While not 100% certain, it would explain why over 40 assasination attempts failed on him.

Role Playing Games

In Survival of the Fittest, Ken Lawson was Burton Harris' body double—and ended up being put into V2 for his pains. Burton, of course, then managed to land himself in V3 too. Both ended up getting killed.

Theater

The titular king in Henry IV, Part 1 has a number of doubles during the climactic battle.

Video Games

Similarly, in Metal Gear Solid, Decoy Octopus takes on the appearance of several different people, and has to be psychologically evaluated after each one to return to his core personality.
- In the Fan Comic The Last Days of Foxhound, Revolver Ocelot expresses disappointment at Decoy Octopus' decision to stop impersonating him, because it meant that there was no longer a 50/50 chance that someone out to get him would kill Octopus instead.
- In an early version of the Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty story, the events of the Plant Chapter were supposed to take place while Solidus Snake was still in office as the U.S. President. The events would've kicked off with the assassination of Solidus Snake's body double, allowing him to fake his death.
After the first chapter of Rondo of Swords, the player learns that the main character, Prince Serdic, is in fact a double of the actual Prince Serdic.
There are two cases of this in Fire Emblem. First is Samuto from the 3rd game, body double of Nabarl, second is Shanam in the 5th game, body double of Shanan. The difference is Shanan specifically asked Shanam to be one, Nabarl never asked Samuto to do the job.
The playable version of King Lion in Savage Reign and Neo Geo Battle Coliseum is actually a body double (referred to as a "shadow") of the real King Lion.
Call of Duty Black Ops' first level has the player unknowingly assassinating Fidel Castro's body double.
Used for Sakaki Joushiro's backstory in the Samurai Shodown games (more exactly, Warrior's Rage). With a twist, though! The body double was not him but his girlfriend Karen, an Action Girl who posed as a princess's double... but was killed by the Big Bad Oboro. Joushiro got wrongfully blamed for all of it and now he's a runaway.
Tokugawa Ieyasu uses multiple body doubles while on the run in one stage of Samurai Warriors 2.
Suikoden V has Roy serve as this for the Prince after he loses their duel. It comes into play several times, with one of Roy's most awesome moments coming only if the player really screws up.
In Final Fantasy VIII, a small rebel faction's Zany Scheme to capture President Vinzer Deling alive succeeds...only for him to turn out to be an undead body double who TaLKs liKE TorGO.
Subverted and played for laughs in Bangai-O, with one boss character. A few levels after Gai is defeated, Riki and Mami encounter a doppelganger of him that was raised to fill in as the Cosmo Gang's substitute leader, to the point that no one remembers who he is anymore. Said "doppelganger" happens to be a furry, green creature that sports a hairstyle vaguely resembling Gai's, glowing eyes, and a cigar. Naturally, Riki isn't fooled.
The Deception series love having the villains sent these into your dungeon before themselves.
In Final Fantasy VI, the wandering gambler Setzer sends a calling card to the Opera House, professing his intention to kidnap the opera singer Maria. The party needs to get on his airship to make their way to the Imperial continent, so they have Celes (who, strangely enough, looks a bit like Maria) act as a decoy and sing her part in the opera that night. She manages to fool Setzer until after he kidnaps her.
In Ace Attorney Investigations 2, the Body Double of the President of Zheng Fa, conspiring with Bansai Ichiyanagi, Marie Miwa and Ryoken Honinbo, kills the true president and takes his place. The truth is not discovered until after the imposter is dead.

Webcomics

Order of the Stick has several for Xykon one of whose head Belkar uses as a weapon for a short time. This is also something of a subversion, as the doubles simply look like Xykon because they're all skeletons.
In Sluggy Freelance, when Torg or Riff want to get out of something, they have robot doubles which Bun-Bun and Kiki (due to their small size) can operate from the inside to impersonate the real Riff and Torg. Bun-Bun also has Mr. Sock-Lop, a sock puppet that looks just like him, which he brings out whenever he wants to avoid Kiki's overenthusiastic hugs.
In Drowtales, it's revealed in chapter 30 that the "Val'Sharess Diva'ratrika" seen in a parade is actually a double. Slightly different than most examples in that the double isn't there to protect Diva -- it's to hide the fact that she's been dead for 16 years, and it was her own daughters that did it. Needless to say, the real Diva, who in fact is Not Quite Dead and took over the body of her servant, is pretty shocked to hear that "she's" holding a parade.

Western Animation

On American Dad, Stan Smith has a body double issued by the CIA. It gets Squicky when the body double starts dating Stan's daughter Hayley.
In some incarnations of Transformers, Megatron has one named Megaplex.
In The Simpsons, Rainer Wolfcastle has one that looks 100% like him but with a different voice and without the accent.

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