Actors Playing Actors: The 7 Best Portrayals

There's an unspoken rule in Hollywood that states the most surefire way to get an Oscar is by playing a historical figure. It worked for Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote, Nicole Kidman in The Hours, Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland, and so on. So, what happens when an actor plays an actual Oscar winner? Ask Cate Blanchett, who picked up her fist golden statue for her performance as four-time winner Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator. In fact, there's a long movie tradition of actors playing other actors, each to varying degrees of success. Since we're most fond of the highest degrees of success, we've compiled a list of the seven greatest cases of actors playing other actors. If imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery, than these seven performances are flattery in its highest form.