Fake Shemp

Tom Mason (left) standing in for Bela Lugosi in the 1959 horror film Plan 9 from Outer Space

A fake Shemp is a type of body double who appears in a film as a replacement for another actor or person, usually when the original actor has died, or is unable or unwilling to reprise their role. Their appearance is disguised using methods such as heavy make-up (or a computer-generated equivalent), filming from the back, dubbing in audio and splicing in past footage from the original actor's previous work, using a sound-alike voice actor, or using partial shots of the actor.

Coined by film director Sam Raimi, the term is named after Shemp Howard of the Three Stooges, whose sudden death in 1955 necessitated the use of these techniques to finish the films to which he was already committed. Once somewhat commonplace throughout the 20th century, the use of fake Shemps to emulate the likeness of another person without their permission is forbidden under Screen Actors Guild contracts, largely because of a lawsuit filed by Crispin Glover — following his replacement by Jeffrey Weissman in Back to the Future Part II — that determined that the method violates the original actor's personality rights. The method continues to be used in cases, such as Shemp's, where the original actor is deceased and permission from the deceased actor's estate is granted.

Origin[]

The term references the comedy trio The Three Stooges. On November 22, 1955, Stooge Shemp Howard died of an unexpected heart attack at age 60. At the time, the Stooges still had four shorts left to deliver (Rumpus in the Harem, Hot Stuff, Scheming Schemers, and Commotion on the Ocean), by the terms of their annual contract with Columbia Pictures. By this point in the trio's career, budget cuts at Columbia had forced them to make heavy use of stock footage from previously completed shorts, so they were able to complete the films without Shemp. New footage was filmed of the other two Stooges (Moe Howard and Larry Fine) and edited together with stock footage. When continuity required that Shemp appear in the new scenes, director Jules White used Joe Palma, one of Columbia's bit character actors, as a body double for him. Palma often appeared only from behind or with an object obscuring his face.^[1] Palma had appeared as a supporting character in numerous Three Stooges shorts before Shemp's death and would continue in that capacity for the trio's shorts with Joe Besser as the third stooge. These four shorts are the only documented times he performed as Shemp's stand-in; Shemp's usual stunt double was Harold Breen, and there were others from time to time, but these four shorts required someone to double as Shemp in an actor's capacity. While Palma was the inspiration for the term "fake Shemp", the phrase was not used at the time.^[2]

First use of the term[]

Aspiring filmmaker Sam Raimi, a professed Stooges fan, coined the term in his first feature-length movie The Evil Dead.^[3] Most of his cast and crew abandoned the project after major delays (mostly due to budget issues) pushed production well beyond the scheduled six weeks. He was forced to use himself, his die-hard friends Bruce Campbell, Rob Tapert, and Josh Becker, his assistant David Goodman, and his brother Ted Raimi as "fake Shemps".^[4]

Sam Raimi's later productions in film and television have also often used the term to refer to stand-ins or nameless characters. For example, 15 fake Shemps were included in the credits for Army of Darkness, Raimi's second sequel to The Evil Dead.^[5] The description is sometimes modified in the final credits; in Darkman, Bruce Campbell's quick cameo in the final scene is credited as "Final Shemp", and Campbell was also credited as "Shemp Wooley" (a pun on singer Sheb Wooley) when doing the voice of "Jean-Claude the Carrier Parrot" in the short-lived TV series Jack of All Trades.

Other examples[]

There have been many fake Shemps over the years. One of the earliest, in an example that predates its use to replace Shemp, was in the 1919 film Shadows of Suspicion, where the death of Harold Lockwood from the Spanish flu forced the use of a body double to complete filming. In the late 1930s, the illness and death of star Jean Harlow necessitated the filming of scenes with a voice and body double to complete Saratoga. Director Ed Wood used his wife's chiropractor, Tom Mason, in the 1959 cult classic Plan 9 from Outer Space as a stand-in for the deceased Bela Lugosi. Joey Faye was used as a fake Shemp to complete filming of The Night They Raided Minsky's after Bert Lahr died in 1967.

In the 1978 film The Game of Death, the technique was used to shoot scenes after lead actor, and director Bruce Lee died. Two stand-in actors were filmed from behind or in fake beards and sunglasses in addition to using footage from a few of Lee's previous films (not to mention real footage of his corpse in his open casket). At one point a picture of Bruce Lee is taped to a mirror to cover the stand-in's own face.

In the 1981 film Superman II, actor Gene Hackman, who had finished the majority of his scenes playing Lex Luthor, left the project following the departure of the film's original director, Richard Donner. After replacement director Richard Lester took over production, a Shemp was used to finish Hackman's remaining scenes. This was accomplished by an uncredited actor standing in for Hackman, though not ever facing the camera, while also impersonating Hackman's voice.

The death of actor John Candy forced the use of a fake Shemp to complete filming of Wagons East!.^[6] Nancy Marchand's death necessitated the use of fake Shemp techniques such as reusing old footage and digitally superimposing Marchand's face on the bodies of stand-ins to allow her character Livia Soprano to appear one final time before the character's death in the third season episode of The Sopranos entitled "Proshai, Livushka", costing approximately $250,000.^[7]

For the 1989 film Back to the Future Part II, actor Crispin Glover was asked to reprise the role of George McFly. Glover indicated interest, but could not come to an agreement with the producers regarding his salary. For the George McFly character to appear, director Robert Zemeckis used some previously filmed footage of Glover from the first film and inter-spliced Jeffrey Weissman, who wore prosthetics including a false chin, nose, and cheekbones and used various obfuscating methods, such as background, sunglasses, rear shot, and even upside-down, to resemble Glover. Dissatisfied with these plans, Glover filed a lawsuit against the producers, including Steven Spielberg, on the grounds that they neither owned his likeness nor had permission to use it. Due to Glover's lawsuit, there are now clauses in the Screen Actors Guild collective bargaining agreements that state that producers and actors are not allowed to use such methods to reproduce the likeness of other actors.^[8]

Advances in visual effects, especially the development of automated deepfake technology, have allowed for more sophisticated fake Shemps. In 2013, Paul Walker died from a car crash before completing the filming of Furious 7. Subsequently, the story arc for Walker's character Brian O'Conner was rewritten to allow for his retirement from the series. To achieve this, co-star John Brotherton and Walker's brothers Caleb and Cody were used as Shemps, with computer-generated facial replacement used to recreate his likeness when necessary.^[9] In the 2016 film Rogue One, the 1977 likenesses of Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher were recreated using CGI over body doubles, using processes that Lucasfilm would not divulge, with Guy Henry and Ingvild Deila playing the parts.^[10] Similarly, for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, footage of Fisher shot for The Force Awakens was superimposed onto a digital body.^[11]

See also[]

• Alan Smithee

References[]

External links[]

• What is a Fake Shemp?