10 Actors Who Secretly Played Three Characters In The Same Film

6. Eddie Murphy - Coming To America

Suspiria Tilda Swinton
Paramount

Years before he played a host of characters in The Nutty Professor, Eddie Murphy mastered the art of disguise in his 1988 comedy classic Coming to America.

In addition to playing Zamundan prince Akeem, Murphy subjected himself to three extensive makeup jobs to play three separate characters, bring his grand total to four.

Murphy donned a goatee, false eyebrows, and a permed wig to play Sexual Chocolate soul singer Randy Watson, wore old man makeup as the boisterous barber Clarence, and in one of the most mesmerising makeup feats ever put to film, he wore "whiteface" to portray Jewish barbershop customer Saul.

While audiences had a good chance of noticing Randy and Clarence, Saul is such a flawless work of transformation, convincingly altering Murphy's race, that you could never be blamed for missing it, especially with Murphy's spot-on vocal impersonation of an elderly Jewish New Yorker.

It's all the more impressive as Murphy is required to play three of the four characters together in the barbershop scenes, achieved through clever editing.

Murphy did reprise all four roles for the recent sequel Coming 2 America, and while it sadly couldn't hold a candle to the original, at least the makeup was still absolutely perfect.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.