9 Extreme Movie Characters You Won't Believe Were Based on Real People

4. Beverly and Elliot Mantle (Dead Ringers)

David Cronenberg makes weird movies. There is no denying it, especially early in his career €“ The Fly, Videodrome, Naked Lunch, etc. But as strange and, at times, disturbing, many of them develop from real life €“ Videodrome is based on the ideas/works of Marshall McLuhan and Naked Lunch is taken from the drug-addled experiences of William S. Burroughs. So perhaps it should not come as a surprise that another one of Cronenberg€™s most memorable films was based on reality. 1988€™s Dead Ringers saw Jeremy Irons tackling the dual roles of identical twins Beverly and Elliot Mantle, a pair of slightly unhinged gynecologists caught in a downward spiral. In real life, Stewart and Cyril Marcus were well-respected and accomplished gynecologists practicing in New York City. They were very close and shared everything €“ medical practice, patients, teaching duties, NYC apartment, house in the Hamptons, and apparently, an insatiable drug habit. At the age of 45, they were found dead together in their Manhattan apartment due to extreme withdraw from addiction to barbiturate drugs. The film was also based in part on 1977 novel Twins, which was also the film's original title until someone decided a movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito was more deserving of that title.