Perhaps the most famous of all celebrity likeness swipes was also one of the most groundbreaking, setting the standard for all ensuing lawsuits pertaining to Hollywood trying to nab off with peoples faces. Not literally, of course. Face/Off remains but a beautiful dream of what could be, rather than a reality. Crispin Glover starred as George McFly, ineffectual father of Michael J Foxs Marty, in the original Back To The Future film. Unfortunately the infamously eccentric Glover and the producers did not agree on terms for him to appear in the sequels, so the role of the character was greatly reduced and recast. Deciding to keep more continuity than they bothered with Martys girlfriend - who was played by Claudia Wells in the first film, and Elisabeth Shue in the second - director Robert Zemeckis used footage of Glover filmed for the first movie combined with new footage of Jeffrey Weissman wearing a false chin, nose and cheekbones to look more like him. Glover was billed as "George McFly in footage from Back to the Future" in the closing credits, a cheeky little nod to Zemeckiss admittedly ingenious solution which wasnt enough to put the actor off of suing the studio on the grounds that they did not own his likeness. Subsequently, there are now clauses in the Screen Actors Guild collective bargaining agreements to the effect that this is no longer permitted. The worrying thing being that it took until Back To The Future Part IIs release in 1989 for Hollywood studios to be stopped from owning actors likenesses...
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
