Twins

A database for my fascination with actors playing their own twin, doppelganger or clone.

(with a little help from my friends at Always Record and Synchromystic forum)

Not knowing where to start, I'll just jump in with the famous Patty Duke Show.
In which Patty Duke starred as her own identical cousin.

Patty Duke's husband John Astin played his own identical twin in Candy (1968), which starred Ringo.

Ringo played his own identical doppelganger in the 1978 tv movie ' Ringo'.

Notice the twin pillars and b/w checkered floor.

Ringo also played Frank Zappa's doppelganger in Zappa's film 200 Motels. Which, incidentally, was filmed in the same studio that 2001: A Space Odyssey was filmed, and features Kubrick's Monolith in two shots.


Hayley Mills starred in the original Parent Trap, the theme song to which is "Let's get together, yeah, yeah, yeah!"

Paul McCartney (A Gemini) wrote the soundtrack for her 1967 film The Family Way.
McCartney was married to Heather Mills.

Lindsay Lohan played her own twin in Parent Trap (1998).

She also played her own twin named Dakota Moss in the film I Know Who Killed Me, which came out the same year as Chapter 27 (2007) in which she played Jude, with Jared Leto as Mark David Chapman. John Lennon was played by Mark Lindsay Chapman.

in I Know Who Killed Me, her boyfriend is named Jerrod.
Jared Leto plays his own doppelganger in his band's video for 'The Kill (Bury Me)', which was filmed as an homage to The Shining.
(in I Know Who Killed Me, Dakota's twin is buried alive).

The other members of the band also play their own identical doppelgangers, and towards the end, they perform at a ball in which all the attendees are twins.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yvGCAvOAfM
Jared Leto described the meaning of 'The Kill (Bury Me)', "It's like really about a relationship with yourself. It's about confronting your fear and confronting the truth of who you are."
He has also said it is about "confrontation as a crossroads" - coming face-to-face with who you really are.

Double Fantasy is the Lennon LP that had just come out in the fall of 1980. Jude convinced Chapman to buy a copy for Lennon to autograph.

The three-line III design in McCartney's "New" album

is very similar to glyphs used by Jared Leto's band, 30 Seconds To Mars.

Jared Leto starred as the murderer in Lonely Hearts.
He also played Paul Allen, the murder victim, in American Psycho.
And he starrs as Paul Gardner in Urban Legend.
(In American Psycho, his apartment overlooks Central Park, as did Lennon's).

in Twin Peaks, Sheryl Lee played Laura Palmer the murder victim, and her own identical cousin, Maddy Ferguson.

In the show, Kyle Maclachlan investigates Laura's death. In Dune he plays Paul Atreides, his father is Leto Atreides.

Sheryl Lee also plays Beatle friend Astrid Kirchherr in the film Backbeat.

Jeff Bridges plays his own doppelganger in Tron.

He is also the main character in the 1976 King Kong, which takes place on the Twin Towers.
He signs a check dated Sept. 11th in The Big Lebowski, where he plays the title character, and there is another Mr. Lebowski in the film.

And in The Men Who Stare At Goats, he tests the men in his troop by having them guess what is in box K-9 (11-9).


In the film The Boys From Brazil, Nazi scientist Josef Mengele has created 94 clones of Hitler. Now that they are 14, he is having their (adopted) fathers assassinated in order to simulate Hitler's childhood, in hopes to create a new Hitler for a new era.
In the very first scene of the first Hitler clone we see, we have the infinite reflection mirrors/multiples imagery.

The Boys From Brazil novel was written by Ira Levin, author of Rosemary's Baby. He also wrote The Stepford Wives, which involves robot women.

Mengele has also created a serum that can turn anyone's eyes blue.
He experiments with it on the Hispanic children in his Paraguan village.
The Hitler clones all have piercing, bold blue eyes (played by the same actor).
in Dune, when people consume the spice Melange, it turns their eyes bright, bold blue.

Melange is almost an anagram for Mengele.

All of the doppelgangers in the Lodge in Twin Peaks have peircing blue eyes.

Agent Cooper(Paul Atreides)'s Doppelganger. Lynch didn't really let us get a good look at his eyes.


At the very beginning of the film The Magic Christian, which starrs Ringo, Peter Sellers watches tv. The program shows men all looking very similar, doing exercises in unison.
We also see infinite reflections of Peter in the mirror.

The film contains a scene which is an homage to A Hard Day's Night. In it, an Asian man sitting on the train is swapped out three times with different men, in order to fool the gentleman with the newspaper.

Sellers plays 3 different characters in Dr. Strangelove and one character with two disguises in Lolita.


Christian Bale plays his own identical twin brother in The Prestige.

in The Prestige, Nikolas Tesla, played by David Bowie, builds Hugh Jackman's character a machine with the capacity to clone him, which he then uses for his magic act; The Transported Man, in which he 'disappears' then reappears in another part of the room.
Lennon does a similar disappearing and reappearing act in the bathtub scene in A Hard Day's Night.
(with a toy submarine, no less)

Each night, Jackman's character falls into a tank of water and drowns, as his newly created clone goes on to continue his life, and continue the process.

Similar to the machine in this Beatles cartoon with four Ringos exiting.

Ringo & Bowie. Bowie is in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me

Another Batman, Michael Keaton, plays his own set of clones in Multiplicity.

(more multiple/mirror imagery)

Matthew Modine, Kubrick's Private Joker, plays his own identical twin brother in Equinox.
Which also starrs Lara Flynn Boyle of Twin Peaks.

Val Kilmer, another Batman, was the voice of KITT in the 2008 version of (Dark) Knight Rider. In both the original and the 2008 version, KITT has a twin named KARR.
He also played Elvis in True Romance. Elvis had a twin. True Romance was directed by Tony Scott, brother of director Ridley Scott.
Elvis does play his own identical cousin in Kissin' Cousins.

He also starred in Double Trouble, but there are no twins.

Interesting that Val Kilmer also played Jim Morrison, along side Kyle MacLachlan as keyboardist Ray Manzarek.


Jack Nicholson was one of two Jakes.
Jake being a shortened name of Jacob, who was a famous Biblical twin.

Interesting that Jack echoes the Grady twins' "forever and ever" as Danny sits in his lap. We first see him beckon Danny with his reflection in the mirror. Alluding to a mirrored self?


Ringo visiting the set of The Shining.


The first person to be notified of Heath Ledger's (another Joker) death was his close friend twin Mary Kate Olsen.
Ledger died before filming was finished for The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.
In it he plays a man named Tony who survives a hanging by putting a flute in his throat - Danny from The Shining has a boy in his throat named Tony.
Mt. Parnassus is a mountain sacred to Apollo - Danny wears his Apollo sweater.

Bill Klaus has theorized that Ledger's Joker is essentially a hypothetical grown-up Danny Torrence.
in The Dark Knight, The Joker recounts how he got his facial scars; his father was beating his mother and saw him watching and asked, "Why so serious? You need to smile." then slashes his cheeks.
As The Joker, he has what is called a Glasgow Smile, when the cheeks are slashed from the mouth to the ear. Which is one of the ways Elizabeth Short, The Black Dahlia, was mutilated in 1947. Tim Burton's Batman, with Nicholson as The Joker, takes place in 1947.


Interesting that Bale played identical twins in The Prestige. One was hung (for a crime he didn't commit), the other went free. (Abracadabra was one of the working titles for Revolver)

Ledger plays The Hanged Man in his last two films.

The first time he is hung in Parnassus, he survives, but the second time... well, no spoilers.


in Dr. Parnassus, when Tony is found, he has these esoteric markings on his forehead.
The one in the middle is a triangle outside a circle, outside a mirrored K. Which is also engraved upon the stone found in his pocket.

The mirrored K is also a letter in Eastern European/Russian alphabets. It is the letter Zhe, and is referred to as "the beetle". (Tony was hung by Russians).

It is also used as the glyph for the Risen Sun God of Horus.

There are essentially two Anthonys in the film; Anton and Tony.
Tony is Anton's dark reflection - touching on Jung's 'shadow self'.
It is Anton that found Tony hanging under the bridge, it was Tony's shadow that Anton saw. He thought it was an angel dancing on the water. And it was Anton that found out about Tony's dark past and goes into The Mirror/Imaginarium to warn Valentina of his crimes.

When Anton tells her about Tony, Tony replies, "Don't believe everything you read in the newspaper, especially The Mirror." Right before he steps into the Imaginarium Mirror.

Mirrored Ks. K = 11
11: the number of Magic.

The famous Alchemical glyph of the Philosopher's Stone features two lovers in a circle, in a square, in a triangle, much like the symbol on Tony's forehead.

The Tarot Lovers card is attributed to the Zodiac of Gemini, the twins.

In Hebrew tradition, Golems can be brought to life by various means. The most commonly used method was by writing the word "Truth" on it's forehead.
I wonder if that has anything to do with the markings on Tony's forehead.

Also, Valentina, Parnassus' daughter, is basically a carbon-copy/clone image of her mother (Lily Cole plays the role of her own mother in the flashback scene), who Parnassus told her died during childbirth. I wonder if she too is actually a clone. Given to her by The Devil, who has come to claim her on her 16th birthday.

Tony Liar

In Greek mythology, Mercury gives Apollo a lyre.
The very first line in Dr. Parnassus is Anton saying, "I, Mercury, messenger of the gods..." as he is dressed as Mercury.

When Anton finds out about Tony's past, it is in The Sun newspaper. Apollo = the Sun.
Interesting having Ledger resonate as Apollo here, as the Batman/Joker characters resonate as the Apollo/Dionysus archetypes.
Tony also wears the Thoth mask - again linking Anton & Tony as essentially one in the same, mirror versions, Inner/Outer Church, Tweedledee & Tweedledum.

Thoth = Hermes = Mercury

Apollo killing (Monty) Python. A 1581 engraving by Virgil Solis for Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book I

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus was directed by Monty Python's Terry Gilliam

in The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, the character of Tony Shepherd is played by four different actors.
Heath Ledger, Colin Farrell, Jude Law and Johnny Depp.


Johnny Depp has red markings on his forehead in Polanksi's The Ninth Gate. 111 in blood.
Also notice the mirror reflection, and the damaged right lense.

The first book store Depp goes to is run by identical twins.

At the end of the film, he returns to their store and finds the page he's looking for which completes the formula for opening the 9 Gates.

in Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas, Johnny Depp has a Z (Zhe) drawn on his forehead.

A lot to get into regarding Johnny Depp, Paul McCartney, 111, and Golems, read my post on it here.

Percy (Verne Troyer) from Dr. Parnassus played Dr. Evil's mini-clone in Austin Powers.

Mike Myers plays multiple roles in Austin Powers, much like Peter Sellers in his Kubrick roles.
Heather Graham, starr of The Spy Who Shagged Me was in Twin Peaks.
(Ringo's wife Barbara Bach starred in The Spy Who Loved Me).

in Twin Peaks, the inhabitants of the Lodges are a giant and a dwarf.

Which brings to mind the 1988 film Twins.

The two twins are the result of a secret experiment carried out at a genetics lab.
Arnold's character is told his mother died during childbirth.
Arnold and DeVito are both Batman villains.

as an aside; it's interesting that in Batman & Robin, Poison Ivy says "Behold, the dawn of a new age" as the camera cuts to Bane. Dawn = Aurora. Bane in The Dark Knight Rises/Aurora Colorado.

Arnold plays his own clone in The 6th Day

and meets himself in Last Action Hero.


Jeff Daniels plays his own doppelganger/film character-come-to-life in The Purple Rose of Cairo.
They meet each other at exactly the 42:00 minute mark.


The infamous Kray twins, the British gangsters who were the foremost perpetrators of organized crime in East London in the '50s and '60s.


Vincent Price plays a Satanic cult leader and Death in The Masque of the Red Death (1964), which also starrs McCartney's then girlfriend Jane Asher.


in Black Magic, Orson Welles plays two roles: author Alexander Dumas, and magician Count Cogliostro (the character in the story Dumas is writing).
It also starrs Nancy Guild as Marie Antionette and a woman that looks exactly like her named Lorenza.
Lorenza is being used against her will by both Cogliostro and the King's mistress for their own purposes.

The dwarf in Twin Peaks represents the arm of one of the killers, Mike. Mike repented from his life as a murderer and chopped off his arm to remove the pledge tattoo from his body. There are actually two Lodges in Twin Peaks, the White Lodge and the Black Lodge.
In 1935, Boris Karloff played the roles of twin brothers in the film The Black Room. One of the brothers is incapable of using his right arm.

Dr. Strangelove has an autonomous, uncanny right hand.

Evil Dead


In a Halloween episode of The Simpsons, we see Bart has a twin brother named Hugo.

(obligatory Simpsons Twin Towers reference)


Which brings to mind Hugo Weaving and his career.
Hugo played Elrond in Lord of the Rings. Part II of which was titled The Two Towers.

Elrond has a twin brother named Elros. Aragorn is a descendant of Elros.

It is Elrond who decides that the Fellowship of the Ring should destroy the Ring.


There is also a lot of significant ring usage in Twin Peaks.

Elrond means "Vault of the STARS" according to Tolkien.
Elrond had twin sons, Elladan and Elrohir.

Sam Gamgee is played by Sean Astin, whose parents are Patty Duke and John Astin.


in The Matrix, Hugo plays Agent Smith, who develops the ability to turn inhabitants of the Matrix into replicants of himself.

Neo, Keanu Reeves, meets himself via time travel in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.
And his robot doppelganger in Bogus Journey.

Strange things are afoot at the circled K on Ledger's forehead.

Hugo Weaving plays V in V Is For Vendetta with Natalie Portman.

Portman starrs as Padme Amadala in the Star Wars prequels, part II of which is titled Attack of the Clones.

Padme gives birth to twins.
One is Leia who is played by Carrie Fisher.
She starred with Ringo Starr in 'Ringo'.

(In Terry Gilliam's Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas, Carrie Fisher's mother Debbie Reynolds sings a lounge version of Sgt. Pepper's).

The other twin was Luke, played by Mark Hamill, who is the voice of The Joker. Linking him with Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger.

Interesting that Nicholson & DeVito both played Batman villains that end up in Arkham Asylum.
Take a look at the name Mark Hamill.

in The Empire Strikes Back, Luke battles his doppelganger, dressed as Darth Vader.

Vader cuts off Luke's hand, bringing to mind the one-armed man in Twin Peaks, etc.
in Attack of the Clones, Anakin has his hand cut off by Count Dooku.
in I Know Who Killed Me, Lohan is kidnapped by a killer who cuts off her right hand. And since Dakota and Aubrey are stigmata twins, Dakota's hand falls off, as well. She later receives a robotic hand, just like Luke.

The killer is played by an actor that looks strikingly similar to Hugo Weaving.

Interesting since Weaving is Agent Smith in The Matrix, and the entire film I Know Who Killed Me is basically done in a blue & red motif.

Padme's friend and confidant, Obi-Wan Kenobi is played by Ewan McGregor.

Obi-Wan and some clone troopers.
It was Obi-Wan who was the first to discovers the secret production of the clone army. The cloning facility is on an island city on a watery planet.
McGregor starred in The Island where he plays his own clone.

He co-starred with Scarlett Johansson, who also plays her own clone.
Scarlett was also in The Prestige
Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in Lord of the Rings, plays Tesla's assistant in The Prestige.


2014
14 is two 7s
the double 7s
the two 7s of 77/OZ
The Twin Pillars of the Tree of Life, "Established in Strength".

The A.'. A.'. 7-pointed STAR of Babalon.

The Seal upon the RING of "IT"

Ringo was born on 7/7

From Crowley's Liber Oz.

Oz at the bottom of the Twin Towers from The Wiz.

The Kabbalah Tree of Life is meant to be folded into itself, forming a hexagram, or 6-pointed star.
When it is split atpart, it is held that way by the Twin Pillars which are spanned by the 19th path, that of the Strength card, and the 27th path, that of The Tower.

When the Zaire and the Shekinah are separated thusly, the Shekinah is consequently put into exile. In order to maintain the illusion of a feminine receptive principle, a substitute is put in her place. This substitute, or doppelganger, is often called the Whore of Babalon, the Evil Handmaiden, Lillith, and the Scarlett Woman.
In Crowley's Tarot deck, the Strength card is depicted with the Whore of Babalon riding upon the Beast.

This concept is explicitly depicted in Metropolis.
Where, by the way, Brigitte Helm plays her own android doppelganger.

in The Phantom Menace, Kiera Knightly plays Padme's handmaiden.

in Black Swan, Portman keeps seeing her identical doppelganger, and is worried that Lily, her alternate, is trying to replace her. Her director is named Thomas, and what sets this production of Swan Lake apart from the others is the the dancer playing The Swan Queen also plays her own identical evil twin, The Black Swan.

Black Swan is remarkably similar to a 1947 film titled A Double Life.
Natalie Portman is in two McCartney videos, My Valentine and Dance Tonight.


2014
2/14 Valentine's Day
brings to mind Cupid on Crowley's Lovers card

The Lovers card is attributed to Gemini, the twins.

007
Double oh 7

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me is a spoof on the 007 film The Spy Who Loved Me, which starred Barbara Bach, Ringo's wife.

The film was released on 7/7/77, Ringo's 37th birthday.

In the film, Bach plays Agent XXX

X is the 24th letter of the Alphabet.

2 + 4 = 6

X also = 6 in Pyhtagorian numerology.

In the movie Superman III, Superman splits in two to fight himself.

Superman II and III were directed by Richard Lester, the director of A Hard Day's Night and Help!
He secretly co-produced Superman I
Notice with Reeve, Superman's hair parts on his left, and Clark Kent's hair parts on his right.
Same with McCartney during the Beatlemania years an in the late-60s, whicle the PID motif was being played out in slightly more earnest then earlier.

We'll all be Magick Supermen post.

in Superman IV, Lex "French Connection" Luthor steals a hair of Superman's and uses the DNA to create Nuclear Man. And of course, they fight on the dark side of the moon.

Kyle MacLachlan does the voice of Superman in Justice League: The New Frontier.

In the 1969 Altamont stabbing post I mention the film Wonderwall (soundtrack by George Harrison). In one scene, one of the main characters is holding a Superman comic.

Which just happens to be about Superman and a doppelganger (with a silver hammer).

He is then later seen wearing this costume.



Christopher Reeve / Keanu Reeves
Red pill / Blue pill(ar)


Superman gets his powers from the Sun. Tiphareth in the center of the Tree of Life, between the Twin Pillars
The Soul/Sol/Solar Man
betwen the paths of the Tower and Strength


Another blue & red superhero, Spiderman, also has an evil doppelganger; Venom.

The first Spiderman film featured the Twin Towers in the trailer.

The Lex Luthor Towers are seen damaged in the Superman comic book that came out the day after 9/11.

Super Mario, another red & blue hero.
The Twin Towers in the Mario Brothers movie.



in The Star Wars prequels, we meet Count Dooku. He is the one who has instigated the Clone Wars, and is the one overseeing the production of the clone army.
The owner/operators of the cloning facility in resemble the futuristic beings in A.I., a film in which Haley Joel Osment plays a robot double of a dead boy.
Robot David eventually learns he is one of many.

Dooku is played by Christopher Lee; who plays his own alien doppelganger in End of the World, which also starred Sue Lyon (Kubrick's Lolita).

in End of the World, one of his roles is Father Pergado, which brings to mind Father Perdurabo, Crowley's Thelemic name. In his Book of Lies, in the chapter titled "Trouble With Twins", Crowley indicates that he & Father Perdurabo are twins.

Star Wars rebel logo - Black Swan starring Natalie Portman.

Twin-headed eagle seen as insignia of secret societies.

The same two-headed eagle seen on the chair of the cult leader in Eyes Wide Shut.

Star Wars Empire logo - Lennon's memorial.

Lennon's Imagine memorail reminds me of the imagery seen on the floors in many scenes in The Fountain, which starrs Hugh Jackman playing 3 roles. There is also much significant ring usage in the film.


Back to Eyes Wide Shut. There are some subtle twin themes in the film.
Before Bill goes to the ritual, he meets two women named Mandy and Domino.
It is almost certain that he talks to both of them at the ritual.
He later hears that Domino was "diagnosed HIV positive" and "might not be coming back." And then learns that Mandy has died of an apparent drug overdose.
Mandy & Domino are both tall redheads. When one domino falls, do so the others. Twin Towers reference?

Bette Davis plays her own identical twin sister in Dead Ringer (1964). One kills the other and takes over her life.
The man in charge of their estate is named Paul Harrison, played by George Macready.
In 1946 she played her own identical twin sister in a film with a similar premise titled A Stolen Life.
Bette Davis is part of the Sgt. Pepper crowd, though obscured by George Harrison, who is also obscuring Tim Carey from Kubrick's film The Killing - Phillip Carey plays Sgt. Hoag in Dead Ringer.


Bjork's song Heirloom is interesting in that it begins with her speaking in first person; I, me, etc. and her voice is single tracked.
About halfway through the song, her voice becomes double-tracked, and she begins using terms like, we, our, us, etc.


Kate Bush and her 'Shadow Self'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wrEyD8lQdg
"Om Mani Padme Hum"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om_mani_padme_hum

Jack Nicholson starrs with Danny "Penguin" DeVito in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. His character had a permanent smile upon his face. Like The Joker.

Nicholson walks behind a window in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest which has "Ha Ha" written on it in lipstick.
(Rerum was written by Danny with lipstick)

9/11 - 9 divided by 11 is .818181 for infinity.
8 = H, A = 1
hahahaha
Why so Sirius?

Olsen Twins, Twin Towers. Ledger died in NYC (as did Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who was also in the middle of filming a new movie).
The poster for The Dark Knight resembles the hole caused by the planes in the Twin Towers.

slain Grady Twins as fallen Towers?

Phillip Seymour Hoffman's first role was on Law & Order, on an episode called The Violence of Summer. He was originally credited as Phillip Hoffman, and oddly enough there was another Phillip Hoffman in the same episode. http://lawandorder.wikia.com/wiki/Philip_Hoffman
Season 1, episode 14.

Tegan & Sara, identical twin sister indie-pop, group has an interesting song titled Are You Ten Years Ago. Interestingly, the intro ends with "I collapse", and the reprise ends with "you collapse".

Lyrics to the third verse end with, "When you saw it all come crashing down, subtle but not underground, I was there."

The Wonder Quins

The middle portion of Freud's "Uncanny" sheds a lot of light on the phenomenon of 'doubles'. The entire article is a recommended read for anyone interested in Kubrick's films. And will also put this excerpt into proper context. http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~amtower/uncanny.html

And here is something very interesting I read regarding a twins theme in A Clockwork Orange. http://idyllopuspress.com/idyllopus/film/co_four.htm


Other syncnificant Twin nodes

The Twin starr system of Sirius
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius

Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. The name "Sirius" is derived from the Ancient Greek: Σείριος Seirios ("glowing" or "scorcher")

(Shining?)

Sirius A is about twice as massive as the Sun. It was originally composed of two bright bluish stars. The more massive of these, Sirius B, consumed its resources and became a red giant before shedding its outer layers and collapsing into its current state as a white dwarf around 120 million years ago.

A giant and a dwarf? Twin Peaks Lodge inhabitants?

Sirius is also colloquially known as the "Dog Star"
Twin dogs on Crowley's Moon Tarot card

and Twin Anubises

The Double Helix of DNA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleic_acid_double_helix
In molecular biology, the term double helix refers to the structure formed by double-stranded molecules of nucleic acids such as DNA and RNA.


And of course the famous twins who founded Rome: Romulus and Remus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romulus_and_Remus
Romulus and Remus are the twin brothers and central characters of Rome's foundation myth.

They were raised by a she-wolf.
Sirius?

Isis and her twin sister Nepthys sitting with their brother Osiris.
"Sitting on a sofa with a sister or two."

And for anyone keeping track at home, the name Thomas means 'Twin'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_(name)
Ringo Starr is the voice of Thomas the Tank Engine.


Rob Ager had a great analysis on the twin themes in The Shining but it is no longer available :/