Sommersby is a 1993 period romantic drama directed by Jon Amiel from a screenplay written by Nicholas Meyer and Sarah Kernochan, adapted from the historical account of the 16th century French peasant Martin Guerre. Based on the 1982 French film The Return of Martin Guerre, the film stars Richard Gere and Jodie Foster, with Bill Pullman, James Earl Jones, Clarice Taylor, Frankie Faison, and R. Lee Ermey in supporting roles. Set in the Reconstruction era following the American Civil War, the film depicts a farmer returning home from the war, with his wife beginning to suspect that the man is an impostor while also falling in love with him.
Laurel Rose Willson was an American con artist and author. She authored books as Lauren Stratford alleging Satanic ritual abuse (SRA), and later assumed the guise of a Holocaust survivor as Laura Grabowski. The general theme of her writing, from adolescence, was horror fiction, often violent and sexual, in which she was the victim.
Enric Marco Batlle was a Catalan impostor who claimed to have been a prisoner in Nazi German concentration camp Flossenbürg in World War II. He was awarded the Creu de Sant Jordi by the Catalan government in 2001 and wrote a book on his experiences. In 2005 he admitted his claims were false and returned his medal, after his deception was revealed by university researcher Benito Bermejo.
Frédéric Pierre Bourdin is a French serial impostor the press has nicknamed "The Chameleon". He began his impersonations as a child and claims to have assumed at least 500 false identities; three being teenage missing people.
Jamake Mamake Highwater, also known as "J Marks", was an American writer and journalist of Eastern European Jewish ancestry who mispresented himself as Cherokee.
Pierre Gilliard was a Swiss academic and author, best known as the French language tutor to the five children of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia from 1905 to 1918. In 1921, after the Russian Revolution of 1917, he published a memoir, Thirteen Years at the Russian Court, about his time with the family. In his memoirs, Gilliard described Tsarina Alexandra's torment over her son's hemophilia and her faith in the ability of starets Grigori Rasputin to heal the boy.
Marga Boodts was a woman who claimed to be Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia. She was one of a considerable number of Romanov pretenders who emerged from various parts of the world following the execution of Tsar Nicholas II and his family at Yekaterinberg on July 18, 1918. She stands out, however, as one of very few who claimed to have been Grand Duchess Olga, the Tsar's oldest daughter. She was also known as Maria Bottcher.
Members of the ruling Russian imperial family, the House of Romanov, were executed by a firing squad led by Yakov Yurovsky in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on July 17, 1918, during both the Russian Civil War and near the end of the First World War.
Police impersonation is the act of falsely portraying oneself as a member of the police for the purpose of deception.
Natalya Petrovna Bilikhodze was a Romanov impostor, one of several women to falsely claim that she was Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, who was executed with her family by Bolsheviks at Yekaterinburg, Russia on 17 July 1918.
Maddess Aiort was a woman who claimed to be Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia, the second daughter of Nicholas II of Russia. She died in 1982 of a serious disease still unknown.
A military impostor is a person who makes false claims about their military service in civilian life. This includes claims by people that have never been in the military as well as lies or embellishments by genuine veterans. Some individuals who do this also wear privately obtained uniforms or medals which were never officially issued to them.
William Douglas Street Jr. is an American con artist and impersonator. His life is the basis of Wendell Harris' 1989 film Chameleon Street, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1990 Sundance Film Festival.
John Livesey is a British military imposter who posed as a decorated war hero; in actuality he served in the army as a cook for three years. His fabricated military record included twenty years in the Parachute Regiment, fighting with the 2nd Battalion in the Falklands War, serving five tours of duty in Northern Ireland, receiving the Military Medal and reaching the rank of Colour Sergeant. He has worked as a historian, author, consultant, lecturer and battlefield tour guide on the basis of his alleged military experience.
Racial or ethnic misrepresentation occurs when someone deliberately misrepresents their racial or ethnic background. It may occur for a variety of reasons, such as someone attempting to benefit from affirmative action programs for which they are not eligible.
Pretendian is a pejorative colloquialism describing a person who has falsely claimed Indigenous identity by professing to be a citizen of a Native American or Indigenous Canadian tribal nation, or to be descended from Native American or Indigenous Canadian ancestors. As a practice, being a pretendian is considered an extreme form of cultural appropriation, especially if that individual then asserts that they can represent, and speak for, communities from which they do not originate.
Alexandra Alexandrovna Tegleva, also known as Shura Tegleva and Sasha Tegleva, was a Russian noblewoman who served as a nursemaid in the Russian Imperial Household. As nursemaid to the children of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, she went with the family into exile in Tobolsk following the abdication of Nicholas II during the February Revolution, but was ultimately prevented from staying with them during their house arrest at Ipatiev House. She survived the Russian Revolution and married Pierre Gilliard, a Swiss academic who served with her in the Imperial Household as the children's French tutor. She moved to Lausanne as a white émigré and remained there the rest of her life. Tegleva worked with her husband to investigate and debunk the claims made by Anna Anderson, a Romanov impostor who pretended to be Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna.
Anthony Enrique Gignac is a convicted Colombian-born American fraudster and con artist. In a career spanning 30 years, Gignac used wealthy, high-ranking personas, most notably that of Saudi prince Khalid bin Al Saud, to fraudulently secure investment in a series of schemes that he presented as being backed by a large personal fortune. After defrauding funds of $8.1 million from investors, Gignac was arrested in 2017 after billionaire Jeffery Soffer, the owner of the Fontainebleau Hotel, became suspicious of the supposed Muslim prince ordering pork at a restaurant. He was jailed for over 18 years in 2019.
The Tribal Alliance Against Frauds (TAAF) is a non-profit organization based in the United States that is dedicated to exposing individuals and organizations that have falsely claimed to be American Indian, as well as to educating the public on the harms to American Indian people and sovereignty caused by identity fraud. The organization employs certified experts in American Indian genealogy to conduct genealogical investigations of individuals who have profited from fraudulent claims of American Indian heritage.
