Walter White and Frank Underwood must be livid.
October 24, 2014 9:27 AM Subscribe
I'm thinking there must be many real people out there with the same names as fictional TV characters. They had these names before the TV show ever came into being, but because of the huge popularity of these shows, their lives must be changed.
Imagine your name forever associated with a meth dealer, a crooked politician, mob boss, serial killer, etc. I know all these shows have a disclaimer , but it seems to me a real "Walter White" would have a good case against the producing company claiming their product has negatively impacted his life. Has this kind of thing happened? What do the unfortunate Tony Sopranos out there do?
Imagine your name forever associated with a meth dealer, a crooked politician, mob boss, serial killer, etc. I know all these shows have a disclaimer , but it seems to me a real "Walter White" would have a good case against the producing company claiming their product has negatively impacted his life. Has this kind of thing happened? What do the unfortunate Tony Sopranos out there do?
I have a friend named Greg Brady. Greg is a tall, gangly, awkward guy - but a real nice guy.
Greg was in 6th grade in 1969 when the Brady Bunch first aired.
He had a tortured experience in Middle School due to that show.
Even to this day (he is in his late 50s now), Greg can still get worked up and angry about how that show impacted his life.
posted by Flood at 9:37 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
Greg was in 6th grade in 1969 when the Brady Bunch first aired.
He had a tortured experience in Middle School due to that show.
Even to this day (he is in his late 50s now), Greg can still get worked up and angry about how that show impacted his life.
posted by Flood at 9:37 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
Only the dumbest people (on preview: and school children) will make a big deal out of something like this.
My (fairly common) name is the same as a fairly well known genre writer's pen name. And like empath I get...
"Did you know there's a writer..."
"Yes."
or
"Are you the Robert Jordan?"
"Yes."
posted by sevenless at 9:39 AM on October 24, 2014 [5 favorites]
My (fairly common) name is the same as a fairly well known genre writer's pen name. And like empath I get...
"Did you know there's a writer..."
"Yes."
or
"Are you the Robert Jordan?"
"Yes."
posted by sevenless at 9:39 AM on October 24, 2014 [5 favorites]
The real Ronald McDonald has cashed in on his name.
posted by Jacqueline at 9:40 AM on October 24, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Jacqueline at 9:40 AM on October 24, 2014 [2 favorites]
My ex boyfriend is named Peter Griffin. We were dating when Family Guy first came on the air. He wasn't thrilled about the situation, and got some ribbing. But the only real repercussion that I can think of is that he is pretty much un-Googleable.
posted by kimdog at 9:40 AM on October 24, 2014 [7 favorites]
posted by kimdog at 9:40 AM on October 24, 2014 [7 favorites]
I used to date a guy named James Brown. He said that the only time he minded was when his name was called out at, like, the DMV and some smartass would shout out "Ow! I feel good!".
posted by Elly Vortex at 9:44 AM on October 24, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Elly Vortex at 9:44 AM on October 24, 2014 [3 favorites]
I have the same last name as Ireland's equivalent of Richard Nixon, a shady dude that stole millions while in a position of power. Since it's a unique last name, when I travel abroad, I get asked a lot if I am related to him, and I hate the question because he seems like a real asshole, so I usually say "No, thank god!"
posted by mathowie at 9:45 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by mathowie at 9:45 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
I know a Bart Simpson (who was born in 1972, so no one could have predicted, poor guy). It resulted in some mild razzing and I know he's heard every. single. permutation. of every. single. joke. on the subject over the last 20 years, but I'm pretty sure he'd have a difficult time proving damages.
posted by The Elusive Architeuthis at 9:46 AM on October 24, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by The Elusive Architeuthis at 9:46 AM on October 24, 2014 [2 favorites]
I have the same last name as Ireland's equivalent of Richard Nixon, a shady dude that stole millions while in a position of power. Since it's a unique last name, when I travel abroad, I get asked a lot if I am related to him
As a kid I was constantly asked if I was related to Bucky Dent and (more confusingly) Richard Dent. My answer to both was "Yes, he's my dad."
I suggest this approach when asked if you're related to Charlie. The reactions are... satisfying.
posted by DarlingBri at 9:51 AM on October 24, 2014
As a kid I was constantly asked if I was related to Bucky Dent and (more confusingly) Richard Dent. My answer to both was "Yes, he's my dad."
I suggest this approach when asked if you're related to Charlie. The reactions are... satisfying.
posted by DarlingBri at 9:51 AM on October 24, 2014
My orthodontist's name was Leonard Bernstein (older than the famous musician). Yeah, "are you related?" was as far as it went.
posted by Melismata at 10:01 AM on October 24, 2014
posted by Melismata at 10:01 AM on October 24, 2014
Gerry Sandusky won't change his name.
posted by Rob Rockets at 10:01 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Rob Rockets at 10:01 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
In a letter, Evelyn Waugh once said he was planning a story "about a man called, as it might be, 'Gregory Peck' whose life is ruined by the appearance of a film star with the same name."
posted by otio at 10:03 AM on October 24, 2014
posted by otio at 10:03 AM on October 24, 2014
My friend Will Graham has some thoughts on this.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:05 AM on October 24, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Lyn Never at 10:05 AM on October 24, 2014 [2 favorites]
I know all these shows have a disclaimer , but it seems to me a real "Walter White" would have a good case against the producing company claiming their product has negatively impacted his life.
No, actually - the legal departments on shows generally ensure that a character's name is either 1) completely unique, or more often, 2) belongs to enough people in the U.S. that an individual cannot claim that the character is based on them or that a reasonable third party would conflate the two.
posted by northernish at 10:07 AM on October 24, 2014 [2 favorites]
No, actually - the legal departments on shows generally ensure that a character's name is either 1) completely unique, or more often, 2) belongs to enough people in the U.S. that an individual cannot claim that the character is based on them or that a reasonable third party would conflate the two.
posted by northernish at 10:07 AM on October 24, 2014 [2 favorites]
The Dresden Files TV Show changed the name of a book character (Karen Murphy) because there happened to be a real life person with that name in the Chicago PD. The same place the fictional character worked.
posted by PlutoniumX at 10:08 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by PlutoniumX at 10:08 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
An example which bothered Western fans of a certain age is the 'Brat Pack' actor Matt Dillon (who shares the name of a marshall on "Gunsmoke").
posted by Rash at 10:15 AM on October 24, 2014
posted by Rash at 10:15 AM on October 24, 2014
"I know all these shows have a disclaimer , but it seems to me a real "Walter White" would have a good case against the producing company claiming their product has negatively impacted his life."
There is no real Walter White. It's a name shared by thousands.
posted by vapidave at 10:16 AM on October 24, 2014 [4 favorites]
There is no real Walter White. It's a name shared by thousands.
posted by vapidave at 10:16 AM on October 24, 2014 [4 favorites]
For a couple of data points, there is a Seinfeld episode that covers the serial killer angle, and I went to school with a guy named James Brown who looked a lot like Jimi Hendrix. He basically took it in stride.
posted by rhizome at 10:16 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by rhizome at 10:16 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
In all seriousness, this is just a thing that is. In cases like the Dresden Files situation, the real Karen Murphy might be able to rattle some chains, and it was both smart and considerate for the production to change it, but nobody's guaranteed a unique name. And all the Walter Whites in the population were already each others' problems. There was probably already at least one horrible Walter White - but if he had been a teacher and drug dealer, they probably would have chosen a different name to avoid questions of story rights.
It's actually a plus if being ungooglable is a positive thing to you. My friend is unlikely to be passed over for a job because of a TV show character because those sort of vetting processes are somewhat thorough, but at this point he could probably get away with quite a few unusual hobbies and claim it's not him.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:20 AM on October 24, 2014
It's actually a plus if being ungooglable is a positive thing to you. My friend is unlikely to be passed over for a job because of a TV show character because those sort of vetting processes are somewhat thorough, but at this point he could probably get away with quite a few unusual hobbies and claim it's not him.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:20 AM on October 24, 2014
Not a tv character name-a-like story, but...
I used to work retail in Memphis in the late '90s. A thirtysomething guy came in to fill out an application whose name was Jim Ray. I smirked when I saw the name and asked, "James Ray... So what's your middle name, 'Earl'?"
He sighed and made a very defeated face.
"Yeah."
It turned out he was born a few years before MLK's assassination and was very innocently named James Earl after one of his grandfathers. The subsequent 30 years of living in a largely black city with the exact name of Martin Luther King's killer had not always been fun. He really liked his grandfather, so he kept hoping people would stop obsessing and cut him a break. Obviously, he was older than the event itself, so he couldn't have been named for it. Still, he said, he was getting close to giving up and changing his name.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:22 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
I used to work retail in Memphis in the late '90s. A thirtysomething guy came in to fill out an application whose name was Jim Ray. I smirked when I saw the name and asked, "James Ray... So what's your middle name, 'Earl'?"
He sighed and made a very defeated face.
"Yeah."
It turned out he was born a few years before MLK's assassination and was very innocently named James Earl after one of his grandfathers. The subsequent 30 years of living in a largely black city with the exact name of Martin Luther King's killer had not always been fun. He really liked his grandfather, so he kept hoping people would stop obsessing and cut him a break. Obviously, he was older than the event itself, so he couldn't have been named for it. Still, he said, he was getting close to giving up and changing his name.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:22 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
I knew a guy in high school named Matt Foley. He was a large, blowhard of a guy. When I first saw the Chris Farley character I was convinced it was based on this guy but there was really no way it could have been, unless Farley was, like, this guy's camp counselor or something, which was unlikely.
This was a few years out of high school and I hadn't seen the guy since, but I always suspected it negatively impacted his life somehow.
I'm sure there are many, many Matt Foleys out there.
posted by bondcliff at 10:28 AM on October 24, 2014
This was a few years out of high school and I hadn't seen the guy since, but I always suspected it negatively impacted his life somehow.
I'm sure there are many, many Matt Foleys out there.
posted by bondcliff at 10:28 AM on October 24, 2014
And of course there's Michael Bolton (kind of the reverse of the question I guess).
posted by jozxyqk at 10:30 AM on October 24, 2014
posted by jozxyqk at 10:30 AM on October 24, 2014
I know this has come up here about MeFi's own Saul Goodman.
posted by Room 641-A at 10:30 AM on October 24, 2014
posted by Room 641-A at 10:30 AM on October 24, 2014
A childhood friend had the name Bill Bonney.. We, of course, called him Billy the Kid, and he lived up to the name...
The worst aspect of this, especially for kids, is the scripting it does in terms of their own self image.
posted by HuronBob at 10:38 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
The worst aspect of this, especially for kids, is the scripting it does in terms of their own self image.
posted by HuronBob at 10:38 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
I'm friends with Skyler White and we've talked about this a little. There just isn't all that much recourse - she used to be the only person who turned up when her name was googled, and now it's endless variably-misogynist rants about the character. Not fun, but she mostly just rolls her eyes and grumps about it.
posted by restless_nomad at 11:17 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by restless_nomad at 11:17 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
I can't seem to track it down now, but I remember reading about some poor sap in New York in the 90s with almost exactly the same name as Slobodan Milosevic, with just a one letter difference in spelling.
posted by Rhaomi at 11:31 AM on October 24, 2014
posted by Rhaomi at 11:31 AM on October 24, 2014
We (perhaps foolishly) named our daughter after the name of a famous song. Many years later she gets both "Have you heard [song name]?" or people humming the famous opening riff.
posted by TheRaven at 11:50 AM on October 24, 2014
posted by TheRaven at 11:50 AM on October 24, 2014
My name is very similar to that of a famous singer. My mother's married name is the same as a company that used to be fairly well known.
I get the rare person who has heard of the singer and is tickled by the name and my mother gets people who think she has lots of money because her name is the same as the company.
Not terribly exciting.
posted by sciencegeek at 12:09 PM on October 24, 2014
I get the rare person who has heard of the singer and is tickled by the name and my mother gets people who think she has lots of money because her name is the same as the company.
Not terribly exciting.
posted by sciencegeek at 12:09 PM on October 24, 2014
My first/middle name are nearly identical to the first/last name of a very popular character from a hit 90s movie that came out while I was in high school. I got a lot of ribbing for it. A lot. So I started going by just my middle name (which avoided the problem since my middle/last name wasn't similar to any fictional/real people). Then a video game came out (and became popular) in early 2001 whose main character had the same name as my middle name. I pretty much heard every joke, reference or insult associated with the damn game. I went back to just using my first name. I still get an occasional ribbing over the 90s movie character, but time has diminished the frequency.
I imagine it's much worse for those who share names with awful figures/characters, but aside from it being annoying, I don't think they could prove that people are legitimately mistaking/confusing them with these vastly more popular (and well-known) figures/characters to the extent where damages would be warranted.
posted by stubbehtail at 12:28 PM on October 24, 2014
I imagine it's much worse for those who share names with awful figures/characters, but aside from it being annoying, I don't think they could prove that people are legitimately mistaking/confusing them with these vastly more popular (and well-known) figures/characters to the extent where damages would be warranted.
posted by stubbehtail at 12:28 PM on October 24, 2014
My father has the same name as another dude in our smallish city who was a shady businessman and serial philanderer, so he occasionally received hate mail intended for the other guy. You deal, you move on.
posted by psoas at 1:50 PM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by psoas at 1:50 PM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
My company had a relatively prominent lawyer that shared the same name with Scott Peterson. Even worse is that this guy lived in the Bay Area so relatively close to infamous Scott Peterson.
posted by mmascolino at 2:50 PM on October 24, 2014
posted by mmascolino at 2:50 PM on October 24, 2014
My all-time favorite oh-my-god-you-can't-just-do-that-Bryan example is from Bryan Fuller and NBC's Hannibal:
And we just started leaning toward the purple and the operatic. Scott Nimerfro, who is one of our writers, said, “Well, wouldn’t it be interesting if he was burying people to grow mushrooms on them?” and then we started doing mushroom research and found this TED Talk by a mycelium expert named [Paul] Stamets, who we named the character after and thought, “Oh hey, what if this guy had lost his rocker?”
posted by you're a kitty! at 3:23 PM on October 24, 2014 [3 favorites]
And we just started leaning toward the purple and the operatic. Scott Nimerfro, who is one of our writers, said, “Well, wouldn’t it be interesting if he was burying people to grow mushrooms on them?” and then we started doing mushroom research and found this TED Talk by a mycelium expert named [Paul] Stamets, who we named the character after and thought, “Oh hey, what if this guy had lost his rocker?”
posted by you're a kitty! at 3:23 PM on October 24, 2014 [3 favorites]
FWIW, I have no idea about the characters Walter White and Frank Underwood. I get that they're bad guys on TV shows that I've never seen.
No one thinks they're real.
For the rest of my comment, see Sevenless @9:39 a.m., above.
posted by JimN2TAW at 3:36 PM on October 24, 2014
No one thinks they're real.
For the rest of my comment, see Sevenless @9:39 a.m., above.
posted by JimN2TAW at 3:36 PM on October 24, 2014
I had a professor at uni whose name was James Dean. He pre-empted it at the start of every semester by acknowledging it in a kind of lame, college professor funny way. He drank his coffee out of a James Dean mug. Seemed to work pretty well for him. If you get in first, you take the wind out of people's sails.
So yeah, I think there are other ways of dealing with it than a lawsuit.
posted by Athanassiel at 3:51 PM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
So yeah, I think there are other ways of dealing with it than a lawsuit.
posted by Athanassiel at 3:51 PM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: To chime back in, I wasn't suggesting that anyone should sue anyone, but it wouldn't surprise me. Having the same name as a relatively positively perceived famous person or fictional character would not seem problematic to me. It's when your name all the sudden is the same as a fictional character that is bad... That's gotta suck. If I were kind, upstanding -- real -- family man Walter White of Boise, and Breaking Bad became a hit, I think I'd be kinda pissed.
Also not suggesting that people would be mistaken for the character. Just that it taints their day to day life.
And also not suggesting writers need to make up improbable names. It's just an interesting phenomena.
posted by ecorrocio at 4:11 PM on October 24, 2014
Also not suggesting that people would be mistaken for the character. Just that it taints their day to day life.
And also not suggesting writers need to make up improbable names. It's just an interesting phenomena.
posted by ecorrocio at 4:11 PM on October 24, 2014
Wasn't there a short time after 911 when people with names like "Al Kayda" (or something similar) were getting threatening phone calls from others who looked them up in the phone book?
posted by Poldo at 7:14 PM on October 24, 2014
posted by Poldo at 7:14 PM on October 24, 2014
There's a politician who has my same name. At first I was a bit miffed, because my website used to be the #1 hit when someone Googled my name.
But these days? I'm rather happy that my information is 'obscured' by this politician.
posted by doctor tough love at 1:01 AM on October 25, 2014
But these days? I'm rather happy that my information is 'obscured' by this politician.
posted by doctor tough love at 1:01 AM on October 25, 2014
There's a Harry Potter QC in the UK, who has also presented TV shows about the law.
Short article about his name here:
(he likes it)
posted by threetwentytwo at 3:32 AM on October 25, 2014
Short article about his name here:
(he likes it)
posted by threetwentytwo at 3:32 AM on October 25, 2014
As entertainment has moved into the long tail, this is less of a problem than it once was. A small percentage of Americans watched Breaking Bad or House of Cards. An IRL Frank Underwood probably has very little trouble out of it.
posted by MattD at 12:34 PM on October 25, 2014
posted by MattD at 12:34 PM on October 25, 2014
I'm curious how it is in countries where the population is basically limited to one ethnicity, where certain name combinations would be a lot more common.
There's a commercial (for ESPN, I think) where a poor guy named Michael Jordan keeps encountering people disappointed to learn that he's not "the" Michael Jordan. It probably hits close to home for a lot of people. But I guess it's better than having a name like Ray Rice.
The conundrum for writers might be that you could name your drug-dealing teacher character "Walter Wiesknewski," but there's still a chance someone out there has that name too. And they might get worse grief because something like Walter White at least is understandably going to be very common.
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 4:19 PM on October 25, 2014
There's a commercial (for ESPN, I think) where a poor guy named Michael Jordan keeps encountering people disappointed to learn that he's not "the" Michael Jordan. It probably hits close to home for a lot of people. But I guess it's better than having a name like Ray Rice.
The conundrum for writers might be that you could name your drug-dealing teacher character "Walter Wiesknewski," but there's still a chance someone out there has that name too. And they might get worse grief because something like Walter White at least is understandably going to be very common.
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 4:19 PM on October 25, 2014
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posted by empath at 9:29 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]