Autobiographical Role

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

When someone plays himself in a Docu Drama, Biopic, or other Dramatization of a true story.

This is not a celebrity or public figure appearing "as himself" in an entirely fictional work. Those examples should go under As Himself. This is when events are being re-enacted by the person who enacted them in the first place.

If a starring role, may overlap with Non-Actor Vehicle. Compare Real Person Cameo. Contrast Character as Himself, in which a fictional character is given a real-world screen credit. Also contrast Adam Westing, where an actor plays his public persona.

Examples of Autobiographical Role include:

Film

  • Audie Murphy in To Hell and Back.
  • Various police officers, bank employees and bystanders in The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery.
  • Frank Wills, the security guard, in All the President's Men.
  • The film Alice's Restaurant recounts a true but comically exaggerated Thanksgiving adventure. Arlo Guthrie played himself and Stockbridge police chief William Obanhein ("Officer Obie") played himself in the film version, explaining to Newsweek magazine that making himself look like a fool was preferable to having somebody else make him look like a fool. Singer Pete Seeger also played himself.
  • United 93: several of those involved in the events surrounding the hijacking played themselves, most notably Ben Sliney.
  • Muhammad Ali starred in The Greatest, a biopic about himself.
  • Fantasia Barrino played herself in the Made for TV Movie Life Is Not a Fairytale, based on her memoir.
  • Jerry Lawler, David Letterman, Lorne Michaels, and most of the cast of Taxi played themselves in Man on the Moon (a Biopic of Andy Kaufman).
  • Howard Stern played himself in the film version of Private Parts.
  • Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa appeared as himself in the 1914 biographical action film The Life of General Villa, incorporating both staged scenes and authentic live footage from real battles during the Mexican Revolution. This later became the basis for the made-for-TV biopic And Starring Pancho Villa As Himself starring Antonio Banderas as Villa.
  • The Iranian film Close-Up has this for essentially all of the people who were involved.
  • Dee Snider had a particularly shameless film called Warning: Parental Advisory, a made-for-TV movie about how he stuck it to the PMRC.
  • Who better to play Jackie Robinson in The Jackie Robinson Story than Jackie Robinson?
  • Ann Jillian played herself in the 1988 Made for TV Movie The Ann Jillian Story, about her struggle with breast cancer.
  • Eminem in 8 Mile, where the story was basically his life with the names slightly changed.
  • Similarly, while Purple Rain may not exactly have been The Real True Prince Story, it did touch on elements of his life, feature him playing with his band, and film on location in his hometown.
  • The Jazz Singer was based on Al Jolson's life, although originally he wasn't supposed to star in it.
  • Babe Ruth, Bob Meusel, Mark Koenig, and Bill Dickey played themselves in the Lou Gehrig biopic The Pride of the Yankees.
  • Coral Browne played herself in An Englishman Abroad, about her encounter with exiled spy Guy Burgess.
  • In-universe example: "Nation's Pride" in Inglourious Basterds.[context?]
  • Attorney/politician Fred Thompson started a side career as an actor when he played himself in Marie.
  • Dolphin Tale has Winter (the dolphin whose story the film is based on) playing herself.
  • Silent-era actress and RMS Titanic survivor Dorothy Gibson starred as herself in the now lost film Saved from the Titanic, which also happened to be the first dramatization of the disaster, released shortly after the sinking. While the film's producers did go through the effort of ensuring authenticity, going so far as to incorporating stock footage of Captain Edward Smith and the Titanic herself, as well as Dorothy even wearing the actual clothes she wore during the sinking, it came at great personal cost to Gibson who was deeply affected by PTSD; the trauma she had both from the tragedy and the film's production (not helping matters was the fact that she was roped into starring in the film so that the producers would cash in on the then-recent disaster) would force her to retire prematurely from acting.

Live-Action TV

Video Games

  • Members of the Korean boy band BTS play themselves in the video game BTS World, where the main storyline is a re-enactment of their career.
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