Bourdin is a serial con artist, known as the Chameleon, who has impersonated people in five languages in more than 15 countries. His most famous stunt – the subject of a documentary, The Imposter, released on 24 August – was when he took the identity of a missing Texan boy called Nicholas Barclay in 1997. Bourdin was almost a decade older than Barclay and French-Algerian, not blond, blue-eyed and all-American, but his deception was so convincing he managed to convince the FBI and – this is really surreal – Barclay’s family. But as the new film shows, that was just the start of the story Photograph: Jean-louis Duzert/AFP/Getty Images
It was one of the tightest security operations in British history, but that did not deter off-the-cuff impostor Nagendra from crashing the Olympics opening ceremony. An MBA student and trained dancer from Bangalore, Nagendra was part of the entertainment for the night but, in the excitement she says, ended up joining the procession of Indian athletes. In a red hoodie and turquoise trousers, she was not inconspicuous marching among the squad’s gold saris and turbans. Nagendra was not punished here, but was told to return home by her parents and has faced “routine” questioning from police Photograph: Christophe Simon/AFP/Getty Images
James was born in Perth, Australia but after volunteering for the British army, ended up in Leicester in 1940. Here, his impersonation of General Bernard Montgomery, one of the architects of the D-Day landings, came to the attention of Lieutenant-Colonel David Niven – yes, that one – and MI5. A performer back home, James’s greatest role would be in Operation Copperhead acting as a double for Montgomery to convince the Germans that the allied invasion would come from southern France, not Normandy. The part required him to give up booze and cigarettes and wear a prosthetic finger Photograph: Public Domain
Remember when Milli Vanilli were one of the biggest bands on the planet? Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan’s debut album went platinum six times over, spewed out No 1 singles and won them a Grammy for best new artist in 1990. Pilatus called himself “the new Elvis”. Then at a “live” show, the recording of their vocals jammed and skipped and they fled the stage; in late 1990, the LA Times confirmed they hadn’t sung any of their hits. The Grammy was withdrawn and fans were eligible for a refund on albums and concerts. The story ends tragically: Pilatus was found dead from a suspected overdose in 1998 Photograph: Rex Features
Between 7 and 13 August 2000, the Moscow Philharmonic played a series of sell-out concerts in Hong Kong to 10,000 enthusiastic locals. Except they didn’t: the real Moscow Philharmonic, one of the world’s finest orchestras, was otherwise engaged in France, Spain and Portugal at the time. No one in the audiences spotted the ruse and the mystery has never been fully unravelled, though it is speculated that they were a crew of musicians from less auspicious Russian orchestras on the make; the group turned over more than $300,000 in a week Photograph: Alamy
Flitcroft, a crane driver from Barrow-in-Furness, had never played a full round of golf in his life when he decided to have a crack at the British Open. At the qualifying event in Formby in 1976, he carded a round of 122, the worst in Open history, an enormous 49 over par. The public loved it, the golf establishment didn’t, but the adventures of the self-proclaimed “Golfer Extraordinary” didn’t stop there. Forced to play under a pseudonym, he returned to the Open in 1983 as Gerald Hoppy, a Swiss pro, and shot 63 for nine holes before being rumbled. His final outing, as James Beau Jolley from the States, lasted just two holes in 1990 Photograph: Christopher Thomond
In 1548, in the village of Artigat, in Ariège, south-west France, Martin Guerre disappeared; eight years later, a man claiming to be Guerre returned. An uncle and four sisters were convinced, as was Guerre’s wife, Bertrande – so much so that she had two children with the man, one of whom survived. Over the years, doubts emerged, in particular when a soldier passing through noted that he couldn’t be Guerre, because the real Guerre now had a wooden leg. Still, he hung on and Arnaud du Tilh was only uncovered when Guerre dramatically turned up at his trial in person. Tilh confessed and was promptly hanged Photograph: Public Domain
The 29-year-old from Ware, Hertfordshire came to prominence during the riots last year when he posed as Inspector Winter, a specialist plain-clothes officer with the Metropolitan Police. On his Twitter account and in broadcast interviews and an article for the Daily Telegraph, Winter gave first-hand accounts of the looting that drew on his experience of military service in Iraq and with the Territorial Army. Not all of it was invented – it’s said that he was present in north London and carried fake warrant cards, stop-and-search forms and handcuffs. Ward is awaiting sentencing for credit-card fraud and is charged with several other offences Photograph: Public Domain
In the tradition of Joan of Arc, Lawrence was a British war reporter who posed as a man to fight in the first world war. With a borrowed uniform, strategic binding of body parts and a buzzcut coloured with furniture polish, she arrived at the Somme with forged papers as Private Denis Smith. She spent 10 days tunnelling and mine-laying, but fearing being exposed she turned herself in. Lawrence paid a heavy price for her actions: she was interrogated as a spy, accused of being a prostitute and refused permission to write about her experiences. She ended up in Colney Hatch psychiatric hospital
Photograph: Public Domain
When Gary Oldman turned down the chance to play avant-garde comedian Andy Kaufman in the biopic Man on the Moon, that looked to be the end of it. So when director Milos Forman and producer Danny DeVito received an audition tape from Oldman they were pleasantly surprised at his change of heart. DeVito even called him back to discuss the project further. The tape, however, featured a 31-year-old British actor called Mark Tufano impersonating Oldman impersonating Kaufman. The real Oldman was not amused, but Tufano insisted it was “an artistic statement”; he added: “I think Gary Oldman is jealous of me.” Photograph: Rex Features
