An unexpected brush with Hollywood fame at Movie World
I've never considered myself a particularly convincing impersonator of anybody, least of all a Hollywood film star. But there was one memorable afternoon on Queensland's Gold Coast when, quite unexpectedly, I found myself becoming Jack Nicholson.
Or at least a reasonable approximation of him.
It happened during a visit to Warner Bros. Movie World with my girlfriend at the time, Nadia, a rather striking Italian lady who had some very definite ideas about how a man should present himself.
Nadia liked me to dress well. But her idea of dressing well wasn't exactly what you'd find in the pages of a conservative gentleman's outfitter.
She rather fancied the Italian underworld look.
Consequently, my hair was slicked back into a short ponytail, I wore smart clothes, and I completed the ensemble with my beloved Persol sunglasses. I'd worn Persols for years, quite independently of the fact that Jack Nicholson happened to favour them too.
I suppose, looking back, the overall effect was somewhere between a successful Italian businessman, a slightly suspicious nightclub proprietor and a gentleman whose occupation was best not enquired into too closely.
Nadia approved enormously.
On this particular afternoon, we were simply enjoying ourselves at Movie World.
The park was full of familiar faces, or rather, people doing remarkably convincing impressions of familiar faces.
There was a wonderful Charlie Chaplin wandering about, complete with bowler hat, cane and that unmistakable little walk. He was so convincing that I remember thinking he looked even more like Charlie Chaplin than Charlie Chaplin himself.
Marilyn Monroe was there too, along with several other Hollywood personalities. I seem to remember Mae West, although I wouldn't swear to that one.
It was all great fun.
Of course, there was another reason I probably stood out.
This was the Gold Coast, where the customary tourist attire consisted of a T-shirt, shorts and thongs — flip-flops, for the benefit of my overseas readers.
And there I was, wandering around a theme park in a burgundy jacket, smart trousers, polished shoes and Persol sunglasses, looking as though I had a business meeting with the studio executives at three o’clock.
And then something rather peculiar began happening.
People started approaching me and asking whether they could have their photograph taken with me.
Naturally, I obliged.
At first, I didn't think too much about it. Perhaps they were simply being friendly. Perhaps Nadia and I looked particularly photogenic that afternoon.
But it kept happening.
Complete strangers would stop us, smile, and ask if they could stand beside me for a photograph.
After a while, curiosity got the better of me.
I asked one gentleman why on earth he wanted a picture with me.
His answer was quite extraordinary.
He was American, and he explained that Jack Nicholson was a personal friend of his back in the United States. He wanted photographs of me so he could show Jack just how remarkably similar we looked.
Well, I was gobsmacked.
I'd never really thought of myself as resembling Jack Nicholson. Certainly not sufficiently for complete strangers to want photographic souvenirs.
But apparently the slicked-back hair, the sunglasses and perhaps a certain expression had combined to produce a passable Hollywood double.
Of course, I didn't pretend to be Jack Nicholson. There would have been little point. This was Movie World, after all, where people dressed as film stars were wandering around everywhere.
I simply smiled, posed for the photographs and enjoyed the absurdity of the situation.
I have often wondered whether that American gentleman ever did show his photographs to Jack Nicholson.
And, if he did, what Jack might have said.
Perhaps he would have laughed.
Perhaps he'd have asked who the fellow in the sunglasses was.
Or perhaps he'd have wondered why someone had gone to all the trouble of dressing like him while visiting a theme park on the other side of the world.
The truth, of course, was that I hadn't gone to any trouble at all.
I'd simply dressed the way Nadia liked me to dress.
The photograph of Nadia and me beside an old car at Movie World survives: a reminder of an afternoon when, apparently, I looked every inch the sort of character who might have stepped out of a Hollywood crime drama.
Whether I still have the photographs taken with the visitors at Movie World, I'm not sure. One day, perhaps, they'll turn up.
Looking back, what makes the whole episode so amusing is that I was surrounded by professional impersonators, people whose job it was to look like famous film stars.
And there I was, an ordinary visitor enjoying an afternoon out, apparently doing a sufficiently convincing Jack Nicholson impression without even knowing it.
All thanks to Nadia, a little ponytail and a pair of Persol sunglasses.
I never did make it to Hollywood.
But for one afternoon on the Gold Coast, Hollywood apparently came looking for me.
Header photograph: Nadia and me at Warner Bros. Movie World on Queensland’s Gold Coast. The Persol sunglasses probably helped!
