The picture above is of two different men. Do you know which one is Joseph Stalin and which was his body double, Felix Dadaev? Dadaev was very good at his job, but it wasn't like he had a choice.
Perhaps Dadaev was so good at the gig because he was already a seasoned performer, albeit as a juggler and dancer. Like so many of his peers, however, he found himself on the brink of death during WWII. When NKVD forces rescued him from death, it was under the guise of transforming him into Stalin’s next decoy, despite his being over twenty years younger than the dictator. All the government had to do was declare Dadaev dead, and pull him into an extensive training process to take on Stalin’s looks and mannerisms.
Read Felix Dadaev's story and those of other body doubles, who stood in for Elizabeth Taylor, Howard Hughs, Andy Warhol, and Adolf Hitler at Messy Nessy Chic. Hitler's double was filmed for posterity, although he didn't live to see it, in a video some might find disturbing.