All the world's a stage, we are told, and Greg Bell is merely one of the players, albeit a player with a particular specialty. Bell, a 40ish thespian in Los Angeles, is making a buck or two by passing himself off as the immortal William Shakespeare. By virtue of his remarkable resemblance, a hologram image of Bell now graces some 20 million credit cards—dubbed Bard Cards—issued by 51 British financial institutions.
The London bankers gave the job of finding a facsimile Shakespeare to a California-based hologram company, which in turn chose Bell solely because of his appearance. But the Bard's American look-alike is well versed enough in his subject that he can recite most any Shakespearean sonnet on cue. Bell became stage-struck in his Texas youth when he played Claudius in a high school production of Hamlet. He earned a theater degree from UCLA in 1970 and then hit the road as an itinerant actor at workshops, festivals and with a touring company.
Between engagements in 1981, Bell worked as a costumed host at a San Francisco restaurant with an Elizabethan motif. On a customer's dare, Bell began spinning sonnets of his own ("And say you set me on to write a sonnet/ For your pleasure and mine own, Dear Sire..."). He has since parlayed his rhyming skills into Bard-O-Grams, suitable for weddings, baby showers and other occasions, delivered in person at about $100 a pop. Still, even with the $1,200 he earned for his Bard Card performance, Bell has found that being a Shakespeare stand-in doesn't cover his bills. He also works part-time as a pest exterminator.
Bell, who is married and has an 8-year-old son, thus stands at a to-be-or-not-to-be career crossroad. While he still finds "poeting" emotionally rewarding, he admits he has begun to chafe from typecasting. I loping to land new roles in film or TV, he says, "I don't want to just play William Shakespeare all my life."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
