Errant IMDB post cited in baseless claim that Joe Biden uses a body double | Fact check

Nate Trela, USA TODAY
·3 min read
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The claim: Joe Biden uses actor Arthur Roberts as a body double

An Oct. 17 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) claims veteran actor Arthur Roberts has secretly been Joe Biden’s body double.

“The title of the video in Arthur’s acting credit is ‘Joe Biden Sworn in as U.S. President on Inauguration Day 2021,’” a man says in an embedded video, as an image of a screenshot from IMDB.com appears. “Now when you go to this page, it’s not there no more. It’s been erased. But we got screenshots.”

The post was liked more than 300 times in a day.

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Our rating: False

There is no evidence that President Joe Biden has a body double. Roberts has no association with Biden and has never appeared as him, according to the actor’s representative.

Body double claim is baseless

Roberts, an 85-year-old actor, has numerous stage, screen and film credits, according to his professional website and IMDB profile. None of those roles involved playing Biden, and he has no connection to the president.

“It is not true,” said Kathryn Boole, a manager with Studio Talent Group, which represents Roberts. “Arthur is an actor. He is in his 80s, but he does auditions all the time and he gets roles and he works in the film and TV industry. And he would never even have time to be a double.”

Boole said this claim previously surfaced several years ago when Roberts was edited into pictures that were shared on social media.

The current version of the claim hinges on an IMDB entry that listed Roberts as playing Biden at his 2021 inauguration. The linked page is now dead, and the credit has been removed from his profile on the site. But an archive of the page shows it was on IMDB on Aug. 19 and taken down no later than Sept. 15.

Users can submit a request to add a TV or movie title or an on-screen credit to IMDB, according to its guidelines. Those are supposed to be reviewed by editors before they can be published.

IMDB did not respond to a request for comment. Boole said she had no idea how that credit was attached to Roberts and had no record of him ever portraying Biden in any project.

Fact check: Baseless claims of John Fetterman body double still circulating online

Baseless claims that Biden has a body double are not new. USA TODAY has debunked claims that Biden died in 2019 and was secretly replaced by either his (non-existent) twin or an actor, as well as a claim that his body double revealed himself by signing documents with the wrong hand.

USA TODAY could not reach the user who shared the post for comment.

Lead Stories debunked an earlier version of the Roberts claim.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Baseless claim Joe Biden uses actor as body double | Fact check