I recently read a novel where Churchill had a lookalike who was used to pretend he was in one place, while he was actually somewhere else. I also have vague memeories of a film from the 50s about a body double being used for a General during the second world war.
I'm just wondering if body doubles were used, and if so, how successful it was.
I think the film you are thinking of is I Was Monty's Double (titled in some markets as Hell, Heaven, or Hoboken) from 1958, about the disinformation campaign around Bernard Montgomery and the D-Day landings. The film's star is actually M E Clifton-James, the actor who genuinely was Monty's double! The film is largely based on Clifton-James's post-war memoirs, but does invent quite a few scenes and incidents. The overall deception plan (that had 'Monty' travelling to Gibraltar to make the Germans think that the invasion of mainland Europe was going to be somewhere other than around the English Channel area) was known as Operation Copperhead. Despite the fame generated by the film, there isn't much evidence that it had a significant impact on German plans surrounding a potential Allied invasion of Europe. But, the film has a certain charm and verve.
Malcolm