List of fictitious people

Fictitious people are nonexistent people, who, unlike fictional characters, have been claimed to actually exist. Usually this is done as a practical joke or hoax, but sometimes fictitious people are 'created' as part of a fraud. A pseudonym may also be considered by some to be a "fictitious person", although this is not the correct definition.

Hoaxes

• William Ashbless, a 19th-century fictitious poet and adventurer.
• Bilitis, nonexistent Ancient Greek poet. Supposed author of The Songs of Bilitis, a collection of erotic poetry "discovered" by Pierre Louÿs.
• Achmet Borumborad, a late 18th-century doctor and businessman in Dublin, purportedly from Constantinople.
• George P. Burdell, eternal Georgia Tech student.
• Eddie Burrup, fake Australian aboriginal painter.
• Johnny "The Celestial Comet" Chung, supposed Chinese-American football player for the nonexistent Plainfield Teacher's College.
• Allegra Coleman, nonexistent supermodel.
• Tom Collins, fictitious gossip and namesake of the gin-and-lemon-based cocktail.
• Helen Demidenko, nonexistent Ukrainian author, created by Australian writer Helen Darville.
• Aimi Eguchi, fictional Japanese idol. Member of idol group AKB48 created as a composite of the other members.
• Frederick R. Ewing, nonexistent author of I, Libertine.
• Hugo N. Frye, a fictional figure, purportedly the founder of the Republican Party in New York State, made up by Cornell University students in 1930 as a prank designed to embarrass several state politicians.
• Anthony Godby Johnson, (probably) fictitious author of Rock and a Hard Place: One Boy's Triumphant Story.
• Kilroy, a nonexistent legendary World War II US Army major who inspired millions during the war and became part of American popular culture.
• Ern Malley, nonexistent Australian poet, created by Australian poets James McAuley and Harold Stewart.
• Lillian Virginia Mountweazel, a photographer who existed as a fictitious entry in the 4th edition of the New Columbia Encyclopedia. The publishers assumed that if they caught another encyclopedia containing their copyright trap, the presence of the non-existent Mountweazel would prove that their competitors hadn’t done any original research and copied them.
• Lucian Yahoo Dragoman, a nonexistent baby supposedly named after Yahoo!.
• Karyl Robin-Evans, nonexistent scientist whose expedition is chronicled in the book Sungods in Exile.
• H. Rochester Sneath, nonexistent English public school headmaster and prolific letter writer, created by Humphry Berkeley.
• Georg Paul Thomann, nonexistent Austrian conceptual artist, created by art group monochrom to represent Austria at the 2002 Sao Paulo Art Biennial. Georg Paul Thomann is featured in RE/Search's "Pranks 2" book.
• Piotr Zak, nonexistent Polish composer, created for a BBC programme by Susan Bradshaw and Hans Keller.

Pseudonyms

This list includes pseudonyms supplied with a biography suggesting the existence of a person distinct from the actual person with the pseudonym in question, often with the purpose of a hoax.

See also Category:Collective pseudonyms (many of them were not claimed as "real" people).

• Penelope Ashe, supposed "demure Long Island housewife" who authored Naked Came The Stranger. Actually a pseudonym of a collective of writers, and portrayed by one of their relatives during interviews.
• Richard Bachman, a pseudonym of Stephen King, given a fake biography and author photo.
• Silence Dogood, a false persona used by Benjamin Franklin to get his work published.
• Roderick Jaynes, editor of all the films of Joel and Ethan Coen. Actually a pseudonym for the Coens themselves. "Jaynes", supposedly a cantankerous Englishman in his 80s, has also penned a dismissive introduction to a book of the Coens' scripts, and an article in The Guardian discussing his work on The Man Who Wasn't There.
• Kozma Prutkov, arrogant Russian writer and government official, who published bombastic pieces that ended up being satirical commentary on Russian bureaucracy. A creation of 4 Russian writers, including Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817-1875) and Alexei Zhemchuzhnikov.
• Lemony Snicket, a pseudonym used by Daniel Handler for his A Series of Unfortunate Events. Snicket, who is also a character in the books, is the meta-fictional narrator of the series.
• Wrench Tuttle, an Atlanta-based "poet, traveler, activist and philosopher". Canadian musician/composer Bob Wiseman "collaborated" with lyricist Tuttle by mail, for the 1989 album In Her Dream: Bob Wiseman Sings Wrench Tuttle. Tuttle was, in reality, Wiseman.
• Kilgore Trout originally was a character created by Kurt Vonnegut, who later became a pseudonym used by Philip José Farmer to publish, as a homage to Vonnegut, an actual version of one of the fictional Trout's books, Venus on the Half-Shell (1975). Farmer's work is based on a moment in Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater that describes a character reading a copy of Trout's novel, "Venus on the Half-Shell". Vonnegut was not happy about the publication of Farmer's book, but he declined to sue over the use of his intellectual property.^[1]
• Gerald Wiley, authorial pseudonym used by sketch comedy performer Ronnie Barker on shows in which he was a performer. Initially, even other writers on the show were unaware that sketches submitted by "Wiley" were in fact written by Barker; Barker wanted his sketches to be judged on merit, not on the fact he was a cast member or star.
• Andrew MacDonald, a pseudonym for William Luther Pierce, white supremacist and author of The Turner Diaries.

Arts and entertainment

• Alan Smithee, name used by film directors who wish to disown a project.
• Andreas Karavis, nonexistent Greek poet.
• B. Traven, adventure novelist.
• Borat Sagdiyev, a fictitious Kazakhstani journalist created by Sacha Baron Cohen, see also Ali G and Brüno Gehard.
• Conchita (previously Conchita Wurst), stage persona of Austrian recording artist Thomas Neuwirth.
• C.W. Blubberhouse, whose letters in UK national newspapers were exposed as a hoax by the Sunday Times.
• Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson, characters played by Australian comedian Barry Humphries.
• Darko Maver, a lauded fictional Yugoslav artist whose gruesome sculptures turned out to be photos of real murders found on rotten.com by Eva and Franco Mattes.
• David J. Broadfoot, the Member of Parliament from Kicking Horse Pass, representing the New Apathetic Party, a character played by Canadian comedian Dave Broadfoot.
• David Manning, a nonexistent film critic created by Sony Corporation.
• Donald Kaufman, fictional brother of Adaptation writer Charlie Kaufman, gained "writing credits" and was nominated for an Oscar.
• George Spelvin, traditional pseudonyms used in programs in American theater.
• Gerald Bostock, writer of the lyrics for the Jethro Tull album Thick as a Brick.
• Hajime Yadate, credited as the creator of most of the anime works of Japanese animation studio Sunrise.
• JT LeRoy, fictional American author and literary celebrity.
• Lily Savage, a character played by British comedian Paul O'Grady.
• Margaret B. Jones, fictitious half-white, half-Native American foster child and Bloods gang member in South Central Los Angeles
• Mrs. Trellis of North Wales, a regular correspondent to BBC radio comedy I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue
• Nat Tate, fake 1950s American artist
• Ossian, Irish bard created by James Macpherson in the 18th century
• P. D. Q. Bach, a fictional composer invented by musical satirist "Professor" Peter Schickele.
• Ponsonby Britt, executive producer of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. In the credits of George of the Jungle, a later offering from the same production company, Britt had been promoted to "Ponsonby Britt OBE" (recipient of the Order of the British Empire).
• Rrose Sélavy, a fictional artist created by Marcel Duchamp
• S. Morgenstern, fictional author from the equally fictional country of Florin
• Super Dave Osborne, a character played by American comedian and actor Bob Einstein.
• Sven, an occasional stand-in for Samantha on BBC radio comedy I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.
• Tony Clifton, imaginary lounge singer created (and usually played) by comedian Andy Kaufman
• Van den Budenmayer, nonexistent Dutch composer believed to be real by some filmgoers even after they were told the truth.
• Walter Plinge, name used by British stage actors who wish to stay anonymous
• Wanda Koolmatrie, nonexistent Australian aboriginal author

Academia

• Arthur Besse, pseudonym used since 1978 by French differential geometers
• Blanche Descartes, fictitious mathematician with over 30 published papers
• Claude Émile Jean-Baptiste Litre, volumetric namesake.
• Dr. Irving Joshua Matrix, numerologist, invented by Martin Gardner
• G. W. Peck, pseudonym used by several mathematicians since 1979
• H. Rochester Sneath, nonexistent headmaster of the nonexistent Selhurst School
• Honorable J. Fortescue, fake US physician
• Jára Cimrman, fictional Czech genius and polymath
• John Rainwater, enrolled by mathematics graduate students at the University of Washington in 1952 as a prank; has since been used as a pseudonym by several other mathematicians for published work
• Josiah Carberry, professor of psychoceramics at Brown University
• Nicolas Bourbaki, a 20th-century French mathematician with credited publications
• Peter Orno, associated with Ohio State University and credited with several papers in mathematics during the 20th century

Politics

• Andre Kasongo Ilunga, a member of the UNAFEC party and Minister of National Economy and Trade of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2007.
• Jakob Maria Mierscheid, a member of the German Bundestag. Despite not existing, Mierscheid has an official Parliamentary biography (complete with portrait) and has given his name to a bridge spanning the River Spree and to the Mierscheid Law, which has been used to predict voting patterns in the former West Germany.

Covert operations

• Major William Martin, RM, a dead courier found floating off the coast of Spain possessing documents outlining future Allied strategy. The documents were misinformation planted by the Security Service as part of Operation Mincemeat, a World War II deception plan to cover the invasion of Sicily.^[2]

Sports

• Masal Bugduv, nonexistent 16-year-old Moldovan football player linked with a move to numerous top clubs in Europe.
• Lennay Kekua, nonexistent deceased girlfriend of former Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o.
• Sidd Finch, nonexistent baseball prodigy created by George Plimpton for an April Fool's Day prank.
• Taro Tsujimoto, nonexistent Japanese hockey player selected by Buffalo Sabres general manager Punch Imlach in the 1974 NHL Draft.
• Matts Kunding, possibly nonexistent Irish association footballer.^[3]

Unclassified

Please help in putting them into appropriate sections.

• Araki Yasusada, fake Hiroshima survivor and author
• Betty Crocker, fake spokesperson for The Washburn Crosby Company of Minneapolis and its successor company, General Mills
• Carl Brandon, a fictional fan of color, for whom the Carl Brandon Society was named
• Clay Bertrand, an alleged alias associated with two people connected to various investigations regarding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy
• Edna Welthorpe, nonexistent morality campaigner
• Henry Root, fictitious correspondent, and Henry Raddick (possibly the same person)
• Kaycee Nicole, fictional leukemia sufferer and Internet personality
• Kodee Kennings, nonexistent 8-year-old girl whose letters were published in the Daily Egyptian, a student newspaper for Southern Illinois University Carbondale
• Mavis Beacon, fictitious typing tutor created for the Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing application software.
• Phantom of Heilbronn, an alleged German serial killer linked to many extremely varied crimes by flawed DNA analysis.
• R. M. Qualtrough, a key figure in the murder trial of William Herbert Wallace
• Titusz Dugovics, the hero of Belgrade
• Sahil Omar, a fictitious migrant linked to several mass shootings and disasters in the United States

References

This page was last edited on 10 April 2024, at 23:52