Brothers From Different Mothers? SRT Head Ralph Gilles & Actor Neal McDonough

I wasn’t going to go there, but after Bertel’s rather lighthearted and relatively innocuous post comparing the looks of Opel’s incoming CEO to a large flightless bird other than an apteryx somehow devolved into a discussion of political correctness and racism, I just had to. Poor impulse control. So sue me. Now I’m not going to do something incendiary like even inferentially comparing people to animals (though Pres. Morsi of Egypt seems to be getting a pass for saying that Jews are the offspring of pigs and apes). No, I’m going to walk out on the tightrope without a net and do something that is potentially even more provocative. I’m going to compare a white man and a black man.

Lenny Bruce did a routine called something like White Woman Black Woman. He’d be hypothetically speaking to white racists and tell them they they could pick between two women. A white white woman, and a black black woman. Both about the same age, with the same occupation. They had to pick one to live with for the rest of their lives and only got one choice. The white woman was Kate Smith and the black woman was Lena Horne. That choice would surely change some racist minds.

Well you don’t get much whiter than actor Neal McDonough. You may remember him playing Lt. Buck Compton in Band of Brothers. He most recently had the role of Detroit gangster Bobby Quarles on FX’s outstanding series, Justified, in a season long playout of Chekhov’s rule, with a disarming twist (warning: graphic violence). McDonough is so blonde than if he was any paler, he’d be an albino. Chrysler styling and SRT brand chief Ralph Gilles obviously comes from different genetic stock than McDonough, though interestingly both men are the sons of immigrants from islands, in Gilles case from Haiti and in McDonough’s case from Ireland. The men are even about the same age, Gilles is 42, McDonough is 46. They could be brothers.

No, really, they could be brothers. Okay, so one isn’t a brother brother, but other than skin tone they could pass for siblings, maybe twins. Brothers from different mothers, if you will. Sure one has more or less melanin than the other, but facially they look remarkably alike. Handsome, similarly shaped rectangular heads, jutting jaws, broad noses, high foreheads, narrow almond shaped eyes, arched eyebrows and pinned back ears. Shave McDonough’s head, give him some bronzer and he could play Gilles in a biopic.

Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, a realistic perspective on cars & car culture and the original 3D car site. If you found this post worthwhile, you can dig deeper at Cars In Depth. If the 3D thing freaks you out, don’t worry, all the photo and video players in use at the site have mono options. Thanks – RJS