Robin Williams sues
celebrity impersonator

Look-alike duped reporter
and charity organizer

Kevin Winter / Getty Images

Robin Williams’ federal lawsuit claims the look-alike’s agent, Michael Pool, called reporters in September to set up an airport interview.

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updated 5:02 p.m. ET May 14, 2005

MINNEAPOLIS - It takes more than hairy arms and a good Mrs. Doubtfire impersonation to be Robin Williams.

The 52-year-old comedian-actor claims a look-alike named Michael Clayton duped a reporter and a charity organizer into thinking he really was Williams.

Williams’ federal lawsuit claims the look-alike’s agent, Michael Pool, called reporters in September to set up an airport interview.

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Star Tribune gossip columnist C.J. interviewed the man and wrote that he “knows how to settle down and blend in; when there’s no movie, he changes the hair color. If that guy wasn’t blond, he’d look just like Robin Williams, some travelers seemed to be thinking.” She went on to quote “Williams” talking about Prince and said he sometimes mimicked a Minnesota accent.

“I was completely suckered,” C.J. wrote four days later after discovering the man was really Clayton. “When Pool arrived with ‘Williams,’ I was surprised by the blond hair. My suspicions eased when I saw Clayton’s hairy arms.”

The lawsuit, which includes allegations of false advertising, also says Clayton duped a woman who was organizing a charity for the Punkin Center Rural Fire Department in Missouri. The lawsuit said Shirley Collins questioned whether she was really dealing with Williams until Pool put a man on the phone who launched into a Mrs. Doubtfire impersonation.

Clayton and Pool didn’t immediately return phone messages left Friday by The Associated Press.

The lawsuit asks for an unspecified amount of money and that Clayton impersonate Williams only if he tells people that he isn’t the actor.

Clayton’s Web site describes his act and says he is commonly mistaken for Williams.

Williams’ screen credits include his Oscar-winning role in “Good Will Hunting,” “The Fisher King,” “Dead Poets Society,” “Good Morning, Vietnam” and “Mrs. Doubtfire.”