Talk:William Shears Campbell

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[edit] Evidence, hoax etc

If there's any actual evidence of this person's existence it would be good to post references here. If anyone's done research proving that the "biography" of William "Shears" Campbell of the "Ontario Police Department" with a girlfriend conveniently named "Rita" is a phantasm cobbled together from snippets of Beatles song's and album photographs, a reference to that research would also be good... - Nunh-huh 01:45, 10 Jun 2004 (UTC) (There's also an actual person, two unrelated actors, and probably several other William Campbells that need disambiguation).

William Campbell is far too common a name for this article to live here. However the Paul Is Dead Beatle's hoax is encylopedic - what we need is evidence of this person's connection to the hoax, not necessarily of their actual real-life existence. Secretlondon 02:40, 13 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I agree that the hoax is encyclopedic, and that the rumored existence of a "William Campbell" is part of that hoax, but I do think we need to know if this person actually existed or is fictional for the purposes of the article. I rather suspect he's completely fictional, and if that is the case it would be good to specify it. We shouldn't say he was born on a given date, died on a given date, etc. if we have no evidence/verification of those facts. - Nunh-huh 04:27, 13 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Even a list of who claims (in published form) that he does exist and who says no would be useful. -- Jmabel 22:46, Jun 13, 2004 (UTC)

I can't find much but in The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Beatles p. 248, there's the following: "In October 1969, the release of Abbey Road and Pauls' foray out of the public spotlight for several weeks fueled an idiotic rumor that he'd been killed and replaced by a look-alike. This was started by one Russ Gibbs, program coordinator for radio station WKNR-FM in Detroit...."Investigators" were soon finding a host of other "clues"...According to their "research", the real Paul had been replaced by an actor named either William Campbell or Billy Shears, who had undergone plastic surgery in order to effect a perfect likeness. Thus the introduction of Billy Shears at the end of the opening track on Sgt. Pepper....[The Sgt. Pepper album's gatefold sleeve's central pictures was said to show] "Billy" sporting an arm-patch bearing the letters "OPD," supposedly standing for "Officially Pronounced Dead." (It was, in fact, the badge of the Ontario Police Department.)"

The "sneer quotes" are in the original. It falls short of saying there never was a William Campbell, but I think it clearly implies it. - Nunh-huh 01:05, 14 Jun 2004 (UTC)

This is my first post ... still trying to get the hang of things.

MYTH: Then the Beatles, in the winter of 1966, held a "Paul look- alike" contest but no winner was ever announced. BUT - there was a winner....his name was William Campbell, and he was paid a considerable amount of money to play along with the facade - he was to be the NEW Paul. He supposedly looked enough like PM to sit in with the other Beatles for photographs, sometimes even fooling the photographers. Strangely, nothing was ever heard of William Campbell again. His picture is included on the poster that came with the White album in the lower right-hand corner. Looks like Paul with glasses, mustache, and combed back hair. William Campbell has this faint scar on his upper lip, PM doesn't.

REALITY: Such a contest was actually held, co-sponsored by an American teen magazine (perhaps "Tiger Beat"?) and Dick Clark of the TV show "American Bandstand". The winner of this 1965 contest was Keith Allison, who had a brief brush with fame on teen shows such as "Where The Action Is" and apparently later joined Paul Revere and the Raiders, circa 1966. The real Paul *does* have a faint scar on his upper lip from the above-mentioned motorcycle accident. No William Campbell ever won a Paul look-alike contest.

http://www.recmusicbeatles.com/public/files/faqs/pid.html

Just thought I'd throw in my two pence.

(-- unsigned, posted by 00:27:14 . . User:Vague Rant)

Very nice. Now someone needs to change this into an article about an urban legend. -- Jmabel 16:50, Jul 1, 2004 (UTC)

-As for the badge...It's actually OPP, Ontario Provincal Police, and there is an Ontario Flag on it.

Just to tell you.

[edit] The Real Question Here Is-

Who the hell would ever hold (or attend) a Paul McCartney look alike contest? The whole 'Paul Is Dead' fiasco is a wonerful peice of Pop-Culture, a fantastic addition to the beatles myth and legacy, and certainly deserves to be on this site, in its entirety, but you'd have to be a fool to belive it!

--Crestville 18:42, 21 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Alas, celebrity look-alike contests are far too common. Amusingly, though, during the height of the BeeGees' popularity in the seventies, Barry Gibb lost a Barry Gibb look-alike contest! (Source: Biography Channel) JHCC 16:34, 30 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Funny, that happened to Charlie Chapman, too.

http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/chaplin2.htm Vague Rant 06:46, Sep 7, 2004 (UTC)

I noticed that I said "Chapman" in place of "Chaplin" some months ago, but I wasn't going to draw attention to it. However, I'd rather people knew that I realise I got it wrong than think that I thought it was right. I don't have anything else to say. - Vague | Rant 12:34, Mar 23, 2005 (UTC)

That's pretty funny.--Crestville 17:40, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Congratulations on creating a totally biased article on the Paul is dead myth. I don't believe the myth, but you should have presented it without an obvious opinion one way or another.

[edit] William Campbell the actor

What about the IMDB article on [William Campbell]? According to the trivia page, the William Campbell of Paul is Dead fame is the same one as the actor who played Trelane and Koloth on Star Trek, but the Wikipedia article says that he is fictional. If there are two William Campbell's, one real and one fictional, then perhaps there should be a new article like William Campbell. Duomillia 03:46, 3 August 2005 (UTC)