I know during the Silver Age that you could hardly turn around without bumping in to someone who looked just like him. I'm aware of Van Zee and Gregory Reed, but I'm sure there were many others. Can some of those be named?
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The Who's Whose in DC Comics website has a page on other Supermen and Superboys from the Super-books here. Some of those listed looked like Kal and some didn't.
To those mentioned there I can add Don-El, Clark Kent's lookalike on the Look Alike Squad; Ned Barnes; and Zak-Kul, an evil Kandorian scientist who altered his features to look like Superman's and took his place in Action Comics #245. From the 70s I can think of Dazor, a Kandorian criminal who was a double of Superman and took his place in Lois Lane #134, and Luthor's Superman clone from Action Comics #500, who returned without powers (Superman exposed him to gold kryptonite in #500) in #524 (1981).
Strictly speaking, Gregory Reed didn't look like Superman. He wore a mask to play the role.
I mistakenly added Magnaman from Jimmy Olsen #112 to the above list, but he had to wear a mask to impersonate Superman. His costume resembled Superman's and had an "M" on the chest.
Luke Blanchard said:
Strictly speaking, friend Luke, whether or not Gregory Reed looked like Superman depends on which of two contradictory versions one opts to take as gospel.
To be sure, when the character of Gregory Reed was introduced in "Superman Vs. Superstar", from Action Comics # 414 (Jul., 1972), Reed---"the actor who became famous for playing Superman"--did wear a mask and a hairpiece. These accoutrements were necessary to conceal the fact that, some years before the time of the story, Reed had been disfigured in a fire on the set. For those who came in late, it was Reed's bitterness toward Superman for his disfigurement that provided the basis for the story.
At the tale's conclusion, Superman informs a now-repenitent Reed, "I've examined your scars . . . and if a plastic surgeon guides my hands through a delicate operation . . . I know your face can be healed!"
"Superman Vs. Superstar" was written by Cary Bates, who picked up on the plastic-surgery thread when he scripted Gregory Reed's next appearance, in "Count Ten, Superman---and Die!", from Action Comics # 445 (May, 1975). In the opening sequence of this tale, Clark Kent and Lois Lane are attending a motivational lecture delivered by Reed. During his speech, the actor states (italics mine):
"Many of you know my face was badly disfigured by an accident on the set of my Superman TV series a few years ago! I was unsightly---hopelessly scarred for life, even beyond the help of plastic surgery---until the real Superman saved the day, and my face---by operating on me himself---using special medical equipment and techniques perfected by the scientists of his super-advanced planet Krypton!
"As all of you can plainly see, I requested that my new face be modeled after the face of my extraordinary "super-surgeon"---the Man of Steel I spent so many years portraying on the screen!"
In the audience, Lois Lane reacts to Reed's speech and appearance, whispering to Clark Kent (again, italics mine):
"Amazing, isn't it? I hear he wears muscle-padding underneath the uniform . . . but other than that, this actor, Gregory Reed, is an exact double of Superman!"
Clearly, Gregory Reed's unadorned face is a double for Superman's, according to this sequence.
Reed's following appearance---"Clark Kent Forever---Superman Never", from Superman # 297 (Mar., 1976), co-written by Bates and Eliot S. Maggin---is a brief one that shows him to be the Man of Steel's double, but makes no reference to plastic surgery.
It's the next story to include Reed in which things get wonky. That would be "Luthor's League of Super-Villains", from The Secret Society of Super-Villains # 7 (May-Jun., 1976). Reed is a significant player in this tale, as Luthor, the Matter Master, and the Wizard mistake him for the real Man of Steel. As the story presents, Reed is in Japan, filming a Superman movie, and writer Bob Rozakis' script insists that Reed wears one of those latex masks that only work in comic books and on Mission: Impossible to assume the appearance of Superman. (Curiously, Reed's supposedly "real" face, under the art of Rich Buckler and Bob Layton, doesn't even faintly resemble either George Reeves or Christopher Reeve.)
After being gone again for almost a year, Gregory Reed returns as a central figure in a three-issue arc pitting Superman against Terra-Man, appearing in Action Comics # 468-70 (Feb., Mar., and Apr., 1977). This triptych was written by Cary Bates.
We don't get very far into the first issue when we discover this script follows the lead of SSOSV # 7 in that it insists that Reed wears a latex mask to enact his imposture of Superman. In fact, throughout the three issues, Reed is seen frequently without the mask, and it's a curious failing for penciller Curt Swan. Swan was obviously going for Reed's real face to resemble real-life actor George Reeves's---in a couple of close-up panels, Swan evokes enough of Reeves's features to assure that---most of the time, the maskless Reed doesn't look like Reeves any more than I do.
This is a curious failing for Swan, whose renditions of other real persons was close to infallible, and whose early-'60's Superman often strongly resembled Reeves. (Perhaps the blame lies on Tex Blaisdell's somewhat heavy-handed inks.)
Gregory Reed's appearance in "Will the Real Superman Please Show Up?", from Action Comics # 474 (Aug., 1977), amounts to little more than a cameo; however, he does appear as himself, and not posing as Superman. Unfortunately, the art, delivered by Kurt Schaffenberger and Tex Blaisdell, is too muddied to tell if Reed's normal appearance is meant to be identical to Superman.
Next, Reed appears in a few panels of the Supergirl story in Superman Family # 206 (Mar.-Apr., 1981). He's making a public appearance as "Superman", but there's no mention of his features being a mask or his own.
"The Battle for Superman's Brain", from Superman # 396 (Jun., 1984), features Reed heavily and shows him wearing a mask, or at least, heavy make-up, to appear as the Man of Steel, while "The Man Who Saw Superman Die", from Superman # 399 (Sep., 1984), shows Reed making a television appearance as "himself dressed as Supeman"; he's a double for the Metropolis Marvel here, but no mention is made of a mask.
The rub is that after the series took pains to establish that "super-advanced" medicine had altered Gregory Reed's face to make him an exact double for Superman, it was reversed by the sudden introduction of a Superman latex mask in SSOSV # 7. Ordinarily, it would be easy to write off SSOSV # 7 as an aberration, due to a writer unfamiliar with the cast of the Superman series.
But, bizarrely, Cary Bates---who introduced the character and the fact of his plastic surgery---and who wrote the six of the first seven stories including Reed, switched over to the idea of a Superman mask himself, in Action Comics # 468-70.
In the remaining pre-Crisis tales in which Reed appears, one mentions the mask (or make-up), while the others are essentially non-commital on the subject.
Now, it's easy enough to rationalise a scenario reconciling both Reed's plastic surgery and his use of a latex Superman mask. I can think of a couple, myself. But the fact of the matter is, the idea of Reed wearing a Superman mask was an error, a contradiction of what was established before. It wasn't a purposeful change.
However, it wasn't a one-off mistake, either. It was repeated with enough frequency that a reader can't blithely ignore it; he has to make a choice of either sticking with the original notion that Reed's resemblence to Superman came from plastic surgery and is, thus, his real face (and consciously writing off the "mask" business)---or he accepts the mask as the real circumstance and ignores or rationalises the plastic-surgery aspect.
Personally, I adhere to the idea that Reed had plastic surgery. I can appreciate the mask idea; I imagine the idea was to give the artist a chance to have Reed resemble either Reeves or Reeve and honour one of them in that fashion. But it was still a mistake enacted because the original explanation was overlooked. Frankly, I resent when an erroneous notion subsumes the correct one. ("Give it to Mikey; he'll eat anything!"; Snapper Carr was the JLA mascot; and virtually every modern use of the term déjà vu.)
My long-winded point being that, with regard to Reed being a double for Superman, there is an argument both ways.
There was "Metallo, the metal man" or some such name. He was a common crook whom some well-meaning-but-stupid doctor turned into an evil cyborg with a kryptonite-powered battery. In mid story he discovers that if he shaves off his sinister mustache, he looks just like Superman, and so can impersonate him with his machine-made super strength. Talk about good/bad luck!
As an in-joke, they had Doctor Occult resemble Superman as the two were both created by Siegel and Shuster.
Besides the characters already named by Luke and Mr. Mankowski (incidentally, Don-El was the captain of the Superman Emergency Squad, not the Clark Kent double on the Kandorian Look-Alike Squad), I've compiled this list. As lengthy as it is, I can tell you right now that it's not comprehensive; there are a couple of stories involving Superboy/man doubles on the fringe of my memory that I just couldn't recall well enough to cite.
Starting 'way back:
Miggs, thug "Clark Kent, Star Reporter", Superman # 36 (Oct., 1945)
Joe Poleski, ironworker "Clark Kent's Twin", Superman # 67 (Dec., 1950)
Jack Wilde, reporter "The Secrets of Superman", Action Comics # 171 (Aug., 1952)
Dasher Drape, underworld hitman "Clark Kent, Gangster", World's Finest Comics # 63 (Apr., 1953)
Guy Vandevier, aviator "Clark Kent's New Mother and Father", Action Comics # 189 (Feb., 1954)
Mala, Kryptonian criminal "The Outlaws from Krypton", Action Comics # 194 (Jul., 1954)
Unnamed amnesia victim "The Four Superman Medals", Action Comics # 207 (Aug., 1955)
Mr. Cranston, Metropolis public teacher "Superman---Substitute Teacher", Superman # 100 (Sep., 1955)
Kell-Orr, the Superman of Xenon "The Second Superman", Superman # 119 (Feb., 1958)
Dan Smith, crook "Superman's Forbidden Room", Lois Lane # 2 (May-Jun., 1958)
Ronald van Horton, millionnaire philanthropist "The Man Who Was Clark Kent's Double", Lois Lane # 3 (Jul.-Aug., 1958)
Harry Winters, ordinary guy "The Make-Believe Superman", Superman # 127 (Feb., 1959)
Hyperman, the Superman of Oceania "The Superman from Outer Space", Action Comics # 265 (Jun., 1960)
Dik-Zee, resident of Kandor, Superman's cousin, and twin brother to Van-Zee "The Lois Lane Doll", Lois Lane # 21 (Nov., 1960)
Marvel Man, the Superman of Terra "The Second Supergirl", Action Comics # 272 (Jan., 1961)
Roger Warner, millionnaire sportsman "The Perfect Husband", Lois Lane # 24 (Apr., 1961)
Roz-Em, Kryptonian criminal "The War Between Superboy and Superman", Adventure Comics # 304 (Jan., 1963)
Manuel Baez, citizen of El Salmudo "The Great Superman Impersonation", Action Comics # 306 (Nov., 1963)
Vol-Don, Clark Kent's double on the Kandorian Look-Alike Squad "The Superman Super-Spectacular", Action Comics # 309 (Feb., 1964)
And then there were those who, like Ned Barnes, had their features altered to resemble Superman/Clark Kent's:
"Houdini" Watson, crook "Superman's Greatest Enemy", Jimmy Olsen # 30 (Aug., 1958)
Zak-Kul, rogue Kandorian scientist "The Shrinking Superman", Action Comics # 245 (Oct., 1958)
Gypo, henchman to Lex Luthor "Voyage to Dimension X", Action Comics # 271 (Dec., 1960)
There were a number of Superboy/young Clark Kent look-alikes too, who, presumably, grew up to be Superman/adult Clark doubles:
Ralph Bridgson, runaway delinquent "The Two Clark Kents", Adventure Comics # 191 (Aug., 1953)
Tom Tanner, runaway delinquent "The Secret of the Seventh Super-Hero", Adventure Comics # 290 (Nov., 1961)
Prince Mark, of Sardinia "The Man Who Hunted Superboy", Adventure Comics # 303 (Dec., 1962)
Varn, Kandorian resident and son of Vol-Don "The Boy Who Unmasked Superboy", Superboy # 118 (Jan., 1965)
Prince Rama, of Bosmir "Prince Rama's Super Stand-In", Superboy #130 (Jun., 1966)
I deliberately omitted androids or other sorts of artificial constructions, such as Super-Menace (Superman # 137 [May, 1960]), but even so, I'm sure there were a few "natural doubles" for Superman/Clark Kent that I've overlooked/forgotten. You fellows can probably fill in those gaps, I'm sure.
Thanks for the corrections, Commander.
Also, Snake-Eyes Sullivan from "The Tattoo Switcheroo!" in Superman #294 (1975), and Lionel Maxwell from "The Long Weekend" in Action Comics #471 (1977). These were both "The Private Life of Clark Kent" back-up stories. I remember a number of the stories from that series very fondly.
I managed to find that "Metallo" appeared in Action Comics #252 (May 1959). See the section "The Silver Age Metallo" here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallo
Someone must have liked the concept!
The issue in which he appeared also featured the debut of Supergirl. The story was also done in the newspaper strip, but I haven't read that version.
Although he only appeared once, he was referenced in more than one subsequent story, including the cover stories of Action Comics #312 and Superman #214.
But I guess that nobody ever told him "Hey, you look just like Superman 'cept for that li'l mustache!"
Reminiscent of Mister Smoketoomuch, I'd say.
Also Carl Markson, Jr. in Jimmy Olsen #149 (1972). He had a delusion he was Superman, and dressed like him under his suit: that's him on the cover.
And Ursus, a gladiator/fellow rebel Jimmy knew in his life as Spartacus in the lead story from Jimmy Olsen #159 (1973). This was one of a short series of stories in which a jewel called the Star of Cathay caused Jimmy to live lives in the past.
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