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Department of strange coincidences

Brief by Central Staff

George Sibley – October 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine

When we saw the movie Babe about 10 years ago, we were struck by how much one of its main characters, farmer Arthur Hoggett, resembled George Sibley of Gunnison who, among other things, writes a regular column for our magazine. In fact, we even told George about the resemblance.

If memory serves, George hadn’t seen the movie then, and we haven’t asked him about it since. And to be honest, James Cromwell, the actor who portrayed the Farmer Hoggett character doesn’t look much like George Sibley in most of his other roles -which include a former president on a 2002 “West Wing” episode and a warden in this year’s Longest Yard.

Apparently, a lot of the resemblance between George and James Cromwell was due to Farmer Hoggett’s wool beret, snazzy tweeds, and mild manner. So we don’t know how much one of Cromwell’s recent characters physically resembles George. But some parallels do seem uncanny.

Recently, Abby Quillen informed us that Cromwell had a recurring role in the HBO series Six Feet Under, which ran from 2001 until last spring. The character’s name? George Sibley. And he’s also a college professor and writer.