Milton Lichtman (also known as Jan Leighton) died at the age of eighty-seven. For over 30 years Lichtman's primary claim to fame was appearing in commercials as a famous historical figure. He lit a cigar as Fidel Castro in a commercial for lighters, sold cars as Albert Einstein for a Southern California car dealership, promoted a Minnesota savings bank as Abraham Lincoln, and touted an Arizona department store as Robert E. Lee. For one bank commercial he portrayed four different historical figures all complaining about other banks that charged for checks. He pitched cereal as Alexander Hamilton, beer as Johann Sebastian Bach, early mobile phones as Dracula, and cough syrup as Frankenstein. Among others, Babe Ruth, Gandhi, Mozart, Sherlock Holmes, Ebenezer Scrooge, John Wayne, Thomas Jefferson, and even Margaret Thatcher were in his repertoire.

Asked once how he was doing, he replied, "I'm alive and well and living in someone else's face." Guinness Book of World Records credited him as the actor who had played the most roles and had the most disguises—1,200 on TV and 1,800 more on radio. In May 1989, New York magazine published a feature story on him, calling him the "Man of a Thousand Faces."

By the end of his career, Lichtman had reportedly professionally portrayed 3,372 historic notables. The New York Times called him the "Actor Who Played Everyone." No wonder he said, "Heaven for me is to lie in bed stark naked with no costume—living in my own face and not someone else's—and luxuriate in my own skin."

Possible Preaching Angles: Identity; Identity in Christ; Self-image; Calling—Are you hiding behind a role? Are you living in your own skin? Or are you wearing a mask and pretending to be someone you are not?