The Beeper King and His Impostor

I have a mental problem that’s clearly rooted in some manner of childhood-rooted trauma. I confuse actors. Not all of them, no, but specific sets of two. I acknowledge that they are separate people and that they don’t even look that much alike, but I consistently mistake one for the other. I hear something about one and catch myself picturing the other. I do it with Adam Scott and Seth Gabel, whom I posted about late last year, but I also do it with, for example, Embeth Davidtz and Annabeth Gish (for no reason I can understand) and also Senta Moses and Marisa Jaret Winokur. And here’s another one.

On the left we have Dean Winters, best known as Liz Lemon’s terminally recurrent boyfriend, Dennis Duffy, on 30 Rock. And on the right we have Jeffrey Donovan, best known as the lead role on Burn Notice, which SNL correctly identifies as a show which I have never seen and know nothing about. I don’t think they look like, exactly, yet I can’t keep them straight. I constantly mix up which one used to be on Law & Order (Winters) and which one was in Changeling (Donovan), which one was on Oz (Winters, even though I could swear it was Donovan) and which one was in that weird Blair Witch sequel (Donovan, even though he seems to old to have been in that movie).

Honestly, I don’t get it. Looking at them side by side now — and, honestly, for the first time — I feel like Donovan looks more like Mac from It’s Always Sunny than anyone else, yet when I found out that Burn Notice was a thing, I remember thinking, “Oh, I hope this doesn’t prevent him from being on 30 Rock.” I can’t imagine what mental block prevents me from separating these two actors and their respective filmographies. ButAnd I’m curious to know: Does anybody else?