Pretenders are real. Craig Van Sickle and Steven Long Mitchell just didn't make them up. Pretenders have existed throughout history. They include the infamous pretender Fredinand Demara, who died at the age of 60 in 1982. He lived his life full of clever impersonations. Demara was a surgeon, he read a book and bingo he was a surgeon. He even taught surgery. He also became a prison warden, a Trappist monk and a college professor.