New Delhi, July 6 -- A dialogue from Aamir Khan's '3 Idiots' - "school ke liye fees nahi uniform lagta hai" - succinctly imparted a lesson on how a simple uniform can open doors that talent or skills alone cannot. A perfect example of this can be traced back to the 1980s in America, but for all the wrong reasons.

Robert Hunt, 27, of Medford, had fooled the world for years by impersonating an array of people. He posed as a TV producer, inventor of a "spray-on diaper cream," US Marine, baseball star, senator and among many other prominent figures.

His act of impersonation reached its climax when he posed as a US Marine fighter pilot and NASA hero. In December 1988, Hunt was even feted with honorary citizenship in Dublin, Ireland.

"I was ...