It's also easy to play a real figure who's dead.

He paused for a moment, then began to play a steady, pulsing figure.

The shows have featured guest stars from around the entertainment world playing historical figures.

Streep also has a solid shot at Oscar gold for playing a political figure.

The challenge of playing a historical figure, of course, is that someone has already played the part to perfection.

As for playing such a lascivious figure, she says flatly, "It's only a movie."

Occasionally, some musicians played a written figure, often simple and only slightly harmonized, just a handful of notes.

Playing a well-known public figure in an age when - thanks to multi-media platforms - everyone knows exactly how they sound is a formidable challenge.

My father played a 4/4 figure on the drums and we laughed, it was so uncool.

At first, the actor turned him down, daunted by the responsibility of playing a literary figure he had never heard of.