Is there some benefit to resembling a famous villain?

have a male friend who's a little older than me. He is a very sweet, kind, EXTREMELY intelligent guy (literally he's a genius, his IQ is like 150-something) and I love him to death. I don't think there's an evil bone in his body. But he looks exactly like a very well known, but long since deceased bad guy. His last name is phonetically almost identical (although spelled differently), he is of the same nationality, and he even has the same type of voice and mannerisms, but I'm not sure that's intentional. SO... You would think he would do everything possible to avoid being compared to this person, because he's pretty much universally despised, but it seems he actually does the opposite. His occupation is the same one that this person once held (and as such he dresses in a similar manner), he has his hair cut the same very particular way, and I swear he does it on purpose. If we go out to a shop or take his dog for a walk, people literally freak out all over the place whispering and pointing and staring, and he appears to be subtly amused by it. He has a very deadpan, dry sense of humour, so sometimes I don't even know if he's joking, but once he told me that people don't mess with him, inferring that possibly that's the reason he plays it up. If we encounter someone difficult, I have noticed that they will invariably back down if he steps up. Would you feel intimidated if you ran into someone you recognized as the doppelganger of someone scary and evil? Do you think this is why he does it, or is there some other reason he might 'play the part', as it were? I wonder if I should just straight out ask him, but I'm scared he's not aware of it somehow and will be terribly offended!