# Actors portraying HISTORICAL persons. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 21, 2000, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-portraying-historical-persons/34012 "2000-09-21T16:41:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-portraying-historical-persons/34012/1 "2000-09-21T16:41:45Z")
Okay, so which actors have portrayed an historical person so well that when you see a picture of the actual person, you think “That doesn’t look like that person.” Like George C. Scott as General Patton. ---
**Author:** ![Needs2know](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5e925/32.png) [@Needs2know](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Needs2know)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-portraying-historical-persons/34012/2 "2000-09-21T17:11:56Z")
Dennis Quaid as Doc Holliday Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison Ben Kingsley as Gahndi Charleton Heston as Moses Steve Railsback as Charles Manson Needs2know ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-portraying-historical-persons/34012/3 "2000-09-21T17:55:07Z")
Spencer Tracy as Clarence Darrow\*, and Fredrick March as William Jennings Bryan.\* (But damn, March looked so much like the real WJB, it probably doesn’t count.) And of course, Orson Wells as W. R. Hearst\*. - Yes, I know that the playwrights/screenwriters did not use their real names, but everbody knew who they were supposed to be. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Corrado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a88e4f/32.png) [@John\_Corrado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Corrado)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-portraying-historical-persons/34012/4 "2000-09-21T18:03:42Z")
Randy Quaid as Lyndon Johnson (scary how well he did that). Sam Waterson as Abraham Lincoln (which makes Law & Order very interesting to watch these days). ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-portraying-historical-persons/34012/5 "2000-09-21T18:10:37Z")
Milla Jovovich as Joan of Arc Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra Kevin Costner as Robin Hood ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-portraying-historical-persons/34012/6 "2000-09-21T18:17:18Z")
Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford scarey. ---
**Author:** ![Ravendriver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/dc4da7/32.png) [@Ravendriver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravendriver)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-portraying-historical-persons/34012/7 "2000-09-21T19:04:06Z")
Brian Keith as Teddy Roosevelt (The Wind and the Lion) is speech about why the rest of the world will never like Americans is great. A close second is his explaining why the Grizzly Bear should be the national animal, instead of “nothing but a dandified vulture.” ---
**Author:** ![lucie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed8c4c/32.png) [@lucie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lucie)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-portraying-historical-persons/34012/8 "2000-09-21T19:47:20Z")
William Daniels as John Adams (“1776”) Stephen Fry as Oscar Wilde (“Wilde”) ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-portraying-historical-persons/34012/9 "2000-09-21T19:53:47Z")
Don’t know if this counts, but Jim Carey as Andy Kaufman. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-portraying-historical-persons/34012/10 "2000-09-21T20:01:07Z")
I don’t know how many people will have seen this, but Robert Hardy was eerily good as Winston Churchill in a BBC miniseries called, IIRC “The Wilderness Years.” ---
**Author:** ![lucie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed8c4c/32.png) [@lucie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lucie)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-portraying-historical-persons/34012/11 "2000-09-21T20:27:06Z")
Yes, I saw that and you are absolutely right - Robert Hardy as Winston Churchill is the picture that comes to mind for me. That reminds me - Glenda Jackson as Elizabeth I ---
**Author:** ![Miliana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Miliana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miliana)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-portraying-historical-persons/34012/12 "2000-09-21T20:37:36Z")
Hands down favorite - Peter O’Toole as T.E. Lawrence [teeny hijack/] A little while ago I rented the director’s cut and was immediately drawn into the story, the movie, David Lean’s vision, the whole bit. It’s an incredibly romantic story - blew me away when I noted on the credits that it was O’Toole’s first movie - definitely worth the rental. [hijack/] Anthony Hopkins - C.S. Lewis ---
**Author:** ![Iolanthe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7bcc69/32.png) [@Iolanthe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iolanthe)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-portraying-historical-persons/34012/13 "2000-09-21T21:27:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Arnold Winkelried \* > \*\*Milla Jovovich as Joan of Arc > Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra > Kevin Costner as Robin Hood \*\* Arnold, you’re an evol, evol man. Katherine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine Peter O’Toole as Henry II (both Lion in Winter and Becket) I can’t see Barry Bostwick or Patty Duke anymore without thinking of them as George and Martha Washington. This is particularly disturbing when I’m watching Rocky Horror Picture Show. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-portraying-historical-persons/34012/14 "2000-09-22T02:08:43Z")
Paul Scofield as Thomas More in “A Man For All Seasons” Orson Welles as Cardinal Wolsey (same picture, a brilliant scene) (actually, almost all the cast of that movie) Yul Brynner as the king of Siam and as Pharaoh Ingrid Bergman as Joan of Arc (so there, A.W.!) Additional votes for: Glenda Jackson as Liz I Peter O’Toole as Henry II George C. Scott as Patton Charlton Heston as Moses William Daniels as John Adams ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-portraying-historical-persons/34012/15 "2000-09-22T02:11:21Z")
Cary Elwes as Robin Hood Mel Brooks as Torquemada Kenneth Brannagh as Henry V –sublight. ---
**Author:** ![Kilt-wearin\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@Kilt-wearin\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilt-wearin_man)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-portraying-historical-persons/34012/16 "2000-09-22T07:20:29Z")
The InquiSITION, (here we go!) The InquiSIIIItion, (What a show!) Heh, Heh…yup, you got it, Sublight. How about Graham Chapman as King Arthur? (On second thought, let’s not go to Camelot. It is a silly place.) seriously, though, Robert Downey Jr as Charlie Chaplin - I was amazed. Also, Ed Harris as John Glenn in “The Right Stuff” and the actor (don’t know his name) who played Admiral Yamamoto in “Midway” was an amazing likeness - I had just finished reading a biography of Yamamoto and “Midway” came on a Saturday afternoon movie on TV a couple of days later and my jaw dropped. ---
**Author:** ![Yue\_Han](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/eada6e/32.png) [@Yue\_Han](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yue_Han)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-portraying-historical-persons/34012/17 "2000-09-22T12:21:52Z")
[hijack]Hey, kilt-wearing man, yesterday I met the guy who taught Downey to move like Chaplin. He was teaching an acting workshop at Univercity, a big learning festival thing Ball State put on this week. Apparently, Downey and Chaplin had _completely_ different physical styles, and it took amazing amounts of work to train him. [/hijack] I have nothing to actually contribute. –John ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-portraying-historical-persons/34012/18 "2000-09-22T16:05:40Z")
Iolanthe, thank you for rescuing my reputation! I was afraid some people would take me seriously and think “what an idiot”. I agree with zgystardst, Ingrid Bergman was a much better Joan of Arc, but I can’t really see her as the “real” Joan because she appeared much older than I imagine Joan of Arc, who was a teen-ager. I did like Ingrid’s white armour though. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-portraying-historical-persons/34012/19 "2000-09-22T16:38:14Z")
Peter Cook as Satan ---
**Author:** ![sliv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@sliv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sliv)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-portraying-historical-persons/34012/20 "2000-09-22T19:59:11Z")
I’ll second that Peter Cook as Satan nomination. (Even though, strictly speaking, it’s not a “historical” character.) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-portraying-historical-persons/34012.md?page=2)