# Cast Spielberg's Lincoln movie for him
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cast-spielbergs-lincoln-movie-for-him/314600
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 28, 2005, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cast-spielbergs-lincoln-movie-for-him/314600 "2005-07-28T16:12:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2005, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cast-spielbergs-lincoln-movie-for-him/314600/1 "2005-07-28T16:12:08Z")
Liam Neeson will play Abraham Lincoln; Doris Kearns Goodwin (who’s working on her own book about the Lincoln marriage) is helping with the screenplay, according to [IMDB.com](http://IMDB.com). No other casting has been announced yet; to be released in 2007.
Who would you put in the film? The actor or actress should obviously be capable of playing the role, but also look at least somewhat like the person being portrayed. Serious answers, please.
My first suggestion: Holly Hunter as Mary Todd Lincoln.
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### Author:  [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2005, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cast-spielbergs-lincoln-movie-for-him/314600/2 "2005-07-28T16:43:03Z")
Come on and have the guts to cast a fat actress as Mary Todd.
I don’t know who…
Harvey Keitel as Grant.
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### Author:  [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2005, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cast-spielbergs-lincoln-movie-for-him/314600/3 "2005-07-28T16:48:11Z")
I nominate Sarah Vowell as Mary Lincoln.
Marc
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### Author:  [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2005, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cast-spielbergs-lincoln-movie-for-him/314600/4 "2005-07-28T16:52:31Z")
and Marky Mark as Booth.
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### Author:  [@Chance\_the\_Gardener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chance_the_Gardener)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2005, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cast-spielbergs-lincoln-movie-for-him/314600/5 "2005-07-28T17:06:31Z")
> [@MGibson](#):
>
> I nominate Sarah Vowell as Mary Lincoln.
> Marc
Yes! Sarah Vowell would be excellent! My first thought was Janeane Garafalo, though. I’d be happy with either.
Russell Crowe might make a good U.S. Grant. And if he’s feeling up to it, I think Michael J. Fox would be the right type to play Stephen Douglass.
I propose William H. Macy for Andrew Johnson; that seems like his kind of hard-luck role.
And I know he doesn’t typically do serious roles, but how about Chris Elliot as George McClellan? McClellan always struck me as a smug bastard, and Elliot plays that well.
As to William Seward, Hannibal Hamlin and Abe Lincoln—I have no idea. And I’m not especially up on Lincoln’s early life, so I don’t have any characters to cast there. I’ll have to think about this.
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2005, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cast-spielbergs-lincoln-movie-for-him/314600/6 "2005-07-28T17:14:06Z")
Jake Gyllenhaal as Joshua Speed.
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2005, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cast-spielbergs-lincoln-movie-for-him/314600/7 "2005-07-28T17:41:22Z")
> [@Chance the Gardener](#):
>
> Yes! Sarah Vowell would be excellent! My first thought was Janeane Garafalo, though. I’d be happy with either.
Janeane Garofalo has pretty much one character: Adult Daria. I don’t think that quite covers Mary Todd Lincoln.
You’d need a really good actress to pull this one off, not a stand up comedian.
I like Holly Hunter, actually, inasmuch as she can play almost anything.
> [@](#):
>
> Russell Crowe might make a good U.S. Grant.
Crowe, too, can play almost anything.
Grant would be an interesting challenge; he was not your typical top general. He was a relatively quiet man who missed his wife a lot. He disliked war and yet it was the only thing he was ever really good at.
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2005, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cast-spielbergs-lincoln-movie-for-him/314600/8 "2005-07-28T17:46:58Z")
Angelina Jolie–as Abraham Lincoln.
😃
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2005, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cast-spielbergs-lincoln-movie-for-him/314600/9 "2005-07-28T17:54:45Z")
Angelina Jolie as Lincoln? C’mon - I said _serious_ answers! :dubious:
I like Russell Crowe as U.S. Grant. I first thought of Robin Williams, actually - similar physique and head shape; Williams can handle dramatic roles and could pull it off.
How about these:
George B. McClellan - Karl Urban (Eomer in LOTR)
Ambrose Burnside - Brian Doyle-Murray
George G. Meade - Patrick Stewart
John Nicolay - Gary Oldman
John Hay - Tobey Maguire
Edwin Stanton - Kevin Pollack
Salmon P. Chase - Anthony Hopkins
Gideon Welles - Michael Gambon
William Seward - Christopher Plummer
Frederick Douglass - Morgan Freeman
Horace Greeley - David Ogden Stiers
John Wilkes Booth - Edward Norton
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2005, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cast-spielbergs-lincoln-movie-for-him/314600/10 "2005-07-28T18:43:02Z")
> [@William V.](#):
>
> How about these:
> Frederick Douglass - Morgan Freeman
> John Wilkes Booth - Edward Norton
Yeah!
What about Kathy Bates as Mary Lincoln? Or is she too old? She’s a really good actress, that’s for sure. Did you see her in “Rat Race”? hehehe
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### Author:  [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2005, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cast-spielbergs-lincoln-movie-for-him/314600/11 "2005-07-28T19:53:34Z")
I think [Harriet Sansom Harris](http://desperatehousewives.org/hariet.jpg) would make an interesting Mary Todd Lincoln. In case you can’t place her, she plays Mrs. Huber’s sister on “Desperate Housewives.”
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2005, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cast-spielbergs-lincoln-movie-for-him/314600/12 "2005-07-28T23:08:27Z")
> [@William V.](#):
>
> Angelina Jolie as Lincoln? C’mon - I said _serious_ answers! :dubious:
She’d get the kids into the theatre.
And she could do a nude scence.
We could call the movie _The Naked Abe_…
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2005, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cast-spielbergs-lincoln-movie-for-him/314600/13 "2005-07-29T02:25:33Z")
Renee Zellwegger as Mary Todd Lincoln (though she’ll need to go on a carb fest first)
Edie “He’s a righteous dude!” McClurg, Patty Duke or [Patrika Darbo](http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/warner_brothers/american_outlaws/patrika_darbo/outlawpre2.jpg) actually look the part of Mary Lincoln but neither has the resume for a serious role in a Spielberg picture.
Either Orlando Bloom or Jude Law as John Wilkes Booth
[John Cullum](http://home.comcast.net/~mcnotes/BrickCullumJohn.jpg)as [William Seward](http://www.born-today.com/Today/pix/seward_w.jpg)
Haley Joel Osment as Tad Lincoln
[Lane “My Cousin Vinnie” Smith](http://perso.wanadoo.fr/cinephemeride/images/IDENTITE/LANE%20SMITH.jpg) as
[Salmon Chase](http://www.impeach-andrewjohnson.com/11BiographiesKeyIndividuals/SalmonChaseTest250.jpg)
Billy Bob Thornton as [Andrew Johnson](http://www.classbrain.com/artbiographies/uploads/andrew-johnson.jpg)
[Gore Vidal](http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/warner_brothers/alexander/gore_vidal/alexanderpreg.jpg) as [James Buchanan](http://www.born-today.com/Today/pix/buchanan_james.jpg)
[Leslie Jordan](http://www.circletheatre.com/archives/images/ctjordan.jpg) as Stephen Douglas
David Ogden Stiers as [Edwin Stanton](http://www.vw.cc.va.us/vwhansd/HIS121/images/stanton.jpg)
Burt Reynolds as Jefferson Davis
Wilford Brimley as Winfield Scott
I like Keitel (above) for Grant, though Billy Bob could do the role also.
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2005, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cast-spielbergs-lincoln-movie-for-him/314600/14 "2005-07-29T02:41:52Z")
Scratch the above:
Billy Bob Thornton should play Sherman
[Charles Siebert](http://www.charlessiebert.com/char2.gif) as Johnson
Crowe as Grant (as per above- highlight of the movie will be when he arrives at the Willard Hotel, can’t contact his wife, and chucks a telegraph at the desk clerk)
Anjelica Huston as [Laura Keene](http://www.civilwar.si.edu/lincoln_images/keene_fredricks.jpg)
Christopher Lloyd (or Don Knotts) as [Chief Justice Taney](http://chronicles.dickinson.edu/encyclo/t/taneyRB.jpg)
David Thewlis as [Walt Whitman](http://www.johnmitchell.org/whitman2.jpg)
Kathy Bates as Mary Surratt
And in an almost eerie resemblance,
[Leonardo diCaprio](http://www.goldenbeaus.com/l_dicaprio/leo_dicaprio_front.jpg) as [Robert Todd Lincoln](http://www.thehistorynet.com/cwti/roberttoddlincoln2.jpg)
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2005, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cast-spielbergs-lincoln-movie-for-him/314600/15 "2005-07-29T03:02:51Z")
> [@Sampiro](#):
>
> Edie “He’s a righteous dude!” McClurg, Patty Duke or [Patrika Darbo](http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/warner_brothers/american_outlaws/patrika_darbo/outlawpre2.jpg) actually look the part of Mary Lincoln but neither has the resume for a serious role in a Spielberg picture.
Except maybe that Oscar statuette on Patty Duke’s shelf?
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2005, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cast-spielbergs-lincoln-movie-for-him/314600/16 "2005-07-29T03:34:36Z")
> [@Walloon](#):
>
> Except maybe that Oscar statuette on Patty Duke’s shelf?
Yeah, but that was more than forty years ago. Since then she’s done 4,421 made-for-TV movies (half of them with Melissa Gilbert), episodes of _Touched by an Angel_, appeared in two Ed Wood style camp TV horror classics ([Curse of the Black Widow](http://imdb.com/title/tt0075900/) in which she played a spider queen with a prosthetic battery operated torso, and _Whatever Happened to Rosemary’s Baby?_, a sequel so bad it got sued by Ira Levin and several of the people involved). I think she’d be _ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC_ as the star of a TV movie about Mary Todd Lincoln’s post assassination life (especially since Duke is manic depressive and Mary Todd had more than a few beanbags in that ring herself) but barring starring in a Tarantino vehicle I think her “major role in a major motion picture” days are behind her.
Matthew Broderick as [George McLellan](http://americanrevwar.homestead.com/files/civwar/mclellan.jpg)
[Vincent Schiavelli](http://images.google.com/url?q=http://www.wildwestweb.net/cwleaders/George%2520G.%2520Meade.jpg) as [George Meade](http://images.google.com/url?q=http://www.wildwestweb.net/cwleaders/George%2520G.%2520Meade.jpg)
Jim Broadbent (or Oliver Platt) as General [Burnsides](http://images.google.com/url?q=http://www.exwar.org/Graphics/History/burnside.jpg)
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### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2005, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cast-spielbergs-lincoln-movie-for-him/314600/17 "2005-07-29T03:36:10Z")
Jude Law as Lewis Powell.
Gene Hackman as Andrew Johnson.
Jeff Chandler as Jefferson Davis.
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2005, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cast-spielbergs-lincoln-movie-for-him/314600/18 "2005-07-29T03:41:58Z")
Cameos by Ian McKellen as John Brown, Judi Dench as Q. Victoria, Jackie Chan as King Mongkut, Gene Hackman as Brigham Young and Patricia Neal as [Sarah Bush Lincoln](http://www.press.uillinois.edu/epub/books/stowell/images/fig5.1.gif).
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### Author:  [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2005, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cast-spielbergs-lincoln-movie-for-him/314600/19 "2005-07-29T04:12:11Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#):
>
> Angelina Jolie–as Abraham Lincoln.
> 😃
I’m so happy to be able to do this & yet also so ashamed…
so, wouldn’t that be… Babe-raham Lincoln?
I’m such a wh_r_.
Seriously, I almost read the OP as saying Leslie Nielsen was cast as Abe- I am SO relieved that isn’t that case.
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### Author:  [@Marine\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marine_One)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2005, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cast-spielbergs-lincoln-movie-for-him/314600/20 "2005-07-29T13:37:52Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Seriously, I almost read the OP as saying Leslie Nielsen was cast as Abe- I am SO relieved that isn’t that case.
Surely, this wouldn’t work…
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