Which actor has made recurring appearances as a staff member or leader of different cinematic or television White Houses (be it fictional or historical)? Please keep it to the executive branch (no Congressional roles) and active administrations (no failed campaigns or retired heads-of-state)
Examples:
Martin Sheen: POTUS in The West Wing, Chief of Staff in The American President
Dennis Haysbert: POTUS in 24, Secret Service agent in Absolute Power
What others can you think of?
Edward Herrmann (FDR) and William Daniels (both Adams’) have made careers out of playing the same president (s) over and over.
Michael Douglas was the President in American President and the Drug Czar in Traffic.
Frank Langella played the White House chief of staff in Dave, and Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon.
Martin Sheen was also envisioned as President in “The Dead Zone”.
And he played attorney general Robert Kennedy in The Missiles of October.
E. G. Marshall deserves some sort of award for this. His roles include:
George Washington
U. S. Grant
Grover Cleveland
Harry Truman
Dwight Eisenhower
John Foster Dulles (Eisenhower’s Sec. of State)
John Mitchell (Nixon’s Attorney General)
Plus the President in Superman II.
Raymond Massey made a career of playing Lincoln over and over again.
And a veteran Secret Service agent on the White House Detail in The Sentinel.
Dennis Quaid played a George W. Bush-like President in American Dreamz, Bill Clinton himself in The Special Relationship (and did pretty well at it), and a Secret Service agent on the White House Detail in Vantage Point.
Harrison Ford played CIA analyst Jack Ryan in several movies, and the President in Air Force One.
Penny Johnson Jerald played President David Palmer’s (ex) wife on 24, and also played Condoleeza Rice in a couple of TV movies about 9/11.
Henry Fonda played “the President” (yes, he’s just “the President” in the credits) in Sean Connery’s godawful disaster movie Meteor and in the Cold War drama Fail-Safe.
He was also a future President in Young Mr. Lincoln.
And he was NOMINATED to be Secretary of State in Advise & Consent (but his nomination is withdrawn after the President dies, and the Vice President decides he wants someone else for the job).
Not to mention JFK himself in Kennedy.
Anthony Hopkins played Richard Nixon in Nixon, and former President John Quincy Adams in Amistad.
Dewey Finn reminded me…
Kevin Kline was President Ulysses S. Grant in The Wild Wild West. He also played both the comatose real President AND a lookalike filling in for him, in the comedy Dave.
Does this count?
Lloyd Bridges was President “Tug” Benson in Hot Shots! Part Deux. He was also Confederate President Jefferson Davis in the TV miniseries North and South.
Glenn Morshower has played Aaron Pierce, a Secret Service agent, on the first 5 seasons of 24, and I believe was reinstated in Season 7, so - what… 4 different administrations? Plus, he’s played countless other cop/army/politician types, including as another Secret Service agent in Air Force One, and I believe a recurring role on The West Wing.
If you include all the high-ranking military officials he’s played (which technically report up to the executive branch) I’d say he has a lock on the most fictional administrations served.
Sam Waterston played Honest Abe in both the TV miniseries *** The Civil War ***and in the TV miniseries version of Gore Vidal’s Lincoln.
He also played “the President” in Shadow Conspiracy. and a liberal President facing a military coup, in the TV movie The Enemy Within.
Maybe a trick answer but the television mini-series Backstairs at the White House covered the household staff who worked in the White House through eight administrations. So Leslie Uggams, for example, played a character who worked for eight administrations.
He also played the President in an episode of “Masters of Science Fiction,” called “A Clean Escape”
James Whitmore got a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his one-man show ***Give 'Em Hell, Harry, ***in which he played Harry Truman.
He later did a similar one-man show in which he played Teddy Roosevelt.
He also played the President in the TV miniseries Favorite Son.
Donald Moffat played a blustering Vice President Lyndon Johnson in The Right Stuff. He also played President Bennet, Harrison Ford’s boss in Clear and Present Danger.