Jason Robards played U.S. Grant (as president) in the regrettable movie The Lone Ranger. Andrew Johnson was a character on some episodes of the TV show Branded (they took place after his presidency when he was a senator).
Pat McCormick (bka Big Enos from the Smokey & the Bandit movies- today he’s an emaciated amputee, very sad) played Grover Cleveland in the Robert Altman/Paul Newman film Buffalo Bill and the Indians. (Shelley Duvall played his much younger wife.)
I thought a major flaw in the movie Contact was using actual footage of Bill Clinton. It irrevocably dates the movie.
Hopkins as Adams 2 in Amistad was mentioned above; the same film featured Nigel Hawthorne as Martin Van Buren.
I think he’s referring to the scene where Ralph said, “Ok, I’m ready to play Washington!” and jumped up in a wheelchair with glasses & a long cigarette holder – the classic FDR pose. (Lisa: “Umm…Ralph?”)
And since we’ve already broken the rule about TV Presidents how about Milhouse as Abe Lincoln, and random Springfield kids as Tayler, Tyler, Fillmore, Hayes, and William Henry Harrison (“I died in 30 days!”)
The miniseries “The Adams Chronicles” featured George Grizzard as John Adams, David Birney and William Daniels both portraying John Quincy Adams, Albert Stratton as Thomas Jefferson, and Wesley Addy as Andrew Jackson.
I don’t see anyone credited as playing George Washington, who perhaps didn’t show up on the series. Christopher Lloyd played a Russian czar.
In the NBC miniseries “Backstairs at the White House”, presidents from Taft through Eisenhower appeared.
Victor Buono as Taft, Robert Vaughh as Wilson, George Kennedy as Harding, Ed Flanders as Coolidge, John Anderson as Roosevelt, Harry Morgan as Truman, and Andrew Duggan as Eisenhower.
I was going to point this out as well. Van Buren comes across as something of a dolt, when he was actually a very, very gifted politician - so much so that he was known as The Little Magician and The Fox of Kinderhook. He had the uneviable task of being Jackson’s hand-picked successor.
I just IMDB’d Edward Herrmann & was amazed to find he has only portrayed FDR three times (two TV miniseries on FDR & Eleanor and the theatrical release movie of Annie). I thought he’d done FDR at least half a dozen times.
[Trivia]The producers couldn’t find anyone who both looked and sounded like FDR, so they ended up using two men, one for the back of the head, the other for the voice.[/Trivia]
Barry Bostwick, Jeff Daniels, Brian Dennehey(!), and Kelsey Grammer all played Washington in TV movies.
Randy Quaid played LBJ in a TV movie.
Dan Hedaya was Nixon in Dick.
Kevin Kline was Grant in that horrible Wild, Wild West movie (arguably worse than the *Lone Ranger * fiasco).
So far as I know, there have been no screen portrayals of James Madison, John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, James Buchanan, or Rutherford Hayes.
And some presidents have been portrayed only once: James Monroe (The Man Without a Country), Martin Van Buren (The Gorgeous Hussy), William Henry Harrison (Ten Gentlemen From West Point), James Polk (The Oregon Trail), Franklin Pierce (The Great Moment), Chester Arthur (Cattle King), William McKinley (This Is My Affair), and William Howard Taft (The Sculptor’s Nightmare).
how about Milhouse as Abe Lincoln, and random Springfield kids as Tayler, Tyler, Fillmore, Hayes, and William Henry Harrison (“I died in 30 days!”)