which actor has played the president of the united states in the most films?
William Devane?
Martin Sheen?
Ava Gardner?
Benji?
#5?
I can’t think of any who’s played the President more than once. Among Presidential performances that I’ve seen, I’d vote for Morgan Freeman.
No, thanks. We already have one.
Although I honestly can’t say who’s played the President on more than one occasion, I can say which celebrities would be great presidents, if judging only by their roles in their movies:
Martin Sheen and Harrison Ford. Perhaps on the same ticket…
If you count former presidents, Anthony Hopkins played John Quincy Adams in Amistad and Richard Nixon in Nixon, but he was born on the wrong side of the Atlantic.
Charlton Heston has played two presidents (Andrew Jackson & Thomas Jefferson) in three movies (Jackson in The President’s Lady and The Buccaneer and Jefferson in The Patriots). He has also played the odd senator, king (Henry VIII among others) and religious leader (Brigham Young among others, who was president of Deseret, a state comprise of what are now Utah, Nevada and much of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming and parts of California), so I think he has the most experience to be the next Hollywood president.
As far as who seems the most presidential, I’d go with a Steve Martin & Kevin Spacey ticket.
A IMDB character search for president:
Tim Bottoms has played GWB in 3 different things. (he looks startlingly like him, too)
Bryan Clark (3: Reagan, FDR and a “President Hughes” in a movie "Megaville)
Ronny Cox (3 fictional presidents)
Joseph Crehan (U.S. Grant in 4 different things)
Richard M. Dixon (3 different including Nixon twice)
Andrew Duggan (3 including Eisenhower)
Ed Flanders (4, including 3 Trumans and 1 Coolidge)
Larry Gates (3 including Arthur and Hoover)
That’s the first 600 hits, and my timer went off so you’ll have to find any >4.
Well, that figures, he’s only off by a letter.
Christopher Walken. 
Harrison Ford. Just imagine the possibilities…
Edward Herrmann has played FDR in three movies, VP Nelson Rockefeller in another, and fictitious presidents (no Michael Moore reference intended) in at least two others. He also played perrennial office-seeker Wm. Randolph Hearst.
Ken Howard has played Thomas Jefferson in two movies and voiced him in others, while his 1776 co-star William Daniels has made a mini-career playing and voicing John Adams (which is odd because he looks almost nothing like him, though 1776 was a great movie).
Actors I’d least like to see as president: Don Knotts, Jim Carrey, Bobcat Goldthwaite, the two Coreys and Wanda Sykes.
Bill Pullman. I want my unqualified celebrity president to be able to hop into a jet fighter with zero experience and kick some nonsensical alien ass. Will Smith as V.P.
Jeff Goldblum as Secretary of State optional.
[QUOTE=Roland Orzabal]
Bill Pullman. I want my unqualified celebrity president to be able to hop into a jet fighter with zero experience and kick some nonsensical alien ass. Will Smith as V.P./QUOTE]
But the president in Independence Day did have experience. He was a fighter pilot before he became president, wasn’t he? Or am I misremembering something?
I thought this thread was going to be about ARnold–he is unqualified, not being born in this country, and definitely a celebrity.
Been there, done that. 1980. 1984.
Well, Henry Fonda has played a President at least 3 times that I know of. There was:
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“Fail Safe,” in which he allowed the Russians to nuke New York.
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“Meteor,” an early version of “Armageddon”/“Deep Impact,” in which a huge asteroid is about to hit the Earth.
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“Young Mr. Lincoln” (Okay, he played a FUTURE President in that one.)
I think you’re right.
Sampiro, Martin and Spacey - especially Martin - definitely have the hair for the job.
Peter Sellers played the President in “Dr Strangelove”, and didn’t he wind up as President (or being groomed for it) by the end of “Being There”?