# What actor/actress has played the most real people? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 14, 2011, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-actress-has-played-the-most-real-people/588974 "2011-07-14T04:32:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![enomaj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/59ef9b/32.png) [@enomaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enomaj)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-actress-has-played-the-most-real-people/588974/1 "2011-07-14T04:32:48Z")
I’m using Denzel Washington and Angela Bassett as a starting point. Off the top of my head I had Malcom X, Rueben ‘Hurricane’ Carter, and Stephen Biko(Cry Freedom). Then I had a look at the IMDB page and saw Frank Lucas (American Gangster) Coach Herman Boone (Remember the Titans) Melvin B. Tolson (The Great Debaters) George McKenna (The George McKenna Story(TV movie)) Robert Eldridge (Wilma) Rudolph Angela Basset has played Tine Turner, Dr. Betty Shabazz, Rosa Parks, Katherine Jackson, Cheryl McNair(Challenger disaster widow) and Voletta Wallace(Biggie’s mom). Half credit for Michelle Obama on the Simpsons.😃 So 8 and 6, actor and actress. Who bests these two? ---
**Author:** ![JessMagic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c0e974/32.png) [@JessMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JessMagic)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-actress-has-played-the-most-real-people/588974/2 "2011-07-14T05:00:37Z")
Michael Sheen: Tony Blair (twice!) Brian Clough David Frost HG Wells Kenneth Williams Mozart Jesus Christ Nero Robbie Ross That’s nine. There may be more - he’s done a lot of plays! > **[Michael Sheen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Sheen)** > > Michael Christopher Sheen (born 5 February 1969) is a Welsh actor. After training at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), he worked mainly in theatre throughout the 1990s with stage roles in Romeo and Juliet (1992), Don't Fool with Love (1993), Peer Gynt (1994), The Seagull (1995), The Homecoming (1997), and Henry V (1997). His performances in Amadeus at the Old Vic and Look Back in Anger at the National Theatre were nominated for Olivier Awards in 1998 and 1999, respectively. In 200... ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-actress-has-played-the-most-real-people/588974/3 "2011-07-14T05:50:04Z")
[Robert Duvall](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000380/) has done Jesse James Dwight Eisenhower Joseph Pulitzer Joseph Stalin Adolf Eichmann Robert E. Lee Which comes up a bit short of the others listed so far, though I might have missed one or two. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-actress-has-played-the-most-real-people/588974/4 "2011-07-14T06:49:29Z")
Helen Mirren has played a variety of queens, including Elizabeth I and II, Charlotte Sophia and Caesonia. A lot of her work is in the grey area between Shakespeare/classical histories and tragedies, and I’m not fully sure if some of them are fictional or not (The Queen in **Moses, Prince of Egypt**? Ophelia and Gertrude in **Hamlet**? I could go either way on either of these). She also played Ayn Rand and a bunch of characters that may be real people to some degree. Vincent D’Onofrio has played Orson Welles, Abbie Hoffman and Robert E. Howard. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-actress-has-played-the-most-real-people/588974/5 "2011-07-14T07:12:20Z")
Anthony Hopkins has played Ernest Hemingway, Burt Munro, Ptolemy, Daniel Webster, Richard I, Charles Dickens, David Lloyd George, Siegfried Farnon, Bruno Hauptmann, Yitzhak Rabin, Col John Frost, Frederick Treves, Adolf Hitler, Paul of Tarsus, William Bligh, Galeazzo Ciano, Frank Doel, Donald Campbell, C. S. Lewis, Dr. John Kellogg, Richard Nixon, Pablo Picasso, John Quincy Adams, George Washington, John Winthrop, and William Radcliffe. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-actress-has-played-the-most-real-people/588974/6 "2011-07-14T07:35:33Z")
Charlton Heston portrayed Moses, Andrew Jackson (twice), Brigham Young, Michelangelo, John the Baptist, Sir Thomas More, Josef Mengele, Cardinal Richelieu, Robert Devereaux (Earl of Essex), Chinese Gordon, Thomas Jefferson, Henry VIII, Mark Antony (twice) and did voicework for Abraham Lincoln, Genghis Kahn, and other lesser known real people, and this isn’t including his stagework. Michael Sheen is nowhere near the record holder (though he has played several actual people) but I’ll give him honorable mention for having portrayed Tony Blair in three completely unrelated vehicles. Peter O’Toole played Henry II in the movie adaptations of two unrelated plays (_The Lion in Winter_ and _Becket_). ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-actress-has-played-the-most-real-people/588974/7 "2011-07-14T07:54:51Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Michael Sheen is nowhere near the record holder (though he has played several actual people) but I’ll give him honorable mention for having portrayed Tony Blair in three completely unrelated vehicles. I’ve heard him referred to as “a one prick Tony.” ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-actress-has-played-the-most-real-people/588974/8 "2011-07-14T14:16:21Z")
Spencer Tracy played Father Flanagan (Boys Town and Men of Boys Town) Henry Stanley (Stanley and Livingstone) Major Robert Rogers (Northwest Passage) Thomas Edison (Edison, the Man) Lt Colonel Jimmy Doolittle (30 seconds over Tokyo) Captain Christopher Jones (Plymouth Adventure) ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-actress-has-played-the-most-real-people/588974/9 "2011-07-14T14:22:31Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Genghis Kahn Oy gevalt. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-actress-has-played-the-most-real-people/588974/10 "2011-07-14T15:03:32Z")
Henry Fonda has played the following real people ## TV: ## Clarence Earl Gideon in _ **Gideon’s Trumpet** _C General Douglas Macarthur in _ **Collision Course: Truman vs. Macarthur** _ Clarence Darrow in _ **Clarence Darrow** _ Emmett Kelley in _ **The Clown** _ MOVIES: Abraham Lincoln in _ **Young Mr. Lincoln** _ Admiral Chester Nimitz in _ **Midway** _ and _ **In Harm’s Way** _ Assistant Attorney General John Bottomly in _ **The Boston Strangler** _ General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. in _ **The Longest Day** _ Wyatt Earp in _ **My Darling Clementine** _ Thomas Watson in _ **The Story of Alexander Graham Bell** _ Frank James in _ **Jesse James** _ and _ **The Return of Frank James** _ ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-actress-has-played-the-most-real-people/588974/11 "2011-07-14T15:17:17Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Anthony Hopkins has played … Adolf Hitler. I couldn’t wrap my head around this one until I went and looked this performance up. But, indeed, [Hopkins _did_ look the part](http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2376047872/tt0082114) in that movie after all, and he won an Emmy for his performance. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-actress-has-played-the-most-real-people/588974/12 "2011-07-14T16:02:02Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I’ve heard him referred to as “a one prick Tony.” Is that an insult of the actor, or of the role? Is Sheen regarded as an unpleasant person? ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-actress-has-played-the-most-real-people/588974/13 "2011-07-14T16:40:28Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Michael Sheen is nowhere near the record holder (though he has played several actual people) but I’ll give him honorable mention for having portrayed Tony Blair in three completely unrelated vehicles. The three portraits of Blair were all written by Peter Morgan, and form a loose trilogy. ---
**Author:** ![stegon66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@stegon66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stegon66)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-actress-has-played-the-most-real-people/588974/14 "2011-07-14T20:47:55Z")
> [@](#): > > Vincent D’Onofrio has played Orson Welles, Abbie Hoffman and Robert E. Howard. He also played John Nardi in Kill the Irishman. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-actress-has-played-the-most-real-people/588974/15 "2011-07-14T21:01:39Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > I couldn’t wrap my head around this one until I went and looked this performance up. But, indeed, [Hopkins _did_ look the part](http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2376047872/tt0082114) in that movie after all, and he won an Emmy for his performance. I don’t know if he really did look the part. In that picture, he looks like a guy dressed up as Hitler. Hitler’s appearance is so iconic that anyone can vaguely “look like him” by wearing his distinctive parted hair, his mustache, and a Nazi uniform. But the real man had such an intensely sinister and unique face, I think it’s pretty damn hard to truly pull it off. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-actress-has-played-the-most-real-people/588974/16 "2011-07-14T22:07:09Z")
John Wayne has a surprising number of credits playing real people. (Surprising because he always seemed to be playing John Wayne.) John Chisum David Crockett Townsend Harris Genghis Khan Lt Rusty Ryan (debatable - the character is based on the real Lt Robert Kelly) Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman Lt. Col. Benjamin Vandervoort Frank “Spig” Wead ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-actress-has-played-the-most-real-people/588974/17 "2011-07-15T01:28:34Z")
Gary Oldman has played: Lee Harvey Oswald in **JFK** Ludwig van Beethoven in **Immortal Beloved** Sid Vicious in **Sid and Nancy** Pontius Pilate in the TV movie **Jesus** Milton Glenn in **Murder in the First** Albert Milo in **Basquiat** (though the character wasn’t real, but was actually a portrayal of Julian Schnabel You can make an argument about Dracula (or Vlad Tepes). ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-actress-has-played-the-most-real-people/588974/18 "2011-07-15T01:41:47Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > The three portraits of Blair were all written by Peter Morgan, and form a loose trilogy. Hmm. Thanks- didn’t know that. (I wonder if Sheen ever starts hoping Blair will run over a nun while driving drunk or leave his wife for a 16 year old or something so that he’ll be big news again and Sheen can play him in the movie and get that vacation house he wants.) [QUOTE=bordelond] But, indeed, [Hopkins _did_ look the part](http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2376047872/tt0082114) in that movie after all, and he won an Emmy for his performance. [/QUOTE] Yeah, but you could give Jerry Seinfeld, Jackie Chan or Andy Griffith the moustache and sweep-to-the-left wig and they’d look like Hitler. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-actress-has-played-the-most-real-people/588974/19 "2011-07-15T17:36:27Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Yeah, but you could give Jerry Seinfeld, Jackie Chan or Andy Griffith the moustache and sweep-to-the-left wig and they’d look like Hitler. Where I was going wrong was imagining a 70-something present-day Hopkins playing Hitler :smack: You and **Argent** are definitely right about Hitler’s iconography. ---
**Author:** ![p4poetic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed8c4c/32.png) [@p4poetic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/p4poetic)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-actress-has-played-the-most-real-people/588974/20 "2016-07-25T00:18:13Z")
Johnny Depp has played quite a few real life people. George Jung, Donnie Brasco, John Dillinger, J.M. Barrie, James Bulger and Hunter S. Thompson. Chadwick Boseman who played Jackie Robinson and James Brown is playing his third real person, Thurgood Marshall. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actor-actress-has-played-the-most-real-people/588974.md?page=2)