Which actor in any medium did the best job of portraying President Nixon?
I haven’t seen Oliver Stone’s Nixon so I can’t speak to Anthony Hopkins’ portrayal. Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon has to be in the running.
Personally, my favorite is Dan Hedaya as Dick.
He might not win an award for it, but I liked the guy who played Nixon on Doctor Who last year. He actually made Tricky Dick look sympathetic.
Where do I know that guy from, Cheers?
Mine too. And it reminds me of a hilarious depiction of Nixon’s paranoia on an old National Lampoon Radio Hour show while Nixon was still in office. Nixon was wandering halls (Of the White House? Or trying to find the broadcast studio?): “What’s in this closet? Old Clorox bottles. Those are MY Clorox bottles! I’ll be back for those later.”
I’ve never seen an episode of Cheers, but he’s been in so many movies you might have seen. I knew him primarily from Blood Simple (Frances McDormand’s unfortunate husband), To Die For (Matt Dillon’s father), and Clueless (Alicia Silverstone’s father), besides Dick. I saw a lot more, but those were the ones I said to myself “That’s Dan Hedaya!” putting a name to a face.
I can’t tell you if it is accurate or not, but Robert Altman’s film Secret Honor, with Philip Baker Hall, is essentially a 90-minute one-man show depicting Nixon ranting to himself after his career is over. I remember it being a good quality flick (as Robert Altman always delivers) and it should be a must-see for folks who are into Nixon.
He even has a small part in Oliver Stone’s Nixon–not as Nixon, obviously.
How about Billy West in Futurama? 
Robert Wisden wasn’t bad in Watchmen.
He did, didn’t he? It was interesting seeing the British perspective on Nixon. To most Americans these days, he’s essentially a cartoon Satan; to the Brits (and much of the rest of the world) he was just another smart, moderately corrupt politician who got caught up in a scandal.
I have to nominate Lane Smith in The Final Days, which was a dramatization of the Woodward and Bernstein book. His Nixon was uncanny, even better than Anthony Hopkins.
Smith was probably best known as Daily Planet editor Perry White in Lois & Clark.
Onstage, I’d have to go with James Maddalena, who portrayed Nixon in the Peter Sellars/John Adams opera Nixon in China.
“News”, Nixon’s first aria from “Nixon in China”, featuring James Maddalena.
Or the prosecuting attorney in My Cousin Vinnie.
I was wondering about Jason Robards Jr fictional portrayal in “Washington: Behind Closed Doors” since the original book was written by Nixon henchman
and jailbird John Ehrlichman. Although my understanding is the TV miniseries was changed a lot from Ehrlichman’s novel. Unfortunately I only saw bits of it when it was broadcast 35 years ago and this is one of the increasing number of things that are for sale on Amazon but not carried by Netflix. And I ain’t spending $35 to find out.
I was too distracted by the terrible makeup to even notice the performance. The fake nose he was wearing would have been a little too much for Cyrano de Bergerac, let alone Nixon.
I was working on a movie set with Philip the very week that Altman passed away, and I asked him about the experience of working with him on Secret Honor, and he told me that every day at lunch, they had shared a green room, and Altman would have a snifter of brandy and a joint, then take a short nap before going back to work.
Just goes to show, the best movies are made by adults who have lived a little, not teacher’s pets right out of film school!