Men Play Presidents in the Movies and in Real Life

On the eve of the presidential election, Harrison Ford (Air Force One) was picked as the best movie president in a moviefone poll that got 1.1 million votes. The rest of the top five includes most of the leading male actors of our time: Morgan Freeman (Deep Impact); Michael Douglas (The American President); Bill Pullman (Independence Day); Kevin Kline (Dave)...you get the drift.

Of course, there are no women in the top 10 (or the top 20) probably because we've never had a woman president. The last time a woman played the president on the big screen was 1999 when Lynne Thigpen took on the role in Bicentennial Man. (Thank you Wikipedia) Most of the women who have played president on the big screen did so decades ago in movies I never heard of: Ernestine Barrier in Project Moonbase in 1953; Polly Bergen in Kisses for My President in 1964 (I have heard of this one); Sally Champlin in 2001 in The Woman Every Man Wants (huh, so never heard of this); Joan Rivers in 1987's Les Patterson Saves the World; Loretta Swit in Whoops Apocalypse in 1986; and the one we all know- Glenn Close as Acting President in Air Force One.

On TV we've done a little better with Geena Davis in Commander in Chief (I still miss this show); Patricia Wettig (Prison Break) and Patty Duke in Hail to the Chief. All of those shows lasted one season. But this winter we will see Cherry Jones as the President Allison Taylor on 24.

Counting the amount of men who have played presidents on the big screen I got around 90. Roy Schneider has played a president three times, Gene Hackman, twice, both Randy and Dennis Quaid have played presidents, as well as five African American men. On TV, men have played the president on TV 26 times.

Now that we've had a woman almost as the democratic nominee (sigh) and a woman as the republican VP nominee (yikes) will we see women as the president on the big screen?

Harrison Ford voted best movie president: poll (Reuters via Yahoo)

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Comments

[gypsy508]

Rip Torn has played the most "real" Presidents - 3.

[3fingerbrown]

Henry Fonda, best movie president, any way you look at it: Best performance as a fictional president (Fail Safe), actual president (Young Mr. Lincoln), and even presidential candidate (The Best Man). Honorable mentions: Frederic March (Seven Days in May), Lee Tracy (The Best Man), Anthony Hopkins (Nixon).

Most obscure film about a real-life president: Tennessee Johnson, with Van Heflin as Andrew Johnson.

Actor who gave bad performances as the same president in two different movies: Charlton Heston (Andrew Jackson in The Buccaneer and The President's Lady).

Weirdest movie about a president: 1933's Gabriel Over the White House (Walter Huston is a crooked politician who's elected president, then transformed by an encounter with the angel in the title. Where's Gabriel been the last 8 years?)

[Malarcus]

Melissa, you left out Mary McDonnell's portrayal of President of Laura Roslin in the 2003-present "reimagining" of Battlestar Galactica.

[Michale32086]

Ooooo Nice catch... :D

Michale.....

[gulopartisan]

OUr attention span is shrinking. The "best" people who played Presidents just incidentally happen to have done it in the last twenty years?

[Michale32086]

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Patty Duke in Hail to the Chief.
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Duke's Secret Service bodyguard in that show was a big bruiser of a guy, played by Joel Brooks, who incidentally, was gay.

At the risk of being politically incorrect here, one of the funniest lines of that series was when Brooks asked Duke if she wanted a drink. Duke asked for a "fruit punch" and Brooks, dutifully, gave her a short jab to the shoulder. :)

Like I said, completely politically incorrect, but it was hilarious when they did it..

Michale.....