The most important job in the world has long been the subject of fascination for film-makers, and Hollywood has produced more than its fair share of portrayals of POTUSes who became famous for a host of reasons, good and bad. Here are ten of the very best.
10. Bull Murray (Franklin D. Roosevelt)
Hyde Park on Hudson is a 2012 comedy-drama starring Murray as FDR, with Laura Linney as Margaret “Daisy” Suckley, who visits the President during a period of ill health in 1939. Both Murray and Linney acquit themselves well, the former garnering a Golden Globe nomination, but the film is noticeably lightweight, and failed to trouble the critics.
9. Kevin Spacey (Richard Nixon)
The 2016 comedy-drama Elvis & Nixon never quite coheres, but has its moments, as first Nixon’s White House confreres and Presley’s hangers-on each try and work out ways of making the most out of one of the most peculiar meetings in American post-war politics. Spacey brings out the pragmatist in Nixon, while Michael Shannon gives a great performance as an Elvis whose discontent with the counterculture chimes with the President.
8. Bruce Greenwood (John F. Kennedy)
One of Kevin Costner’s lesser-known movies, the 2000 drama Thirteen Days is a fine film, telling the story of the White House’s response to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Costner gives a nuanced performance as a presidential secretary, and Steven Culp captures Bobby Kennedy’s verve and passion excellently, but the buck stops with Bruce Greenwood’s matchless JFK, who has to make the big calls in a political crisis where the stakes were never higher.
7. Josh Brolin (George W. Bush)
Oliver Stone’s 2008 drama was in production even before Bush’s eight-year presidency ended, but Stone was less interested in telling Bush’s story than he was in concentrating on a single aspect of his tenure – the decision to invade Iraq in 2003, which is painted as Bush completing the unfinished business of his father. Josh Brolin impresses with an uncannily accurate portrayal of the famously tongue-tied and bumbling president.
6. Woody Harrelson (Lyndon B. Johnson)
Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency saw great strides made in civil rights enacted by a President who was a seasoned political operator. Rob Reiner’s 2016 biopic LBJ shies away from the more controversial aspects of Johnson’s presidency, but Woody Harrelson does everything asked of him in the title role. Jennifer Jason Leigh provides excellent support as First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson.
5. Nigel Hawthorne (Martin Van Buren)
Steven Spielberg’s 1997 epic about the Amistad Supreme Court case features not one but two Presidents. Anthony Hopkins bagged a deserved Academy Award nomination as ex-President John Quincy Adams who defends the Amistad Africans, but Hawthorne is equally compelling as Martin Van Buren, the sitting President who, in the face of growing disquiet among pro-slavery factions in Congress, finds himself hopelessly out of his depth.
4. Gary Sinise (Harry S. Truman)
Hot on the heels of his impressive work on Apollo 13, Sinise was tapped to play Harry S. Truman in this 1995 television film biopic. While the treatment is by-the-numbers, Sinise portrays the President’s no-nonsense demeanor admirably, and received a Primetime Emmy nomination for the role.
3. Anthony Hopkins (Richard Nixon)
The Welsh actor was far from Oliver Stone’s first choice to play Richard Nixon in the director’s 1995 biopic, but Hopkins’ take on the infamous President is required viewing, veering from light-hearted to sinister in the space of a single scene. The performance garnered Anthony Hopkins his third Academy Award nomination.
2. Frank Langella (Richard Nixon)
Where Hopkins aimed to accentuate Nixon’s misanthropic tendencies, in Ron Howard’s 2008 drama Frost/Nixon, Frank Langella took a different tack, emphasizing Nixon’s avuncular nature in his attempt to turn the famous series of post-presidency interviews with British broadcaster David Frost (played here with verve by Michael Sheen) to his advantage. There are some comic notes here and there, but Langella’s performance is overwhelmingly dominated by the despair of a man who felt he was in the right, but knew otherwise.
1. Daniel Day-Lewis (Abraham Lincoln)
Daniel Day-Lewis won his third Academy Award for his peerless performance in Steven Spielberg’s 2012 epic. With no film footage or audio recording to work off of, Day-Lewis based his portrayal on surviving written accounts of the President’s demeanor, and, as was his habit, remained in character between takes. Every scene is unmissable, but the really impressive scenes are where Lincoln goes toe to toe with political opponents, such as the Confederacy’s vice-president Alexander Stephens (played excellently by Jackie Early Haley). Day-Lewis exudes natural and legal authority as he argues for an end to the war.
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