Top movie presidents

Polly Bergen was a savvy businesswoman in real life but specialized in dingbats on movies and TV. But long before Hillary Clinton became a presidential possibility, she starred in 1964’s Kisses for My President, a limp comedy with Bergen as the elected President and Fred MacMurray as First Husband. In the predictable yet mind-boggling conclusion, she resigns — all for love of MacMurray. Talk about dingbats!

Robin Williams has made a career of playing eccentrics, and in Man of the Year he played a goofus comic who’s elected President, courtesy of a computer malfunction. But, hey, at least his character got to meet Tina Fey! The movie did not restore Williams’ box-office glory.

Harrison Ford played a hijacked Prez in Air Force One, with Glenn Close interestingly cast as Vice Prez. This was 11 years ago, when, dontcha know, Sarah Palin wasn’t even a twinkle in Tina Fey’s eyes.

Anthony Hopkins got his chance to play Nixon in Oliver Stone’s 1995 biography. Like the above-mentioned Langella, Hopkins also played Dracula. To say nothing of Hitler, Hannibal Lecter and convicted Lindbergh baby kidnapper Bruno Hauptmann. But, give him credit, he also played John Quincy Adams in Spielberg’s Amistad.

Charlton Heston played many roles in the manner of a Chief Executive. But he got the official role in The President’s Lady, as a homespun Andrew Jackson. He later did a prolonged cameo in The Buccaneer, playing Andy as a general during The Battle of New Orleans.

Cliff Robertson played JFK as a wartime lieutenant in PT-109. The film did nothing for his career. The Kennedy family publicly praised the movie, but insiders said the Kennedys realized it was only a mediocre effort. It was released in June, 1963, and five months later, the family would have much more significant things to worry about.

Michael Douglas played a fictitious widowed Prez who beds down lobbyist Annette Bening in The American President. Dr. Laura was outraged that a movie would show such dallying in White House bedrooms. After she expressed her disapproval, box-office surged upward.

Peter Sellers played President Merkin Muffley as one of multiple characters in the classic Dr. Strangelove. As Muffley, he got to issue one of the movies’ most famous Presidential commands: “Gentlemen! You can’t fight in here. This is the War Room!”

Henry Fonda’s downhome brand of authority lent itself well to both 1939’s Young Mr. Lincoln and 1964’s Fail-Safe, in which he’s faced with nuclear war against Russia. Both movies have grown in stature since their release.

Gregory Peck was another actor who seemed at home in the White House. He played Honest Abe in television’s The Blue and the Gray and a fictitious president whose liberal views mirror his own beliefs in the big screen’s Amazing Grace and Chuck. Atticus Finch would definitely give his blessing.

John Travolta hardly seemed like Presidential material when playing Vinnie Barbarino. But in Primary Colors, he won praise as a politically savvy, sexually active aspiring President, obviously patterned after Bill Clinton. Emma Thompson poignantly played his wife as part cheerleader, part warden. President Clinton wrote Travolta, saying how much he enjoyed his performance.

Related lists:

• Youngest U.S. presidents
• Popular books about presidents
• Unfortunate political one-liners
• Secret Service code names
• Presidential disapproval ratings
• U.S presidential trivia
• Presidential vacation spots
• Birth states of presidents
• Presidents by height

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