actors who’ve – From Anthony Hopkins as John Quincy Adams to Josh Brolin as George W. Bush, a sweeping roster of actors has taken turns embodying America’s commanders-in-chief across film and television.
American presidents are compelling on screen for the simplest reason: the job carries a built-in gravity. Over decades of film and TV. actors have stepped into that gravity—sometimes in prestige dramas. sometimes in satirical comedies. and sometimes in stories that focus on the person behind the office.
Anthony Hopkins has portrayed John Quincy Adams and Richard Nixon on screen. with the Adams role arriving in Amistad (1997). a film that also starred Morgan Freeman. Matthew McConaughey. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Anna Paquin. Hopkins later played Richard Nixon in the 1995 movie titled Nixon. Across the eras. the list keeps expanding: Jeff Daniels portrayed the nation’s first president in the 2000 historical drama The Crossing. which follows post-Declaration of Independence Washington taking on the Battle of Trenton.
George Washington has been a go-to figure for storytellers. In the Broadway (and Disney+) version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s blockbusting play, the commander-in-chief is played by Christopher Jackson. Jon Voight also played Washington. appearing as Angelina Jolie’s dad in the 2008 comedy An American Carol. a deeply ill-rated portrayal of George Washington. David Morse took on Washington-adjacent history in 2008 as well, starring in a miniseries centered on John Adams.
That leads to the curious reality that the art form doesn’t always follow the rules of the office. While being eligible to run for president requires “natural-born” U.S. citizenship. there’s no such rule for portraying one on screen—so the British actor Stephen Dillane found himself playing Thomas Jefferson in the miniseries John Adams. The same miniseries brought other presidential faces too, with Paul Giamatti landing the titular role.
Some actors seem to collect presidential roles. Charlton Heston portrayed a president in not one. not two. but three movies of the ’50s and ’60s. including the 1963 TV movie The Patriots. in which he portrayed Thomas Jefferson. He also portrayed President Andrew Jackson TWICE on screen: in the 1953 western The President’s Lady and in the 1958 adventure film The Buccaneer.
Abraham Lincoln, in particular, has drawn a long line of performances. Daniel Day-Lewis had an uncanny resemblance to the historical figure in the 2012 drama simply titled Lincoln. Gregory Peck matured into playing Lincoln in the short-lived TV series The Blue and the Gray. Henry Fonda played President Lincoln in the 1939 western Young Mr. Lincoln, after starring in major movies including The Grapes of Wrath and On Golden Pond alongside his daughter Jane Fonda.
Later, Jared Harris portrayed Ulysses S. Grant in the 2012 film Lincoln, and Kevin Kline portrayed President Ulysses S. Grant (and Artemus Gordon!) in the much more campy 1999 western Wild Wild West, featuring Will Smith and Salma Hayek. Robin Williams took a lighter route with Teddy Roosevelt in the silly 2006 comedy Night at the Museum. starring Ben Stiller. Dick Van Dyke. Rami Malek and Owen Wilson.
Film and TV have also offered FDR in multiple keys. Bill Murray played FDR in the 2012 movie Hyde Park on Hudson alongside Laura Linney and Olivia Colman. Kenneth Branagh was cast as Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 2005’s Warm Springs. And with FDR’s cultural footprint so large, it’s no surprise the stories keep returning.
JFK has traveled a similar path. Rob Lowe played President John F. Kennedy in the 2013 NatGeo docudrama Killing Kennedy. Greg Kinnear played Kennedy in the 2011 TV drama The Kennedys, with Katie Holmes as his Jackie. The role also appeared in another kind of storytelling: in The Butler, John F. Kennedy was one of eight presidents featured, portrayed by The Notebook and 27 Dresses actor James Marsden.
The Butler also opened the door to a whole set of presidential impersonations inside one setting. Robin Williams was cast as Dwight Eisenhower. Liev Schreiber took on Lyndon B. Johnson in the 2013 movie The Butler, which also starred Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey. The actor who played a hopeless-romantic teen in 1989 classic Say Anything—John Cusack—later took on President Richard Nixon in 2013’s The Butler. Alan Rickman was cast as Ronald Reagan in 2013’s The Butler, and Tom Selleck was also President Dwight D. Eisenhower in Ike: Countdown to D-Day (2004).
LBJ is another president that keeps landing on screen, across different moods and eras. Bryan Cranston portrayed Lyndon B. Johnson in the 2016 TV movie All The Way. Tom Wilkinson played Lyndon B. Johnson in the 2014 film Selma, with David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr. Woody Harrelson played the titular role in 2016’s LBJ, portraying the 36th president.
Gary Sinise played Harry S. Truman in the movie Truman. which told the story of his rise to the highest office in the land—and Sinise even won a Golden Globe for this role. James Whitmore. known for The Shawshank Redemption. portrayed Harry Truman in Give ’em H***. Harry!. the 1975 film which was also a play.
Then come the presidents defined by political drama and modern retellings. Clive Owen portrayed No. 42 in Season 3. titled Impeachment. of American Crime Story. which recounted what happened between President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky and the president’s impeachment as a result. Kiefer Sutherland took a stab at the wartime hero in 2022’s TV series The First Lady. which tells American history from the perspective of some of its most prominent first ladies.
The list stretches into more recent officeholders, too. Josh Brolin played the titular character in the 2008 movie W., stepping into the cinematic shoes of President George W. Bush. Sam Rockwell later portrayed George W. Bush in the 2018 movie Vice, with Christian Bale as his Dick Cheney. James Cromwell portrayed George H.W. Bush in W. George W. Bush’s father still played a significant role in the story.
For presidents of more modern history, the casting choices often land where their stories feel most recognizable. Aaron Eckhart portrayed Gerald Ford in the 2022 series The First Lady alongside Gillian Anderson, Michelle Pfeiffer and Viola Davis. In The First Lady. Barack was portrayed by the British actor O-T Fagbenle. whom viewers may know from The Handmaid’s Tale. And Parker Sawyers portrayed a young 44 in Southside With You. which tells Barack and Michelle Obama’s love story pre-White House—an inclusion the list explicitly treats as part of the presidential continuum.
The most playful portrayals still show up in the mix, even when the material veers toward politics. Jon Voight played a jokey version of George Washington in An American Carol. while his Pearl Harbor FDR was totally serious: he starred in the 2001 movie alongside Ben Affleck. Josh Hartnett. Kate Beckinsale. Jennifer Garner and Alec Baldwin.
Nixon, too, got a variety of treatments. Frank Langella was praised through the specifics of his likeness to the real-life Richard Nixon in the 2008 movie Frost/Nixon. Dan Hedaya (Cher’s dad from Clueless!) played the commander-in-chief in the 1999 comedy D*** is A Choice. starring in the flick alongside Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams.
Presidential portrayals also show up as part of careers that don’t typically revolve around American history. Tom Selleck isn’t just Magnum P.I. or Richard from Friends—he also played Dwight D. Eisenhower in Ike: Countdown to D-Day (2004). And beyond his presidential roles. Anthony Hopkins sits at the center of the list’s biggest range: he played John Quincy Adams and Richard Nixon.
By the time you reach the most recent presidents. the list turns toward stories that reflect how the public already sees them. Dennis Quaid portrayed Bill Clinton in the 2010 movie The Special Relationship. and he later played Ronald Reagan in the 2024 movie Reagan. Quaid’s 2024 casting lands right beside Sebastian Stan’s portrayal of Donald Trump: The Apprentice is described as a deeply 2024 unflattering portrait of a young 47. led by Sebastian Stan. In TV drama The Comey Rule, Brendan Gleeson portrays Donald Trump while in office.
The thread running through all of it is simple: every era demands a new face, and Hollywood keeps answering. The presidents change. the tone changes. and the stories change—but the office keeps drawing performers back into the same spell: the moment an actor steps into the suit and the country’s history starts to move again.
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