Talk:List of actors who have played the president of the United States

Untitled
What about Ralph Bellamy who played FDR when  FDR was stricken with polio --" Sunrise at Campbello" --play and movie.

There is an FDR in "Annie" -- musical and movie.

And thanks for all the material on 24.

David R. Zukerman Lonely Pamphleteer Review www.lonelypamphleteer.com

PS -- re copyright violation--I mention, current LPR, the use of my Greg Maddux photo--taken outside Yankee Stadium, last June--by a Fox Sports blog--without my permission.

Reagan on "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air"
This wasn't the real Ronald Reagan. It was only an impersonator of the President. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.181.156.82 (talk) 18:08, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Laura Roslin
She's not the president of the United States, shes president of the 12 colonies, so should she not be on this list? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 155.198.212.245 (talk) 14:36, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

Fifth element
Tommy 'Tiny' Lister played President Lindberg in The Fifth Element (1997). Does he qualify under this listing, or is there something that disqualifies him? --Sigma 7 11:59, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

Ex-Presidents
Bill Clinton needs to be moved to list of ex-presidents who have played themseleves.

Combining names
Combining all the actors names behind the name of the president they portrayed is making this list more confusing than it has to be. Before, when the names were separate, a reader could easily match the actor to the movie in which he portrayed a president. Now there's no way to tell which actor played in which movie. Combining this list as someone is doing is not helping in clarity at all. StudierMalMarburg 19:11, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I agree completely. Let's return it to the way it was before. It's almost impossible to get any information from the article the way it is now. ·  Tygartl1   ·talk· 15:20, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I have done so. --TALlama (talk) 17:00, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

No One's Played John Tyler?!
I am furious beyond words. Can we at least give a shout-out to the other unfilmed POTUSes? Are there even any?! J_Tyler (talk) 23:30, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

How could you forget Ed Herrmann?
I don't know how to format the information, but Edward Herrmann's FDR was definitive. According to your own encyclopedia he played Roosevelt in "Eleanor and Franklin" (1976, TV), "Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years" (1977, TV), and in "A Love Affair: The Eleanor and Lou Gehrig Story" (1978, TV). I don't know about the last one. It sounds spurious.

Anyway, please don't delete this article. It came in very handy. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.69.127.105 (talk) 19:44, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

I see Edward Herrmann now. His last name is misspelled, and he's listed under television, rather than film. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.69.127.105 (talk) 19:50, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

Tim Robbins
Did Tim Robbins really play Bill Clinton or just a fictional president in Austin Powers 2. I always thought he was fictional and I see that he is listed as both on this page.Puerca (talk) 21:42, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

Sidney Blackmer
Old-time character actor who played Theodore Roosevelt in seven movies, and fictional president William Lyons Selby, in "The Hundred Days of the Dragon," a 1963 Outer Limits episode.

Alvin P. Bluthman apbluthman@aol.com

Scope question
Is this list confined to portrayals of presidents while they were in office, or at any time in their lives? I ask because Henry Grace played General Eisenhower at the Invasion of Normandy in 1944, in The Longest Day. General Eisenhower did not become President Eisenhower till 1953. -- JackofOz (talk) 22:11, 4 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Answering my own question, I see we list Henry Fonda and Raymond Massey played Abe Lincoln well before he ever became president, so I'll just go ahead and add Henry Grace in. --  JackofOz (talk) 22:11, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Sam Neill
What about Sam Neill. He played Thomas Jefferson in a 2000 TV mini-series 'Sally Hemings: An American Scandal'

Cambridgeways (talk) 02:00, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Should voice actors be in a separate section?
I noticed a few entries on the list for actors (like Harry Shearer in "The Simpsons") who only provided the voice for a President. I added a few similar items to the list (like Barack Obama and Gerorge W. Bush being voiced by Trey Parker on "South Park"). But if voice actors are included, there should be a ton more on the list, including actors who voiced Presidents for documentaries (Like Sam Waterston as Abraham Lincoln and Jason Robards as Ulysses S. Grant in Ken Burns' "The Civil War").

I think voice acting should count, but perhaps these performances should be in a separate section. Including all voice actors would also mean that John Tyler (voiced by Charlie Rose) and James Buchanan (voiced by David Gergen) would both finally make the list based on their roles in the PBS documentary series called "The American President".

Any thoughts? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.68.47.122 (talk) 02:34, 15 June 2009 (UTC)


 * In the eight months since I asked the above no one has objected to the idea. So unless I see an objection now, I'll separate the voice only performances from the others into separate lists 99.192.89.47 (talk) 23:45, 17 February 2010 (UTC)

Also Missing....
Franchot Tone in Advise and Consent.76.199.9.19 (talk) 02:52, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

Daniel Hugh Kelly played JFK in "Jackie, Ethel, Joan: The Women of Camelot" (TV Movie) in 2001. Reference: IMDb. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.125.127.230 (talk) 02:07, 11 October 2016 (UTC)

Brian Keith in "The Wind and the Lion." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 47.187.53.240 (talk) 18:23, 3 July 2018 (UTC) Carroll O'Connor played Grover Cleveland in a 1965 TV episode of Profiles in Courage.... Leif Erikson also played Grover Cleveland in a 1964 TV bio about GC's secret jaw surgery. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 47.187.53.240 (talk) 18:39, 3 July 2018 (UTC)

Jack Ryan?
Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck, and Chris Pine are all listed as having played President Jack Ryan. While Jack Ryan eventually became President in the Tom Clancy novels, the character never did in any of the movies. Those fictional movie universes are separate from that of the novels (and from each other's fictional universes since The Sum of All Fears and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit were both reboots). I don't think it is accurate to have those actors listed as having played the president in those films. Thoughts? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nacnud298 (talk • contribs) 22:05, 28 August 2014 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:List of Vice Presidents of the United States which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 23:03, 21 May 2018 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:List of people pardoned or granted clemency by the President of the United States which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 12:31, 7 August 2019 (UTC)

Differentiation
There should be a differentiation between people who merely played the person and people who played the person in the role of the president. --2001:16B8:316A:2F00:15B1:65A:A383:8BB5 (talk) 18:39, 14 June 2020 (UTC)


 * @2001:16B8:316A:2F00:15B1:65A:A383:8BB5 No that's wrong 2603:8001:9D01:3ED1:41E5:8C6E:903D:44D1 (talk) 15:51, 25 September 2022 (UTC)

Art
Who made the best Art in the world 2603:8001:9D01:3ED1:41E5:8C6E:903D:44D1 (talk) 15:50, 25 September 2022 (UTC)

Mini series
I notice the min series/documentary Washington, Grant and Lincoln that came out in the last few years are not on here. Why? 97.83.180.246 (talk) 20:34, 16 November 2022 (UTC)

Silent films
Why were all silent film portrayals of POTUss purged except for The Birth of a Nation? With some actors portraying Presidents multiple times in silent and sound. Koplimek (talk) 20:03, 7 May 2023 (UTC)

Obama in 'Pitch Perfect 2'
So Barack Obama plays himself in Pitch Perfect 2, but no new footage was shot with him present, they reused media coverage from a real-life event. I would argue this ought to be included in the list, as altering that footage to match the story implies he is a part of the story (and not just a background gag or a prop like Trump's appearance on TV in Arrested Development S05). Tomeka2 (talk) 09:55, 16 September 2023 (UTC)

People who have not played the president should not be in the list
The article is called "List of actors who have played the president of the United States" so people who have not played the president should not be listed. Whether they became president later is irrelevant, they were not playing the president at the time. ... disco spinster   talk  17:01, 15 January 2024 (UTC)


 * I completely agree. The first few sections that lists former presidents that played parts in movies doesn't belong here. Clinton had a cameo in First Kid, but another actor was playing the president in that movie. Trump didn't play the president in Home Alone 2... it just doesn't make sense to list these performances on this page. Tast3war (talk) 20:34, 29 May 2024 (UTC)

ineligibles
What do y'all think of the idea of an asterisk or something for those actors ineligible to the presidency (because they were foreign-born or too young at the time)? —Tamfang (talk) 00:20, 13 April 2024 (UTC)