Best Fictional American Presidents
By Raymond Lockley
We Americans love biographies (we have a cable channel that shows 24/7
biographies), and we especially love biographies of our presidents and
other leaders. They don't even have to be real people for us to
be interested. So as a companion to my
list
of the best portrayals of real U.S. presidents, I've developed this list
of the best fictional American presidents.
Making a list like this can be tricky, since there have been characters that
have been written seriously and characters that have been written for laughs.
How do you compare them to rank them? So I decided to do it based on which
presidenst were the most memorable characters. (They still need to
look pretty presidential, too, with excellent acting for the portrayal.)
Most of these were in movies, but there are a few worth mentioning in
television, too.
Top Ten Movie Presidents
- Andrew Shepherd in
The American President
(1995), portrayed by
Michael Douglas
- The President in
Fail-Safe
(1995), portrayed by
Henry Fonda
- Walter Emerson in
Deterrence
(1999), portrayed by
Kevin Pollak
- Merkin Muffley in
Dr. Strangelove
(1964), portrayed by
Peter Sellers
- Jordan Lyman in
Seven Days in May
(1964), portrayed by
Fredric March
- Tom Beck in
Deep Impact
(1998), portrayed by
Morgan Freeman
- James Marshall in
Air Force One
(1997), portrayed by
Harrison Ford
- Thomas Whitmore in
Independence Day
(1996), portrayed by
Bill Pullman
- Matt Douglas in
My Fellow Americans
(1996), portrayed by
James Garner
- Allen Richmond in
Absolute Power
(1997), portrayed by
Gene Hackman
Best TV Presidents
- Josiah "Jed" Bartlet in
The West Wing
portrayed by
Martin Sheen
from 1999 to 2006
- David Palmer in
24
portrayed by
Dennis Haysbert
from 2001 to 2006
- Mackenzie Allen in
Commander in Chief
portrayed by
Geena Davis
from 2005 to 2006
- Tom Kirkman in
Designated Survivor
portrayed by
Kiefer Sutherland
from 2016 to 2019
The great Martin Sheen, by the way, merits a somewhat more extended mention
here. In addition to his Emmy-winning performance as President Bartlet in
"The West Wing", Sheen was also President Shepherd's chief of staff in
The American President
(where the original set for "The West Wing" was created);
President John F. Kennedy in
Kennedy,
and the narrator in the movie about the assassination of JFK,
JFK;
Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy (a presidential candidate) in
The Missiles of October,
and Jack in the movie about the assassination of RFK,
Bobby
(which was written and directed by his son,
Emilio Estevez);
and many other denizens of the top inner circle, from
John Dean
to
Robert E. Lee.
Special mentions
Beyond the above lists, I want to put out special props to three personal
favorites, that need mention somewhere on this page:
- Aaron Sorkin,
one of today's best writers, who created and wrote for both
The American President
(nominated for
Best Screenplay
by the Writer's Guild of America, and the
multi-Emmy winning
TV series
The West Wing.
- The movie
Dave
(1993), wherein
Kevin Kline
plays both President Bill Mitchell and the little-known
Dave Kovic, who spends most of the movie pretending
to be the President.
- The one... the only...
Groucho,
who is omitted from the top ten movie list above only because his
brilliant turn in the 1933 movie,
Duck Soup,
was as the president of Freedonia (Rufus T. Firefly),
and not the president of the U.S.
To index of lists
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