Presidents and First Ladies

Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field are nominees this year for portraying President and Mrs. Lincoln [left].  Day-Lewis is the second actor to be nominated for portraying Honest Abe; the first was Raymond Massey in Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940) [right, with Ruth Gordon as Mary Todd]. 





In the inaugural year of the Supporting performance categories, Beulah Bondi was nominated for her portrayal of Rachel Donelson Jackson in The Gorgeous Hussy (1936) [shown with Lionel Barrymore as Andrew Jackson.]  Mrs. Jackson technically was not a First Lady, because she died after her husband was elected but before her husband was sworn into office, but she is recognized on the White House website. Today, Bondi and Barrymore are probably best remembered not as the devoted political couple, but as the evil Mr. Potter and the warm-hearted Ma Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life (1946).



 

Alexander Knox was a Best Actor nominee as President Woodrow in Wilson (1944).  He is pictured with Ruth Nelson as Ellen Wilson, who died a year into her husband's first term.  Wilson remarried, while still in office, to the widow Edith Bolling Galt, who is portrayed in this film by Geraldine Fitzgerald.





Greer Garson received the last of her seven Best Actress nods for portraying Eleanor Roosevelt in Sunrise at Campobello (1960), pictured with Ralph Bellamy as FDR.






The 1975 film Give 'em Hell, Harry! is one of the most unusual to be nominated for an Oscar, in that it barely qualifies as a film: It is a recording of James Whitmore giving a live, one-man-show stage performance as Harry Truman.  Whitmore is the only person to be nominated for acting without a single co-star.





Anthony Hopkins and Joan Allen [left] were recognized in the lead and supporting categories, respectively, as Richard and Pat in Nixon (1995).  Tricky Dick reappeared in the Best Actor race with Frost/Nixon (2008), with Frank Langella as the 37th president [right, with Patty McCormack as Pat].





Hopkins himself also reappeared in the Oscar race as a U.S. president, with his supporting turn as the mutton-chopped John Quincy Adams in Amistad (1997).



It is interesting that of the six actors who have been nominated as American presidents, only two -- James Whitmore and Frank Langella -- are actually American.  Anthony Hopkins and Daniel Day-Lewis were born in the United Kingdom, and Raymond Massey and Alexander Knox were Canadians.

There's no doubt that presidential families will continue to inspire films.  If Barack and Michelle Obama are portrayed onscreen in the near future, I hope it's by Don Cheadle and Regina King.  And if this hypothetical movie I just made up is a good one, may they both win Oscars!