The Presidents of the United States of America

by LaurenceBranagh | created - 17 Sep 2015 | updated - 27 Nov 2018 | Public

1. Cliff Robertson

Actor | Spider-Man

Clifford Parker Robertson III became a fairly successful leading man through most of his career without ever becoming a major star. Following strong stage and television experience, he made an interesting film debut in a supporting role in Picnic (1955). He then played Joan Crawford's deranged ...

George Washington

2. William Daniels

Actor | St. Elsewhere

William Daniels is an American actor, born in Brooklyn, New York City. He was born in 1927, to bricklayer David Daniels and his wife Irene.

Daniels was a member of the singing Daniels family in Brooklyn. He made his television debut in 1943 at the age of 16, as part of a variety act. That same year,...

John Adams

3. Charlton Heston

Actor | Ben-Hur

With features chiseled in stone, and renowned for playing a long list of historical figures, particularly in Biblical epics, the tall, well-built and ruggedly handsome Charlton Heston was one of Hollywood's top leading men of his prime and remained active in front of movie cameras for over sixty ...

Thomas Jefferson

4. Burgess Meredith

Actor | Clash of the Titans

One of the truly great and gifted performers of the century, who often suffered lesser roles, Burgess Meredith was born in 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio. He was educated in Amherst College in Massachusetts, before joining Eva Le Gallienne's Student Repertory stage company in 1929. By 1934 he was a star ...

James Madison

5. Morgan Wallace

Actor | Wild Girl

Morgan Wallace was born on July 26, 1881 in Lompoc, California, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Wild Girl (1932), The Mouthpiece (1932) and Dream Street (1921). He was married to Louise Chapman Wallace. He died on December 12, 1953 in Tarzana, California, USA.

James Monroe

6. Grant Mitchell

Actor | Arsenic and Old Lace

You would think stage and film veteran Grant Mitchell was born to play stern authoritarians; his father after all was General John Grant Mitchell. But Mitchell would actually be better known for his portrayals of harangued husbands, bemused dads and bilious executives in 30s and 40s films. Born in ...

John Quincy Adams

7. Anthony Hopkins

Actor | The Silence of the Lambs

Anthony Hopkins was born on December 31, 1937, in Margam, Wales, to Muriel Anne (Yeats) and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a baker. His parents were both of half Welsh and half English descent. Influenced by Richard Burton, he decided to study at College of Music and Drama and graduated in 1957. In 1965, ...

John Quincy Adams

8. Jack Palance

Actor | City Slickers

Jack Palance quite often exemplified evil incarnate on film, portraying some of the most intensely feral villains witnessed in 1950s westerns and melodrama. Enhanced by his tall, powerful build, icy voice, and piercing eyes, he earned two "Best Supporting Actor" nominations early in his career. It ...

Andrew Jackson

9. Nigel Hawthorne

Actor | The Madness of King George

Widely regarded as one of the greatest stage and screen actors both in his native UK and internationally, the unparalleled Nigel Hawthorne was born in Coventry, England on 5 April 1929, raised in South Africa and returned to the UK in the 1950s with his extensive work as a great gentleman of acting...

Martin Van Buren

10. Douglass Dumbrille

Actor | The Ten Commandments

Distinguished character villain Douglass (R.) Dumbrille, whose distinctive stern features, beady eyes, tidy mustache, prominent hook nose and suave, cultivated presence graced scores of talking films, was born on October 13, 1889, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He was first employed as a bank clerk ...

William Henry Harrison

11. Paul Ford

Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

If any man ever had a curmudgeon character face absolutely made for TV and film, it was Paul Ford. Small-eyed, balding, lugubrious, pot-bellied and with a memorable plum nose to rival that of the great Karl Malden, he made a very late entry into show business, finding major success as blowhard ...

John Tyler

12. Ian Wolfe

Actor | Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Respected character actor whose on-screen work included everything from Shakespeare to Dick Tracy (1990) (his last film). After a long apprenticeship in the theatre, the 38-year-old Wolfe finally debuted in films in The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934), recreating his Broadway role. He then toiled...

James K. Polk

13. James Gammon

Actor | Major League

Rugged-looking James Gammon first broke into the entertainment industry not as an actor but as a TV cameraman. From there, his weatherbeaten features, somewhat menacing attitude and a tough-as-nails voice--the kind that used to be described in detective novels as "whiskey-soaked"--reminiscent of '...

Zachary Taylor

14. Millard Vincent

Actor | The Monroe Doctrine

Millard Vincent was born on October 7, 1885 in Michigan, USA. He was an actor, known for The Monroe Doctrine (1939). He died on September 13, 1951 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Millard Fillmore

15. Porter Hall

Actor | Sullivan's Travels

For over two decades, Porter Hall made a career out of playing villains and pompous, unpleasant people. His movie career was not a mirror of his real life, however. Mr. Hall was well known as a generous and outgoing person who was well-liked by almost everybody he knew. It is ironic that the role ...

Franklin Pierce

16. James Handy

Actor | Arachnophobia

James Handy was born in New York City, New York, USA. He is known for Arachnophobia (1990), Jumanji (1995) and Top Gun: Maverick (2022).

James Buchanan

17. Henry Fonda

Actor | 12 Angry Men

This remarkable, soft-spoken American began in films as a diffident juvenile. With passing years, he matured into a star character actor who exemplified not only integrity and strength, but an ideal of the common man fighting against social injustice and oppression. He was born in Grand Island, ...

Abraham Lincoln

18. Walter Matthau

Actor | The Odd Couple

Walter Matthau was best known for starring in many films which included Charade (1963), The Odd Couple (1968), Grumpy Old Men (1993), and Dennis the Menace (1993). He often worked with Jack Lemmon and the two were Hollywood's craziest stars.

He was born Walter Jake Matthow in New York City, New York...

Andrew Johnson

19. Rod Steiger

Actor | In the Heat of the Night

Rodney Stephen Steiger was born in Westhampton, New York, to Augusta Amelia (Driver) and Frederick Jacob Steiger, both vaudevillians. He was of German and Austrian ancestry. After his parents' divorce, Steiger was raised by his mother in Newark, New Jersey. He dropped out of Westside High school at...

Ulysses S. Grant

20. Stanley Tucci

Actor | Big Night

Actor Stanley Tucci was born on November 11, 1960, in Peekskill, New York. He is the son of Joan (Tropiano), a writer, and Stanley Tucci, an art teacher. His family is Italian-American, with origins in Calabria.

Tucci took an interest in acting while in high school, and went on to attend the State ...

Rutherford B. Hayes

21. Robert Wagner

Actor | The Towering Inferno

R.J. Wagner was born 1930 in Detroit, the son of a steel executive. His family moved to L.A. when he was six. Always wanting to be an actor, he held a variety of jobs (including one as a golf caddy for Clark Gable) while pursuing his goal, but it was while dining with his parents at a Beverly Hills...

James A. Garfield

22. Larry Gates

Actor | Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Larry Gates spent much of his early career waiting for that "big break." That Big Break finally came when he was cast in the 1956 Broadway comedy 'Bell Book and Candle' opposite Rex Harrison and Lili Palmer. Already middle aged, the role was the first in a long line of character roles that Larry ...

Chester A. Arthur

23. E.G. Marshall

Actor | 12 Angry Men

With over 150 Film and TV appearances to his credit, E. G. Marshall was arguably most well known as the imperturbable Juror No. 4 in the Sidney Lumet legal drama 12 Angry Men (1957).

Some of his stand-out performances are in Creepshow (1982), Christmas Vacation (1989), and Nixon (1995).

Marshall ...

Grover Cleveland

24. John Goodman

Actor | 10 Cloverfield Lane

John Stephen Goodman's an American film, TV & stage actor. He was born in Affton, Missouri to Virginia Roos (Loosmore), a waitress and saleswoman & Leslie Francis Goodman, a postal worker who died when he was a small child. He's of English, Welsh & German ancestry. He's best known for his role as ...

Benjamin Harrison

25. John Carradine

Actor | The Grapes of Wrath

John Carradine, the son of a reporter/artist and a surgeon, grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York. He attended Christ Church School and Graphic Art School, studying sculpture, and afterward roamed the South selling sketches. He made his acting debut in "Camille" in a New Orleans theatre in 1925. ...

William McKinley

26. Edward G. Robinson

Actor | Double Indemnity

Emanuel Goldenberg arrived in the United States from Romania at age ten, and his family moved into New York's Lower East Side. He took up acting while attending City College, abandoning plans to become a rabbi or lawyer. The American Academy of Dramatic Arts awarded him a scholarship, and he began ...

Theodore Roosevelt

27. Victor Buono

Actor | What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Larger than life, Laughtonesque, and with an eloquent, king-sized appetite for maniacal merriment, a good portion of the work of actor Victor Buono was squandered on hokey villainy on both film and television. Ostensibly perceived as bizarre or demented, seldom did Hollywood give this cultivated ...

William Howard Taft

28. Robert Vaughn

Actor | The Magnificent Seven

Robert Francis Vaughn was born on November 22, 1932 at Charity Hospital in New York City, the son of show business parents, Marcella Frances (Gaudel) and Gerald Walter Vaughn. His father was a radio actor and his mother starred on stage. Robert came to the public's attention first with his ...

Woodrow Wilson

29. George Kennedy

Actor | Cool Hand Luke

George Harris Kennedy, Jr. was born on February 18, 1925 in New York City, to Helen (Kieselbach), a ballet dancer, and George Harris Kennedy, an orchestra leader and musician. Following high school graduation, Kennedy enlisted in the United States Army in 1943 with the hope to become a fighter ...

Warren G. Harding

30. Bruce McGill

Actor | Law Abiding Citizen

Bruce McGill grew up in San Antonio, Texas. His mother, Adriel Rose (Jacobs) is an artist, and his father, Woodrow Wilson McGill, is a real estate and insurance agent. He graduated from Douglas MacArthur High School San Antonio, where he acted in the department of theatre, and from The University ...

Calvin Coolidge

31. Ned Beatty

Actor | Network

Stocky, genial-looking supporting actor Ned Beatty was once hailed by Daily Variety as the "busiest actor in Hollywood."

Ned Thomas Beatty was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Margaret (Fortney) and Charles William Beatty. He grew up fishing and working on farms. His hometown of St. Matthews, ...

Herbert Hoover

32. Christopher Plummer

Actor | Beginners

Legendary actor Christopher Plummer, perhaps Canada's greatest thespian, delivered outstanding performances as Sherlock Holmes in Murder by Decree (1979), the chilling villain in The Silent Partner (1978), the iconoclastic Mike Wallace in The Insider (1999), the empathetic psychiatrist in A ...

Franklin D. Roosevelt

33. Harry Morgan

Actor | M*A*S*H

Harry Morgan was a prolific character actor who starred in over 100 films and was a stage performer. Known to a younger generation of fans as "Col. Sherman T. Potter" on M*A*S*H (1972). Also known for his commanding personality throughout his career, he tackled movies and television in a way no ...

Harry S. Truman

34. Robert Duvall

Actor | The Apostle

Veteran actor and director Robert Selden Duvall was born on January 5, 1931, in San Diego, CA, to Mildred Virginia (Hart), an amateur actress, and William Howard Duvall, a career military officer who later became an admiral. Duvall majored in drama at Principia College (Elsah, IL), then served a ...

Dwight D. Eisenhower

35. Martin Sheen

Actor | The Departed

Multiple Emmy- and Golden Globe-winner Martin Sheen is one of America's most celebrated, colorful, and accomplished actors. Moving flawlessly between artistic mediums, Sheen's acting range is striking.

Sheen was born Ramón Antonio Gerard Estevez in Dayton, Ohio, to Mary-Ann (Phelan), an Irish ...

John F. Kennedy

36. Michael Gambon

Actor | Gosford Park

Sir Michael Gambon was born in Cabra, Dublin, Ireland, to Mary (Hoare), a seamstress, and Edward Gambon, an engineer. After joining the National Theatre, under the Artistic Directorship of Sir Laurence Olivier, Gambon went on to appear in a number of leading roles in plays written by Alan Ayckbourn...

Lyndon B. Johnson

37. Philip Baker Hall

Actor | Magnolia

Philip Baker Hall was born in Toledo, Ohio, to Berdene (McDonald) and William Alexander Hall, a factory worker who was originally from Montgomery, Alabama. He did not start acting until he was 30 years old. Known to film fans for his turn as Richard Nixon in Robert Altman's one-man show film Secret...

Richard Nixon

38. Josef Sommer

Actor | Dirty Harry

Josef Sommer is a classically trained stage actor who has also been a prolific performer in films. He made his debut at the age of nine in a production of "Watch on the Rhine" with the Carolina Playmakers in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He trained as an actor at the American Shakespeare Festival in...

Gerald Ford

39. George Grizzard

Actor | Flags of Our Fathers

In retrospect, he was considered an actor's actor to be sure. Renowned theater performer George Grizzard would make his biggest impact under the Tony-winning Broadway lights in a career spanning over five decades. Born an only child on April 1, 1928, in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, George Cooper...

Jimmy Carter

40. Fred Ward

Actor | Short Cuts

A marvelous character actor with intense eyes, a sly grin and somewhat grizzled appearance, Golden Globe-winner Fred Ward had nearly 90 appearances under his belt in many tremendous films and television programs. He first became interested in acting after serving three years in the US Air Force and...

Ronald Reagan

41. James Cromwell

Actor | L.A. Confidential

Born in Los Angeles but raised in Manhattan and educated at Middlebury College and Carnegie-Mellon University, James Cromwell is the son of film director John Cromwell and actress Kay Johnson. He studied acting at Carnegie-Mellon, and went into the theatre (like his parents) doing everything from ...

George H. W. Bush

42. Dennis Quaid

Actor | Far from Heaven

Dennis William Quaid was born on April 9, 1954 in Houston, Texas to Juanita Bonniedale "Nita" Quaid (née Jordan), a real estate agent & William Rudy Quaid, an electrician. He grew up in the Houston suburban city of Bellaire. He was raised a Baptist, and studied drama, Mandarin Chinese, and dance ...

Bill Clinton

43. Timothy Bottoms

Actor | The Last Picture Show

From a talented acting generation of four brothers, Timothy Bottoms was the closest to achieving out-and-out super-stardom in the 1970s. The eldest of four siblings, he was followed in birth by Joseph Bottoms, Sam Bottoms and Ben Bottoms.

All four boys were born and raised in Santa Barbara, ...

George W. Bush

44. Orlando Eric Street

Actor | Good Samaritan

Orlando Eric Street was born, Eric Darrell Street II, in Chicago, Illinois.

Orlando is the second of four siblings and only boy. Orlando lived in Chicago until the age 12. His father, Eric Street, Sr. decided to move the family to Louisiana in 1982 to keep his children off the streets and out of ...

Barack Obama

45. Phil Hartman

Actor | NewsRadio

Phil Hartman was born Philip Edward Hartmann on September 24, 1948, in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. His surname was originally "Hartmann", but he later dropped the second "n". He was one of eight children of Doris Marguerite (Wardell) and Rupert Loebig Hartmann, a salesman. He was of German, Irish, ...

Donald Trump



Recently Viewed