Celebrate Honest Abe’s Birthday with a look at who have portrayed him in film and TV dating back to D. W. Griffith’s « The Birth of a Nation »
« Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt. » That Abraham Lincoln quote sums up the quiet, thoughtful dignity that actors have tried to portray on film for several generations now. And on screen, the 16th president has done everything from meeting Shirley Temple to fighting vampires. In honor of President’s Day, here are some of the actors who have played Honest Abe over the years.
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Joseph Henabery – « The Birth of a Nation » (1915)
The racism in « The Birth of a Nation » aside, D. W. Griffith stages the assassination of Abraham Lincoln as a true national tragedy, and he does so in ravishing display, staging a scene everyone already knows but hadn’t yet visualized on film, using never before seen intercutting and sweeping wide shots as John Wilkes Booth dives from the balcony to provide ravishing tension and action.
Walter Huston – « Abraham Lincoln » (1930)
D. W. Griffith would revisit the Lincoln legend in 1930 with « Abraham Lincoln, » which more closely follows the life of the president and culminates in his death. The film somewhat atoned for the other sins of « The Birth of a Nation, » and it was celebrated in its day. But it has been looked at less fondly in recent years for its historical inaccuracies. Walter Huston also portrayed Lincoln in a 1929 short film called « Two Americans, » about Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant.
20th Century Fox
Frank McGlynn Sr. – « The Littlest Rebel » (1935)
In « The Littlest Rebel, » Shirley Temple plays the daughter of a Confederate soldier during the Civil War. When he’s captured, Temple and Bojangles make a plea for his freedom directly to President Lincoln, with Lincoln sitting her right on the desk of the Oval Office. Lincoln doesn’t tap dance or anything here, but Franks McGlynn’s take on Lincoln certainly does love apples.
