Movie and TV Presidents: William Devane as JFK
We are nearing the birthday of one of the most popular US Presidents, when it comes to movie and TV portrayals: JFK. A number of actors have played the part of John Fitzgerald Kennedy from Martin Sheen, Bruce Greenwood, Greg Kinnear, Cliff Robertson, Cliff DeYoung, Mike Farrell, Art Hindle, Steven Weber, William Peterson, Tim Matheson, Bruce Campbell, James Marsden, Rob Lowe, and Martin Donovan, to name a few. (It feels like I've left some of the more prominent ones out.)
One of the most classic JFK films is the 1974 ABC-TV movie The Missiles of October. The film was a made-for-television play about the Cuban missile crisis. Actor William Devane starred as President Kennedy and Martin Sheen was Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. The script is based on Robert Kennedy's book Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Staged as a two and a half hour television play, the production was not concerned about physical action or detailed sets and wardrobes, in favor of emphasis on dialogue and emotions. It seeks to show how the world came close to the brink of global thermonuclear war, highlighting the roles of President John F Kennedy, Attorney General Robert F Kennedy, Premier Nikita Khrushchev, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson, and former Secretary of State Dean Acheson in the crisis.
Other cast members included Ralph Bellamy as Adlai Stevenson, the brilliant Howard Da Silva as Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, James Hong as U.N. Secretary-General U Thant, Michael Lerner as White House Press Secretary Pierre Salinger, Clifford David as Theodore Sorensen (Special Counsel to the President), John Dehner as former US Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Nehemiah Persoff as Soviet Foreign Secretary Andrei Gromyko, Albert Paulsen as Soviet Ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Dobrynin, Dana Elcar as Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and Larry Gates as Secretary of State Dean Rusk.
The Missiles of October sought to show the public a look behind the scenes at the inner workings, disagreements, and ultimate consensus of Kennedy's administration to blockade Cuba, rather than attempt to invade it in order to remove the recently-discovered, only partially completed Soviet nuclear missile emplacements in Cuba. It details US attempts to give the Soviets room to negotiate without appearing to capitulate, and also periodically depicts Khrushchev reporting progress of the events to his Communist Party cohorts.
The film's technical Director Ernie Buttelman won the 1975 Emmy Award for outstanding achievement. There were several other Emmy nominations, including outstanding drama or comedy special, outstanding supporting actor in a comedy or drama special (for Ralph Belamy) and outstanding writing in an original teleplay for Stanley Greenberg.
The entire film can be found on YouTube here, but here is a trailer:
One of the most classic JFK films is the 1974 ABC-TV movie The Missiles of October. The film was a made-for-television play about the Cuban missile crisis. Actor William Devane starred as President Kennedy and Martin Sheen was Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. The script is based on Robert Kennedy's book Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Staged as a two and a half hour television play, the production was not concerned about physical action or detailed sets and wardrobes, in favor of emphasis on dialogue and emotions. It seeks to show how the world came close to the brink of global thermonuclear war, highlighting the roles of President John F Kennedy, Attorney General Robert F Kennedy, Premier Nikita Khrushchev, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson, and former Secretary of State Dean Acheson in the crisis.
Other cast members included Ralph Bellamy as Adlai Stevenson, the brilliant Howard Da Silva as Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, James Hong as U.N. Secretary-General U Thant, Michael Lerner as White House Press Secretary Pierre Salinger, Clifford David as Theodore Sorensen (Special Counsel to the President), John Dehner as former US Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Nehemiah Persoff as Soviet Foreign Secretary Andrei Gromyko, Albert Paulsen as Soviet Ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Dobrynin, Dana Elcar as Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and Larry Gates as Secretary of State Dean Rusk.
The Missiles of October sought to show the public a look behind the scenes at the inner workings, disagreements, and ultimate consensus of Kennedy's administration to blockade Cuba, rather than attempt to invade it in order to remove the recently-discovered, only partially completed Soviet nuclear missile emplacements in Cuba. It details US attempts to give the Soviets room to negotiate without appearing to capitulate, and also periodically depicts Khrushchev reporting progress of the events to his Communist Party cohorts.
The film's technical Director Ernie Buttelman won the 1975 Emmy Award for outstanding achievement. There were several other Emmy nominations, including outstanding drama or comedy special, outstanding supporting actor in a comedy or drama special (for Ralph Belamy) and outstanding writing in an original teleplay for Stanley Greenberg.
The entire film can be found on YouTube here, but here is a trailer:
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