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Films

Presidents

on Screen

In Hollywood movies, actors have

played Presidents, some real, some
fictional, with varying degrees of
success, writes Deepa Gahlot

After the re-election of Donald Trump as Image courtesy: www.rogerebert.com
President of the United States of America,
he has been constantly in the headlines,
cartoon strips of memes. Unlike past
President Ronald Reagan, Trump is not
an actor (though has made screen and man is out on an adulterous assignation.
TV appearances), but he stirs up enough But Mitchell has a stroke while he is
drama. In Hollywood movies, actors at it, and Dave is stuck in the role, and
have played Presidents, some real, some caught up in internal intrigues. But, he
fictional, with varying degrees of success. complicates his life by falling in love with
A pick of just ten films out of the hundred the First Lady (Sigourney Weaver).
with a US President in the lead:
Dave (1993): The American President (1995):
In Ivan Reitman’s comedy, Kevin Kline Michael Douglas played a recently
plays Dave, the lookalike of a fictional widowed president, in Rob Reiner’s film,
President, Bill Mitchell, who is hired by the who falls in love with a political activist,
Secret Service as a stand-in, while the real before he is due for re-election, and that

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