While many U.S. presidents have been portrayed in movies, only a few have seen much screen time during their presidency. No portrayal drew more attention than Cliff Robertson's of John F. Kennedy in the movie "PT 109," which was released in 1963.
Robertson died Saturday at the age of 88 in Stony Brook, N.Y.
Continue Reading"PT 109," which depicted JFK's combat experiences in World War II, was released in June 1963, only months before his assassination.
Past presidents had long been considered fair game for moviemakers, and other sitting presidents had been peripheral characters in films before — Jack Young is clearly meant to be Franklin Delano Roosevelt in "Yankee Doodle Dandy" — but the idea of treating the president as a matinee idol during his time in the White House was a new one.
Though the film was hardly considered a classic — "The Warner Bros. Story" refers to it as "an arch, ponderous and stiffly formal account of the future president's wartime adventures" — it was a movie with which Robertson would always be identified.
According to The Associated Press, the president liked the idea of Robertson playing him on screen. He did, however, have Robertson change the part in his hair (wrong side) and encourage the California-born actor not to copy his famous Boston accent.
"That was fine with me," Robertson was quoted as saying by The Associated Press. "I think it would have been a mistake for me to say 'Hahvahd' or try to reproduce gestures. Then the audience would have been constantly aware that an actor was impersonating the president."
Robertson would go win an Oscar for best actor for his performance in 1968's "Charly" and was seen in the three "Spider-Man" movies as Peter Parker's doomed uncle Ben. He also portrayed a presidential contender in 1964's "The Best Man." And 35 years after "PT 109," he would go on to portray a fictional U.S. president, a figure seemingly modeled after the Rev. Jerry Falwell, in "Escape from L.A.," a science-fiction thriller.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario