Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its greatest constitutional, military, and moral crisis—the American Civil War—preserving the Union, abolishing slavery, strengthening the national government and modernizing the economy. Reared in a poor family on the western frontier, Lincoln was self-educated, and became a country lawyer, a Whig Party leader, Illinois state legislator during the 1830s, and was elected president in 1860.

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address of 1863 became the most quoted speech in American history. It was an iconic statement of America's dedication to the principles of nationalism, republicanism, equal rights, liberty, and democracy. In 1865, six days after the surrender of Confederate commanding general Robert E. Lee, Lincoln was assassinated by actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln's death was the first assassination of a U.S. president and sent the nation into mourning. Lincoln has been consistently ranked both by scholars and the public as one of the greatest U.S. presidents. [Wikipedia]

 

Joseph Hanebery in The Birth of a Nation (1915) directed by D.W. Griffith. 

 

 Walter Huston as Honest Abe in D.W. Griffith's Abraham Lincoln (1930).

 

 Shirley Temple with Frank McGlynn Sr in The Littlest Rebel (1935) directed by David Butler.  

 

Henry Fonda is Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), directed by John Ford.  

 

Raymond Massey in Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940) directed by John Cromwell. Massey would play Lincoln again in How the West Was Won (1962).

 

The Lincoln Conspiracy (1977) directed by James Conway, starring Bradford Dillman as John Wilkes Booth and John Anderson as Abraham Lincoln. 

 

Robert Barron as Abe Lincoln in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adveture (1989) directed by Stephen Herek and starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter.

Benjamin Walker as Abraham Lincoln - Vampire Hunter (2012) directed by Timur Bekmambetov, also starring Dominic Cooper, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Rufus Sewell.

Daniel Day-Lewis in his Oscar-winning role as Lincoln (2012) directed by Steven Spielberg and also starring Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones.