John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), commonly known as "Jack" or by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from January 1961 until he was assassinated in November 1963.

After military service as commander of Motor Torpedo Boats PT-109 and PT-59 during World War II in the South Pacific, Kennedy represented Massachusetts' 11th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953 as a Democrat. Thereafter, he served in the U.S. Senate from 1953 until 1960. Kennedy defeated Vice President and Republican candidate Richard Nixon in the 1960 U.S. presidential election. At age 43, he was the youngest to have been elected to the office, the second-youngest president (after Theodore Roosevelt), the first person born in the 20th century to serve as president, and was the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize.

Events during his presidency included the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Space Race—by initiating Project Apollo (which would culminate in the moon landing), the building of the Berlin Wall, the African-American Civil Rights Movement, and early stages of the Vietnam War.

Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was accused of the crime and arrested that evening, but Jack Ruby shot and killed him two days later, before a trial could take place. The FBI and the Warren Commission officially concluded that Oswald was the lone assassin. However, the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) concluded that those investigations were flawed and that Kennedy was probably assassinated as the result of a conspiracy. (Wikipedia)

Cliff Robertson was the first actor to play John Kennedy on film, PT 109 (1963) recounts Kennedy's war time experiences. Directed by Leslie H. Martinson and also starring Ty Hardin, Robert Culp and James Gregory. 140mins.

The Missiles of October (1974) starred William Devane as John Kennedy and was directed by Anthony Page.  The film centered on the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. Martin Sheen co-starred as Robert Kennedy.150mins.

James Franciscus played the president in the TV movie Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (1981) directed by Steve Gethers. 'Charlie's Angel' Jaclyn Smith received a Golden Globe nomination as Jackie Kennedy.150mins.

Kennedy (1983) was an acclaimed 5-hour TV mini-series starring Martin Sheen as JFK and Blair Brown as Jackie, directed by Jim Goddard. Sheen won a BAFTA TV award for Best Actor. 282mins.

Stephen Collins and Roma Downey as John and Jackie Kennedy in the TV mini-series A Woman Named Jackie (1991). Directed by Larry Peerce and also starring William Devane, Joss Ackland as Aristotle Onassis and Sarah Michelle Gellar as Teenage Jacqueline Bouvier. 246mins.

Oliver Stone's JFK (1991) details the actions of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (played by Kevin Costner), who takes it upon himself to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, in 1963. Also starring Tommy Lee Jones, Joe Pesci, Kevin Bacon and Gary Oldman as Lee Harvey Oswald. JFK won Oscars for Editing and Cinematography and was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director (Oliver Stone) and Best Supporting Actor (Tommy Lee Jones). 189mins (206mins Dir.Cut)

JFK: Reckless Youth  (1993) a TV movie starring Patrick Dempsey as young John Kennedy, directed by Harry Winer and also starring Terry Kinney, Loren Dean and Claire Forlani. 183mins.

Tom Hanks in his Oscar-Winning role as Forrest Gump (1994) meets JFK thanks to some clever movie magic, Gump also encounters Richard Nixon. Directed by Robert Zemeckis. 142mins.

William Peterson appeared as John Kennedy in the TV movie The Rat Pack (1998) directed by Rob Cohen and starring Ray Liotta as Frank Sinatra, Joe Mantegna as Dean Martin and Don Cheadle as Sammy Davis Jr. 120mins.

Tim Matheson as JFK and Joanne Whalley as Jackie in the TV movie Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (2000) directed by David Burton Morris and also starring Tom Skerritt and Philip Baker Hall as Aristotle Onassis. 95mins.

The Cuban Missile Crisis gets reenacted again in Thirteen Days (2000) directed by Roger Donaldson and starring Kevin Costner, Bruce Greenwood as John Kennedy and Steven Culp as Robert Kennedy. Culp had played RFK before in the TV movie Norma Jean & Marilyn (1996). 145mins.

Watchmen (2009) based on the critically acclaimed graphic novel by Alan Moore and directed by Zack Snyder. Set in an alternate timeline, Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup) shakes hands with President Kennedy (Brett Stimely).162mins (186mins Dir.Cut)

The Kennedys (2011) an 8-part Emmy-award winning mini-series starring Greg Kinnear as JFK, Barry Pepper as RFK and Katie Holmes as Jackie Kennedy.

Brett Stimely's second turn as President Kennedy in Michael Bay's Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011) starring Shia LaBeouf , Rosie Huntingdon-Whiteley and John Turturro. Brett Stimely would play JFK in two more films, Kill the Dictator (2013) and Parkland (2013). 154mins.

James Marsden as John F. Kennedy in Lee Daniels' The Butler (2013) starring Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, Mariah Carey and Terrence Howard.  Matthew McConaughey was cast as JFK but had to drop out. 132mins.

Killing Kennedy (2013) TV movie directed by Nelson McCormick and starring Rob Lowe as JFK. Based on the book by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard about the 1963 Kennedy assassination and it's aftermath. Also starring Ginnifer Goodwin as Jackie Kennedy, Jack Noseworthy as Bobby Kennedy and Will Rothhaar as Lee Harvey Oswald.

King Henry V

Henry V (1386 – 1422) was King of England from 1413 until his death at the age of 35 in 1422. He was the second English monarch who came from the House of Lancaster.

After military experience fighting various lords who rebelled against his father, Henry IV, Henry came into political conflict with the increasingly ill king. After his father's death, Henry rapidly assumed control of the country and embarked on war with France in the ongoing Hundred Years' War (1337 to 1453) between the two nations.

His military successes culminated in his famous victory at the Battle of Agincourt and saw him come close to conquering France. After months of negotiation with Charles VI of France, the Treaty of Troyes recognized Henry V as regent and heir-apparent to the French throne, and he was subsequently married to Charles's daughter, Catherine of Valois.

Following Henry V's sudden and unexpected death in France, he was succeeded by his infant son, who reigned as Henry VI.

Henry features in three plays by William Shakespeare. He is shown as a young scapegrace who redeems himself in battle in the two Henry IV plays and as a decisive leader in Henry V. (Wikipedia)

King Henry: "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead."

Henry V (1944) Directed by and starring Laurence Olivier, based on William Shakespeare's play, one of Olivier's most famous roles. Also starring Leslie Banks, Leo Genn and Robert Newton. A popular big screen epic intended to boost morale during WWII, the film was partly funded by the British government It was the most expensive British production at the time, costing $2m.

Robert Hardy as Henry in the TV series "An Age of Kings" (1960) a 2-part segment titled Henry V Part.1 - Signs of War and Henry V Part 2 - Band of Brothers.

Douglas Rain as the king in the made for TV movie Henry V (1966). Rain's most famous role is as the voice of HAL 9000 in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

King Henry: "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers."

Kenneth Branagh as Henry V (1989) and also his directorial debut, he was 28. The film cost $9m to produce and was critically acclaimed. Also starring Derek Jacobi, Brian Blessed, Christian Bale, Ian Holm and Emma Thompson. Nominated for 3 Oscars including Best Director and Best Actor (Branagh), winning for Best Costume Design.

Tom Hiddleston as Henry V in the TV mini-series "The Hollow Crown" (2012), also starring Jeremy Irons as Henry IV. Based on the Shakespeare plays - Richard II, Henry IV p.1-p.2 and Henry V. 520mins.

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the Nazi Party. He was chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and dictator of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. Hitler was at the centre of Nazi Germany, World War II in Europe, and the Holocaust.

In 1923, he attempted a coup d'état in Munich, known as the Beer Hall Putsch. The failed coup resulted in Hitler's imprisonment, during which time he wrote his memoir, Mein Kampf (My Struggle). After his release in 1924, Hitler gained popular support by attacking the Treaty of Versailles and promoting Pan-Germanism, antisemitism, and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and Nazi propaganda. After his appointment as chancellor in 1933, he transformed the Weimar Republic into the Third Reich, a single-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideology of Nazism.

Hitler's aim was to establish a New Order of absolute Nazi German hegemony in continental Europe. To this end, his foreign and domestic policies had the aim of seizing Lebensraum ("living space") for the Germanic people. He directed the rearmament of Germany and the invasion of Poland by the Wehrmacht in September 1939, resulting in the outbreak of World War II in Europe. Under Hitler's rule, in 1941 German forces and their European allies occupied most of Europe and North Africa. In 1943, Germany was forced onto the defensive and suffered a series of escalating defeats. In the final days of the war, during the Battle of Berlin in 1945, Hitler married his long-time partner, Eva Braun. On 30 April 1945, less than two days later, the two committed suicide to avoid capture by the Red Army, and their corpses were burned. (Wikipedia)

Charlie Chaplin as Adenoid Hynkel, a thinly veiled satirical portrait of Adolf Hitler in the classic comedy The Great Dictator (1940). The film also starred Paulette Goddard and was nominated for 5 Oscars including Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Actor (Chaplin).

Citizen Kane (1941) was probably the first Hollywood film to feature an actor playing Adolf Hitler, Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane appearing briefly with Hitler, played by Carl Ekberg, in the opening "News on the March" segment.

Carl Ekberg again playing Hitler in the thriller Man Hunt (1941) directed by Fritz Lang and starring Walter Pidgeon, Joan Bennett and George Sanders.

Tom Dugan impersonating Der Fuhrer in the classic comedy To Be or Not To Be (1942) directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Carole Lombard, Jack Benny and Robert Stack.

Hitler makes an appearance in Walt Disney's animated short Reason and Emotion (1943) which received an Oscar nomination for Best Cartoon Short.

James Mason as Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and Luther Adler as Adolf Hitler in The Desert Fox (1951) directed by Henry Hathaway and also starring Jessica Tandy and Cedric Hardwicke.

Richard Basehart as Adolf in the drama Hitler! (1962) directed by Stuart Heisler.

Rolf Stiefel as the Fuhrer in the WWII epic Battle of Britain (1969) directed by Guy Hamilton and featuring an all-star cast.

The great Alec Guinness in one of his most acclaimed roles, Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973) directed by Ennio De Concini and also starring Simon Ward and Diane Cilento.

Frank Finlay in the TV movie The Death of Adolf Hitler (1973) directed by Rex Firkin.

The Bunker (1981) a TV movie directed by George Schaefer and starring Anthony Hopkins as Adolf, also starring Richard Jordan and Piper Laurie. Hopkins won an Emmy for his performance. 150mins.

"All I want is peace. Peace! Peace! A little piece of Poland, a little piece of France..." Mel Brooks impersonating Hitler in To Be or Not To Be (1983) a remake of the 1942 film of the same name. The comedy was directed by Alan Johnson and also starred Anne Bancroft, Christopher Lloyd, Charles Durning and Jose Ferrer.

Steven Berkoff as Adolf in the epic 12-part mini-series War and Remembrance (1988) directed by Dan Curtis and starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Seymour.

Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones disguised as a Nazi bumps into Hitler, played by Michael Sheard, in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). Directed by Steven Spielberg and also starring Sean Connery (as Indy's father), Denholm Elliott, John Rhys-Davies and Alison Doody.

Hitler: The Rise of Evil (2003) a TV movie directed by Christian Duguay and starring Robert Carlyle as Hitler, with Stockard Channing, Matthew Modine and Liev Schreiber.

Bruno Ganz as Hitler in the critically acclaimed German film, Downfall (2004) directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel and also starring Alexandra Maria Lara. Oscar nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.

"Nein! Nein! Nein!" Martin Wuttke as an irate Hitler in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (2009) which stars Brad Pitt, Melanie Laurent and Christoph Waltz who received an Oscar Award for Best Supporting Actor. The film was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay.