Too Much Johnson: 13 Actors Who Have Played LBJ

travsd

Aug 27

I remember the exact moment I learned of the existence of Lyndon Johnson (1908-1973). I was about 7 years old and thumbing through one of those "books of Presidents" we had (we had several) for a school report and his was the penultimate name, followed by Richard M. Nixon (1969-). The end date was not listed for Nixon because he was still in office, this being around 1972. And I was startled to come across this name I had not heard before. Whereas I had certainly heard of Kennedy, Eisenhower, Truman, both Roosevelts etc. The reason I hadn't heard of Johnson wasn't sinister. It's just that he had left office when I was too young to remember him, and he hadn't yet become "history" of the sort you learn about in school.

In an alternate timeline, perhaps a better one, I might have known Johnson's name because he had run for that second full term, won, and served until the end of 1972. And the manner in which that might have occurred (in this alternate history) is that there'd have been no Vietnam War. Vietnam didn't just tarnish Johnson's legacy, as it's often put, it undid a lot of it. Obviously, if we're giving full vent to fantasy there'd have been no LBJ Presidency to begin with, since his predecessor wouldn't have been assassinated. JFK would have brought back those 1,000 advisers. No Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, no escalation. Here's another one: on the very day I was born (November 8, 1965) Johnson went under the knife for a gall bladder and kidney stone removal. Maybe the operation doesn't go so well and Hubert Humphrey, who, a few months earlier, had sent Johnson a memo arguing strongly against escalation, becomes President. And, again, no war.

Johnson was above all a political creature; he seems to have calculated that it was necessary to counter charges of Socialism aimed at his Great Society programs by demonstrating that he was aggressively countering the expansion of Communism abroad. If he'd succeeded, he'd be a hero, a Cold War FDR. Instead, he nearly destroyed the country. And now, even his most popular domestic achievements are under threat. So he is a tragic figure, if you choose to look at him that way. I've always been more inclined to see someone who can wreak death and destruction on such a massive scale for political advantage as an outright villain rather than a thwarted idealist. Someone else might well have enacted that same domestic agenda (it needed doing) without any war. Indeed, as Senate Majority Leader, he could have played the same arm-twisting role in passing those Civil Rights Bills. The fact that it can be argued makes Johnson a rich and complex figure to depict dramatically, as does another aspect we haven't yet touched on: he had the personality of a buffoon. Consequently, he became the first American President in modern history to widely and opening ridiculed in pop culture, by comedians, singers, and so forth, setting a precedent that never really went away.

An early reference to that aspect of his personality is the 1967 episode of The Monkees entitled "Monkey Mayor", in which Mike Nesmith, himself a Long, Tall Texan, references Johnson's remark, "Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There's nothing to do but to stand there and take it."

So, there are basically three "takes" that screenwriters and actors can and do bring to their portrayals of LBJ: 1) Villain, 2) Tragic Hero, and 3) Fool. And some of the better ones seem to work all three in. 13 being the most unlucky of numbers, here's that many actors who've portrayed that unlucky President.

Donald Moffat The Right Stuff (1983)

Moffat is straight-up hilarious as Johnson, the comic relief in Philip Kaufman's film of Tom Wolfe's book about the early years of the Space Race. It's a really interesting take -- for Johnson the Vice President was a pure figure of fun to a lot of people, none more so than those in the Kennedy Administration. The film looks at Johnson purely through those eyes, as though his upcoming Presidency with all its highs and lows never existed.

Randy Quaid, LBJ: The Early Years (1987)

There's something so RIGHT about Quaid as Johnson, maybe the most appropriate actor to ever play him. Quaid is the man whom the phrase "shit eating grin" was invented to describe. Big, cheerful, loud, forceful Texan. Comes off as a rube, but actually possesses a diabolical intelligence and a ruthless ambition. Quaid was nominated for an Emmy for this performance. It's nice to remember the times before he went off his rocker.

Tom Howard, JFK (1991)

I couldn't find a picture of the pro wrestler/actor as LBJ in the film, and he's only in the briefest of scenes, but well do I recall him uttering what to me was one of the most memorable lines in the movie, I found it so daringly outrageous, "You just get me elected and I'll give you your damn war." Oliver Stone has made a mini-industry out of implying (and even saying) that LBJ killed JFK. As we approach the 60th anniversary of the assassination, with 99 percent of the related government records having been released thus far, the emerging truth seems to be quite different, but about as damning: that the Secret Service, The FBI and the CIA were all simply deficient in their duties in their protection of the President in light of several known or suspected threats. It's not unlike the results of the 9/11 Commission: incompetence, as opposed to malevolence. (or, if you prefer in the case of JFK -- passive rather than action malefaction).

James Cromwell, RFK (2002)

Linus Roche of Law and Order played Bobby; he and Johnson were of course rivals and political enemies so the movie looks at LBJ through that lens. James Cromwell is a brilliant actor, but at 6'7" he's perhaps the only actor who was too TALL to play the 6'4" Johnson.

Michael Gambon, Path to War (2003)

This was John Frankenheimer's final film (actually a TV movie for HBO) and was critically well received. Among the 13, Gambon is probably the maximum example of the actor being unlike the character he is playing, and not expending a lot of energy closing the gap, just playing his motivations. The result is far more satisfying than a lot of the nonsense that follows.

Liev Schreiber, The Butler (2013)

On the one hand, I like the resonance of the star of The Manchurian Candidate remake in this film. On the other hand, The Butler is a completely preposterous movie, and Shreiber's performance is no exception.

Tom Wilkinson, Selma (2014)

I am generally of the opinion that Tom Wilkinson can do no wrong, and in Selma he wisely steers a middle ground in transforming himself, doing just enough to convey the character's Southern origins without becoming Foghorn Leghorn. Naturally his role in this story is to drag his feet on Civil Rights until Martin Luther King (David Oyelowo) -- and events of the day -- finally get through to him.

Bryan Cranston, All the Way (2014-2016)

Thanks to this Broadway triumph, later filmed for television, Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) now appears to own the role of LBJ much the same way Ed Flanders owned Harry Truman, James Whitmore owned Will Rogers, and Hal Holbrook owned Mark Twain.

John Carroll Lynch, Jackie (2016)

The ubiquitous Lynch is a terrific actor, and he has that great American face -- but somehow he seemed miscast in this film to me.

Woody Harrelson, LBJ (2017)

I laughed uproariously all the way through this movie. I referred to it just a couple of days ago in comparison to Bradley Cooper's fake nose in Maestro, and it is indeed the portrayal that gave me the idea for this post because by this point it seemed like there was some kind of land rush on to play the character, and a few too many of them involved silly Halloween costumes. Woody was actually born in Midland Texas but left as a child and now has an unmistakable and I guess unshakeable midwestern accent. So in addition to his weird make-up he does a lousy "Texas" in spite of having been born there. This on top of Rob Reiner's ridiculously hagiographic slant. Is it too strong to call it "junk"? It comes pretty close to being junk.

Clancy Brown, The Crown (2019)

I've loved Clancy Brown ever since Carnivale, but he's kind of wrong for this role, which he attempted to play using the steam roller approach in a guest starring turn in one episode.

Brian Cox, The Great Society (2019)

Haha, if his fellow Succession cast member James Cromwell is too tall for LBJ, at 5'9", Brian Cox is 7 inches too short. This play ran on Broadway in 2019. It was playwright Robert Schenkkan's sequel to All the Way.

Hap Lawrence, LBJ: Triumph and Tragedy (2022) and Oppenheimer (2023)

See, how timely and up to the minute we are? Apparently based on his re-enactment performances in the documentary mini series LBJ: Triumph and Tragedy, actor Hap Laurence, normally a bit player, was cast as LBJ for a short scene in the contemporary hit Oppenheimer.