Best and worst portrayals of well known people on film

[lackedpunch]

I've just been watching the first half hour of the "Hitchcock" feature film with Anthony Hopkins as Hitch. It so far seems an interesting and well made film, but I'm finding Hopkins as Hitch quite mirthsome. He pushes his lips out in a very strange way and he sounds like Hannibal Lecter doing a Michael Caine impersonation. It's breaking the spell.

I can't say for sure that it's an inaccurate depiction, as I've only seen a few short snippets of Hitchcock.

But it's got me thinking - what have been the most compelling and the crappest portrayals of well known people on film?

[Satchmo Distel]

Worst - Bob Hoskins as Hoover, whoever played John Lydon in Sid and Nancy

Best - I liked Claire Foy as Ann Boleyn even more than as QE2.

[Sits]

Seconded with Foy, and Damien Lewis did well as 'enery the Eighth considering he's completely the wrong shape and size.

[Lang Spoon]

I’m shocked, shocked at the suggestion of ham around the person of Hopkins.

[Stumpy Pepys]

[elguapo4]

Alan Rickman was very good as De Valera in MICHAEL COLLINS, Anthony Hopkins neither looked or sounded like Nixon in the titular film

[Various Artist]

That wasn't the point, though, was it? From all I've heard Hopkins' intent was never to impersonate Nixon but instead convey something of the man through his actings. I've never seen the film so I can't comment any further, of course.

[Various Artist]

Seconded with Foy, and Damien Lewis did well as 'enery the Eighth considering he's completely the wrong shape and size.

He absolutely nailed the stance, though – it was positively Holbeinesque. That completely turned him into Henry, somehow, as well of course as having the right hair for the part.

Now, take yer Jonathan Rhys Meyers in The Tudors: there you really do have someone who was utterly the wrong size, shape, colouring, accent, everything. It was still a damn fun show, mind.

[Jah Womble]

Michael Sheen was good as Cloughie, but I struggled a bit with Stephen Graham as Billy Bremner in The Damned United.

Totally agree about Andrew Schofield as John Lydon in Sid and Nancy. Wretched film.

[Lang Spoon]

God, I hated that film. The book got under my skin, the film was just silly.

[Snake Plissken]

I've never figured out whether Michael Sheen in Frost/Nixon is a good, bad or accurate portrayal of David Frost.

[Lang Spoon]

Alan Rickman was very good as De Valera in MICHAEL COLLINS, Anthony Hopkins neither looked or sounded like Nixon in the titular film

Rickman is far better at the evil old bastard than Neeson was trying to be from West Cork. He has almost Connery levels of discomfort with accents.

[Lang Spoon]

I've never figured out whether Michael Sheen in Frost/Nixon is a good, bad or accurate portrayal of David Frost.

Both those Sheen films, felt more like an extended impression than acting. Whoever decided the tone of Damned Utd should be lightish and knockabout, fucking classic British Film Industry. There could have been something very interesting had it kept the paranoid tone of the book, instead this neutered thing. of course, it’s the director of the fucking Queen etc isn’t it? Brow resolutely held to the middle. No foreign fancy muck.

[Gerontophile]

Al Pacino as Roy Cohn? He was good, but I don't know how accurate. (Angels In America)

[Felicity, I guess so]

Jim Broadbent as Denis Thatcher. Turned colonial racist into cuddly victim. Spit.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Jim Broadbent as Denis Thatcher. Turned colonial racist into cuddly victim. Spit.

That might have been a worthwhile point had the film been about Denis Thatcher. Except it wasn't.

[Felicity, I guess so]

??? It was a portrayal of a well-known person in a film, no? Please explain.

[ian.64]

I recall a TV drama about the effects of Tony Hancock's alcoholism on his private life, and its chief casting consisted of Ken Stott as Hancock, Maxine Peake as his put-upon wife and Alex Jennings as John Le Mesurier. It was a colossal mess, not least of which was Stott's failure to convey anything resembling Hancock or his persona, while Jennings's Le Mesurier came off as a fey wisp of mumbling apology. Yet it wasn't the fault of the actors as it was a product of the Beeb's penchant of chucking together biopics of famous comedians in a strangely hurried fashion, complete with perfunctory production values and - in this case - lame casting. As excellent a calibre of actors the Hancock effort had at its disposal, Ken Stott convinced as the man himself as Jason Manford would as Gregory Peck in his own biopic.

[Stumpy Pepys]

??? It was a portrayal of a well-known person in a film, no? Please explain.

Serious question--have you actually watched the film?

[Felicity, I guess so]

So you're answering my question with a question?

[Sean of the Shed]

I recall a TV drama about the effects of Tony Hancock's alcoholism on his private life, and its chief casting consisted of Ken Stott as Hancock, Maxine Peake as his put-upon wife and Alex Jennings as John Le Mesurier. It was a colossal mess, not least of which was Stott's failure to convey anything resembling Hancock or his persona, while Jennings's Le Mesurier came off as a fey wisp of mumbling apology. Yet it wasn't the fault of the actors as it was a product of the Beeb's penchant of chucking together biopics of famous comedians in a strangely hurried fashion, complete with perfunctory production values and - in this case - lame casting. As excellent a calibre of actors the Hancock effort had at its disposal, Ken Stott convinced as the man himself as Jason Manford would as Gregory Peck in his own biopic.

I remember that. Much better was The Curse of Steptoe with Phil Davis as Wilfrid Brambell and Jason Isaac as Harry H. Corbett.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Dennis Quaid made a decent Bill Clinton in The Special Relationship. His sugar-coated cynical ruthlessness played well against the ineptitude of Michael Sheen's Tony Blair. It's interesting how some actors, like Sheen, make a living out of this type of gig. Quaid has also done a turn as George W. Bush recently.

[pebblethefish]

I so bought into Morgan Greeman's portrayal of Nelson Mandela inInvictus that when I saw the real thing in a news clip, I thought "Nah, you're doing it wrong, mate"

[blameless]

Courtney B Vance made a spookily good Johnnie Cochran in The People vs O.J.Simpson

Cuba Gooding as OJ in the same show? Ehhhh, not so much.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Seconded with Foy, and Damien Lewis did well as 'enery the Eighth considering he's completely the wrong shape and size.

Damien Lewis is 6'1", and henry VIII was 6'2". jonathan rhys meyers is 5'7"

Measurements taken from his various suits of armour indicate a height of between 6'1" and 6'2". When he was in his 20's he had a 32 inch waist, which is pretty good for someone in his 20's. but his 39 inch chest is small by modern standards. By his late forties he had a 48 inch waist and by the end it was a 52 inch waist, and a 53 inch chest. Why he was getting suits of armour still made at this point is beyond me.