HEADS OF STATE

Veteran actor Morgan Freeman plays the president of the United States in Angel Has Fallen (in theaters Aug. 23), the latest in the government-in-crisis flicks that started with Olympus

Has Fallen and continued with London Has Fallen. “He’s an honorable, courageous man,” Freeman, 82, says of his character. “But he’s not really based on any historical president.” Here are some more of our favorite movie and TV chiefs of state.

Sam Rockwell, Vice (2018): He wore a prosthetic nose and mouthpiece to portray President George W. Bush opposite Christian Bale as Dick Cheney.

Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln (2012) The British actor won an Oscar—his third—for playing our 16th president in this Steven Spielberg drama that centered on the Civil War. James Brolin, The Reagans (2003) The Republican party threatened a network boycott over this depiction of our 40th president (Brolin), which was also disavowed by many of Reagan’s family and associates.

Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon (2008) Ron Howard directed the movie re-creation of the classic sit-down interviews between the former president (Langella) and British talk-show host David Frost (Michael Sheen) Gregory Peck, The Blue and the Gray (1982) An artist/correspondent (Stacy Keach) sees America simmering just before the Civil War erupts in this miniseries, and one of the people he meets is Abraham Lincoln (Peck).

Alec Baldwin, Saturday Night Live (2016-2019) The prolific actor was nominated for a 2018 Emmy for his satirical portrayal of President Donald Trump on SNL (but lost to Henry Winkler on Barry).