The 10 Best Ronald Reagan Performances, Ranked

As one of the most public and powerful people in the world (at least for four years at a time), the President of the United States will be imitated and impersonated so frequently that trying to earnestly get inside their emotions and mannerisms can be daunting to an actor. After all, everyone in the country will know if you sound authentic or not, and it’s no easy task to inhabit the skin of someone parodied in countless short-form sketches for two sincere hours of drama.

In the case of Reagan, the taxing and tedious biopic of President Ronald Reagan, star Dennis Quaid seems to think that if he keeps up the same tightly-pulled photogenic smile and folksy voice for 135 minutes, audiences will just assume he’s doing a good job. But Reagan was a major President. His conservative capitalist agenda fractured America’s economic stability, his foreign policy changed the face of the planet, he was senile for most of his second term, his administration was riddled with behind-closed-doors scandals…and someone got fairly close to killing him. Loads of actors before Quaid have had a go at honoring and pastiching Reagan’s historic administration. So, we took the time to find 10 of the most compelling and interesting Ronald Reagan performances across film and TV.

(Note: One of the peculiar quirks of a former American president having been a Hollywood actor is that we should clarify this is not a ranking of Ronald Reagan’s best performances, but of instances where other actors played Ronald Reagan as the President.)

10. Richard Crenna, The Day Reagan Was Shot

The problem with judging a Ronald Reagan performance in a film where he’s incapacitated for most of the runtime is, well, there’s not much to go by. At about 30 minutes into this Showtime TV film, Richard Crenna’s Reagan slips into unconsciousness, and Secretary of State Alexander Haig (Richard Dreyfuss) does most of the heavy lifting. There are elements of Reagan’s physicality that Crenna nails—early scenes in the Oval Office just seem to fit—but it’s easy to lose focus and just see the character as A Random Old Man rather than the only sitting president to be injured and subsequently survive an attempt on his life.

9. Jeff Bergman, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

Hey, if this list includes performances from TV, it can honor performances from video games—it’s the least we can do since they’re currently on strike. It’s unlikely that the acclaimed voice artist Jeff Bergman would want us to highlight his brief appearance as President Reagan in this Black Ops prequel, especially as he has the honor of being the first Bugs Bunny replacement after Mel Blanc. It’s a serviceable impression for a completely perfunctory scene to remind you that the game takes place in the past (do Call of Duty players care about presidential cameos?) but it does unintentionally implicate Reagan in the fictional war crimes the player will go on to commit, which is funny.

8. Michael Showalter, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp and Ten Years Later

Undoubtedly the least impressive and accurate comedy impression on this list, but within the absurdist world of the Wet Hot American Summer series, Michael Showalter’s turn as President and then former President Ronald Reagan is perfectly pitched. Other actors really try to sink themselves into the many vocal and facial mannerisms that made Reagan such a memorable figure, but Showalter picks one of each and sticks with it for the whole ride, not letting the numerous inaccuracies get in the way of the real good stuff—battering his aides, scattering handfuls of jelly beans, and pressuring George H. W. Bush to nuke a summer camp.

7. James Brolin, The Reagans

Credit to James Brolin—when this three-hour Showtime TV film came out in 2003, it was the longest any actor had pretended to be Reagan on-screen. Brolin is not a Reagan-head, but was drawn to the compelling drama of this non-partisan biopic, which uses the peak of the Reagan camp’s fear of impeachment as a framing device. The heavy prosthetics are distracting, but Brolin leans on the expressive potential of Reagan’s thick eyebrows and crow’s feet to carry the lengthy but uninteresting film. Five years later, James’ son Josh would go on to play the son of Reagan’s successor, George W. Bush.

6. Dennis Quaid, Reagan

It’s difficult to tell whether Dennis Quaid thought that starring in a Ronald Reagan biopic would make serious people praise his underappreciated dramatic chops, or if it was simply an indulgent pander to the GOP populist crowds who fetishize and revise American political history any way they see fit. It’s possible Quaid doesn’t need any of their validation; this is a man who just released a gospel album titled “Fallen: A Gospel Record for Sinners” and is likely the sole authority on the Dennis Quaid Redemption Tour. For what it’s worth, Reagan is stunningly undramatic, hitting the beats of the actor-turned-president’s tenure with a mix of sincerity and sentiment that would be somewhat admirable in its brazenness were it not for the queasy authoritarian and evangelical slant Reagan’s history is given. Quaid’s performance is so dangerously close to being a disaster—every line is forced through the same rigid few mannerisms—but never quite gets there. His Reagan never feels natural, it lacks the easy charm that won over voters, but Quaid still draws your focus in nearly every scene. If you want to see Quaid play another archetype of great American evil this year, he plays a Hollywood producer in The Substance.

5. Tim Matheson, Killing Reagan

The good thing about TV movies about major historical events is that you can just do them again whenever better resources and technology become available. Tim Matheson didn’t get a glowing review from Erik Singer, the Elvis voice coach and the internet’s favorite accent expert, but for an update to the Reagan assassination television film (this time for National Geographic), he does just fine. The West Wing actor returned to the White House without prosthetics and made a worthy attempt to bring a weathered Reagan to life; he may not have the details down, but Matheson’s gait and physicality evokes the 70-year-old President. This TV film is only otherwise of note because it’s based on a Bill O’Reilly book that was immediately and thoroughly dismissed by actual Reagan scholars.

4. Bruce Campbell, (Fargo Season 2)

For those still unsure why Ronald Reagan keeps popping up in Fargo Season 2, don’t worry—nobody knows why there’s a UFO in there either. Noah Hawley’s expert follow-up to his Martin Freeman and Billy Bob Thornton-led debut season takes place on the eve of Reagan’s America, where the Midwest is about to take the bait of neoconservatism and we can see the clear hints that it’s a fantasy. Bruce Campbell is a master at braggartly, overinflated charisma, and for all the technical faults in his delivery of the “city on a hill” address, or Reagan’s on-set personality, he skewers the vacuousness of Reagan’s promises by just coming across as a manufactured statesman and certified blowhard.

3. Johnny Carson, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson

The fact that Reagan appeared on Johnny Carson’s late night show multiple times is probably what makes this 1982 satirical sketch feel so lightweight and chummy, but Carson’s commitment to the President’s befuddlement in a repackaged “Who’s on first?” skit is a laid-back but sharp riff on, err, Reagan’s as yet undiagnosed battle with dementia? But Reagan was a pretty funny public speaker, a working actor who could hold the stage and, when paired with a good speech writer, could deliver some good gags. The showmanship needed to elevate this sketch is second-nature to someone like Carson.

2. Alan Rickman, Lee Daniels’ The Butler

By the point that Ronald Reagan turns up in the decades-spanning biopic The Butler, which was loosely inspired by the life of White House butler Eugene Allen, we’ve had enough of being microdosed presidential impressions by celebrated actors. Of the eight presidents that Cecil Gaines (Forest Whittaker) served, Reagan is the final one—but trust Alan Rickman to deliver the best presidential performance of any we see. In the tiny amount of time Reagan has on-screen, Rickman relishes the soft, bassy, but melodic tones of his voice and the affectations of his delivery. A few years before his death, Rickman showed expertise in this small dose of a very tired Reagan.

1. Phil Hartman, Saturday Night Live

The late, great Phil Hartman (who, in an act of tragedy, actually died before Ronald Reagan) was a skilled on-the-fly impressionist, and his commanding voice made him the perfect candidate for this 1986 Saturday Night Live sketch written by Jim Downey and Al Franken. Here, the sweet, clueless air of Reagan’s public-facing persona is revealed to be a front—he has totally masterminded every scandal and conspiracy that surrounded his administration, energized by dastardly plots and fluent in multiple languages. Hartman’s pastiche has remained a high benchmark not just for Reagan impressions but for SNL presidential performances. His expert grip of Reagan’s physicality and tone doesn’t rely on the character’s solipsism, and is maintained through the President’s lively, out-of-character outbursts. Hartman had unmatched comic zeal, and it remains one of the better political sketches from the historic show.

Rory Doherty is a screenwriter, playwright and culture writer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. You can follow his thoughts about all things stories @roryhasopinions.