12 Actors Who Have Played Presidents

On the hit TV show 24, Haysbert was the first black president. Sorry about that, Obama.

As President Andrew Shepherd, he managed to lead a country and get a woman flowers. The script was written by future Oscar winner Aaron Sorkin.

Sheen, who played the chief of staff in The American President, got promoted when Sorkin wrote the pilot for The West Wing. Despite President Josiah Bartlet's two terms, Sheen never won an Emmy.

Day-Lewis has just signed on to play Honest Abe in the movie Lincoln, due out next year.

As the president in Independence Day, he had to mourn his wife while trying to kill aliens. All in a day's work, really.

The president was a supporting character in The Contender, a movie about what happens when the president nominates a woman (Joan Allen) to be his VP.

As President Laura Roslin on Battlestar Galactica, McDonnell struggled to rule the last remaining human beings.

Although Kinnear's turn as JFK in miniseries The Kennedys got positive reviews, almost no one saw the performance. Reportedly unhappy with their family's portrayal, members of the Kennedy family got the show booted from the History Channel onto much smaller network ReelzChannel.

Giamatti played our nation's second president in the award-nominated HBO miniseries John Adams.

Davis played a young president trying to balance work and family life on the short-lived TV series Commander In Chief.

Sam Neill played Thomas Jefferson in a TV movie about the president's romantic relationship with Sally Hemings, who also happened to be his slave.

He sang, he danced, and he played America's seventh president in the hit musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. There are talks of him reviving the role in a film adaptation.