16 February 2016

Best actor to ever play president? Harrison Ford

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Yesterday we published the first set of results from our Presidents Day poll. We found that Ronald Reagan was the YouGov First Verdict panel’s favourite of the last ten presidents. We also found that Democratic presidents won more votes – overall – than Republican presidents. You can read the full results here.

We also asked some fun questions about the best Hollywood movie featuring a president and the actor who best captured being president.

Harrison Ford won the best presidential portrayal award for his swashbuckling battle with terrorists who hijacked Air Force One. Ford’s fictional President James Marshall was no ordinary president after all – he was a Medal of Honor winner. Martin Sheen in West Wing and Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln scored highly too.

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The 1996 film Independence Day won the best movie award with 18% of votes. Lincoln with 15% and Air Force One with 15% came close behind.

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For more about Portrait of America and the methodology behind First Verdict, click here.

For the complete Portrait of America catalog, click here.

Tim Montgomerie is Editor of Portrait of America