Cultural depictions of George Washington explained

George Washington has inspired artistic and cultural works for more than two hundred years. The following lists cover various media to include items of historic interest, enduring works of high art, and recent representations in popular culture. The entries represent portrayals that a reader has a reasonable chance of encountering rather than a complete catalog. Lesser known works are not included.

For purposes of classification, popular culture music is a separate section from operas and oratorios. Television covers live action series, TV movies, miniseries, and North American animation but not Japanese anime, which appears with manga and graphic novels.

Art

Washington is among the historical figures depicted in Our Nation's 200th Birthday, The Telephone's 100th Birthday (1976) by Stanley Meltzoff for Bell System.^[1]

Documentaries

Date	Title	Portrayer	Country	Notes	IMDB
1994	The American Revolution	Cliff Robertson	USA	Voice role	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0246421/
2002	Founding Brothers	Brian Dennehy	USA	Voice role	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0326881/
2007	Searching for George Washington	Martin Sheen	USA	Voice role
2007	Alexander Hamilton	Richard Easton	USA	Voice role	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0875749/

Films

Date	Title	Portrayer	Country	Notes	IMDB
1909	Washington Under the American Flag	Joseph Kilgour	USA	Directed by J. Stuart Blackton	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0001087/	^[2]
1909	Washington Under the British Flag				https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0143995/
1915	The Battle Cry of Peace			Directed by J. Stuart Blackton and Wilfrid North	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0004942/	^[3]
1916	The Dawn of Freedom			Directed by Theodore Marston and Paul Scardon	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157512/	^[4]
1917	The Spirit of '76	William Beery		Directed by Frank Montgomery	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0182444/	^[5]
1924	Yorktown	George Nash		Black and white silent film directed by Webster Campbell	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0348801/
1924	America	Arthur Dewey		Directed by D.W. Griffith	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0014672/
1927	The Flag	Francis X. Bushman		Directed by Arthur Maude	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0221180/
1931	Alexander Hamilton	Alan Mowbray		Directed by John G. Adolfi	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021595/
1932	The Phantom President	Alan Mowbray		Directed by Norman Taurog	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023334/
1936	Give Me Liberty	Robert Warwick		Directed by B. Reeves Eason
1939	Sons of Liberty	Montagu Love		Directed by Michael Curtiz	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031953/
1940	The Howards of Virginia	George Houston		Directed by Frank Lloyd	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032612/
1942	The Remarkable Andrew	Montagu Love		Directed by Stuart Heisler	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035247/?ref_=nv_sr_1/
1945	Where Do We Go from Here?	Alan Mowbray		Directed by Gregory Ratoff	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038245/?ref_=nv_sr_3/
1946	Monsieur Beaucaire	Douglass Dumbrille		Directed by George Marshall	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038747/
1947	Unconquered	Richard Gaines		Directed by Cecil B. DeMille	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039931/	^[6]
1951	When the Redskins Rode	James Seay		Directed by Lew Landers	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044208/	^[7]
1959	John Paul Jones	John Crawford	USA / Spain	Directed by John Farrow	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052946/	^[8]
1961	La Fayette	Howard St. John	France / Italy	Directed by Jean Dréville	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055070/	^[9]
1976	Independence	Patrick O'Neal	USA	Directed by John Huston	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074679/	^[10]
2000	The Patriot	Terry Layman		Directed by Roland Emmerich	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0187393/	^[11]
2006	We Fight to Be Free	Sebastian Roché	USA	Directed by Kees Van Oostrum	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0881918/
2008	An American Carol	Jon Voight	USA	Directed by David Zucker	https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1190617/	^[12]
2014	Mr. Peabody & Sherman	Jess Harnell	USA	Directed by Rob Minkoff	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2433040/
2015	Beyond the Mask	John Arden McClure	USA	Directed by Chad Burns	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0864835/	^[13]
2021		Channing Tatum	USA	Directed by Matt Thompson	https://m.imdb.com/title/tt6733874/	^[14]
	The General		USA		https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2369393/
	The Virginian		USA	Directed by Jason Hall	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5301172/

Television

Date	Title	Portrayer	Country	Notes	IMDB
1952	Hallmark Hall of Fame The Plot to Kidnap George Washington	Tod Griffin	USA		http://www.us.imdb.com/name/nm0006482
1955	You Are There Washington Crosses the Delaware (December 25, 1776) CBS	Russ Conway	USA		https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0176773/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0751973/
1972	Bewitched George Washington Zapped Here (Parts 1 and 2)	Will Geer	USA		https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0523088/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0523089/
1975		Jim Henson	USA	Featured a Muppet version of George Washington	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454507/fullcredits/
1989	A Little Bit Strange		USA/Canada		https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0249738/
1998–2001	Histeria!		USA	Featured a caricature of Washington modeled after Bob Hope as an occasional guest host.	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0175738/
1999	Celebrity DeathMatch		USA	Faced-off against Abraham Lincoln
2007	Masters of Horror "The Washingtonians"		USA	Washington is portrayed as a cannibal in a fictional account of alternate history.
2011	Deadliest Warrior	Nick Schroeder (young)	USA	In the third-season premiere, Washington battled Napoleon.	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1805806/
2013–2014	Sleepy Hollow	Louis Herthum	USA		https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2647544/
2014	Epic Rap Battles of History	Peter Shukoff	USA	YouTube web series; episode "George Washington vs. William Wallace".	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3873380/?ref_=ttep_ep11
2014		David Kaye	USA	Voice role	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4163660/?ref_=ttep_ep10
2014–2017		Ian Kahn	USA		https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543328/
2015	Turn: Washington's Spies	Bryan Adrian	USA		https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543328/
2016	Timeless	Damian O'Hare	USA		https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5511582/
2017	Legends of Tomorrow	Randall Batinkoff	USA	Two episodes	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4532368/
2018	Outlander	Simon Harrison	Scotland/USA	Episode "Wilmington"

Television movies

Date	Title	Portrayer	Country	Notes	IMDB
1975	Valley Forge	Richard Basehart	USA	TV movie directed by Fielder Cook	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0211098/	^[15]
1976	The Patriots	Ralph Clanton	USA	TV movie directed by Bob Hankal and Robert Strane	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0254664/	^[16]
1979	The Rebels	Peter Graves	USA	TV movie directed by Russ Mayberry	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079783/	^[17]
1992	1775	Adam West	USA	TV movie directed by David Trainer	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0346456/	^[18]
2000	The Crossing	Jeff Daniels	USA	TV movie directed by Robert Harmonstarring	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0210628/	^[19]
2003		Kelsey Grammer	USA	TV movie directed by Mikael Salomon	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0321416/	^[20]

Miniseries

Date	Title	Portrayer	Country	Notes	IMDB
1984	George Washington	Barry Bostwick	USA	TV miniseries directed by Buzz Kulik	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086720/
1986		Barry Bostwick	USA	TV miniseries directed by William A. Graham	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090437/
1997	LIBERTY! The American Revolution	Stephen Lang (voice)	USA	TV miniseries directed by Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129692/
2000	Founding Fathers	Brian Dennehy (voice)	USA	TV miniseries directed by Mark Hufnail and Melissa Jo Peltier	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0268808/
2000	The American President	Walter Cronkite (voice)	USA	TV miniseries directed by Philip Kunhardt III, Philip Kunhardt Jr., Peter W. Kunhardt, and James A. Edgar	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0271895/
2002	Liberty's Kids	Michael Santo (voice)	USA	TV animated series
2006	Washington the Warrior	Jackson Bolt, Shea Patrick (young)	USA	TV miniseries directed by Robert M. Wise	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0813958/
2006	The War That Made America	Larry Nehring	USA	TV miniseries directed by Ben Loeterman and Eric Stange	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424738/
2008	John Adams	David Morse	USA	TV miniseries directed by Tom Hooper starring David Morse as Washington	http://imdb.com/title/tt0472027/
2015	Sons of Liberty	Jason O'Mara	USA	TV miniseries	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3782838/
2020	Washington	Nicholas Rowe	USA	TV miniseries	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10098580/

Theatre

Date	Title	Original portrayer	Country	Notes	IMDB
1920	George Washington	Walter Hampden	USA	Ran for 16 performances^[21]
2015	Hamilton	Christopher Jackson	USA	Musical based on the life of Alexander Hamilton, written by Lin Manuel-Miranda. Washington features as a main character in the musical. A digital recording of the musical is available on Disney+.

Video games

George Washington is featured in modern video games as a prominent fictionalized character from world history in Age of Empires III, Civilization V and Assassin's Creed III (as himself in game and a counter-history King in DLC). These games are discussed in Winnerling and Kershbaumer's Early Modernity and Video Games explaining that the player manipulating the games' semiotic system of communications thereby "gives insights in his historical consciousness."^[22]

Date	Title	Portrayer	Country	Notes	IMDB
1991	Bill & Ted's Excellent Video Game Adventure		USA	One of the historical figures that must be retrieved within the game.
1993	Day of the Tentacle		USA	A character that travels to the past meets George Washington, and among other things, "converts" a kumquat tree to a cherry tree for George to cut down	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0203441/
1993	Mario's Time Machine		USA
1994	Liberty or Death		Japan, USA			^[23]
2004	The Political Machine		USA
2005	Age of Empires III	Daniel Riordan	USA	Voice role	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0488937/
2005	Civilization IV		USA		https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0488998/
2007		Daniel Riordan	USA	Voice role
2008	The Political Machine 2008		USA
2008			USA
2009	Scribblenauts		USA	Washington also appears in a similar fashion in all of the sequels to Scribblenauts.
2009			USA	Washington is a selectable general for the United States faction
2010	Civilization V	Marcel Jeanin	USA	Voice role	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1964595/
2012	The Political Machine 2012		USA
2012	Assassin's Creed III	Robin Atkin Downes	Canada	Voice role. The assassin ancestor Ratonhnhaké:ton interacts with Washington during the course of the American Revolution.	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2175563/	^[24]
2012		Robin Atkin Downes	Canada	Voice role. Revolves around an alternative history, wherein Washington becomes corrupted by an ancient artifact, and dubs himself King.	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2860874/	^[25]
2013	BioShock Infinite			Patriot robots are modeled after George Washington.	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1712064/	^[26]
2014	Team Fortress 2		USA	George Washington is featured in a comic called A Cold Day in Hell.		^[27]
2014	Second Chance Heroes		USA, Canada	George Washington is featured in a comic book introduction to the game.
2014		Tod Fennell	Bulgaria	Voice role. A young Washington briefly appears during a party for his half-brother, Lawrence.	https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4117250/
2016	The Political Machine 2016		USA
2018	The Council		France	Voice role		^[28]
2020	The Political Machine 2020		USA
2020		Daniel Riordan	USA	Voice role
2021	Funko Pop! Blitz		USA

See also

• George Washington
• George Washington on U.S. postage stamps
  • Washington-Franklin postage stamps
• List of statues of George Washington
• Hamilton (2015 musical)
• Valley Forge play

Further reading

• Bergmann, Linda S. "Epic, Parody, and National Identity: George Washington in Nineteenth-Century American Humor." Studies in American Humor 2 (1995): 1-22. online
• Browne, Stephen Howard. The First Inauguration: George Washington and the Invention of the Republic (Penn State Press, 2020) on the inaugural address. online
• Bruggeman, Seth C. Here, George Washington was born: Memory, material culture, and the public history of a national monument (U of Georgia Press, 2011).
• Cavitch, Max. "The man that was used up: Poetry, particularity, and the politics of remembering George Washington." American Literature 75.2 (2003): 247-274. summary
• Greenhalgh, Adam. " 'Not a man but a god' the apotheosis of Gilbert Stuart’s Athenaeum portrait of George Washington." Winterthur Portfolio 41.4 (2007): 269-304. online
• Jacobs, Phoebe Lloyd. "John James Barralet and the Apotheosis of George Washington." Winterthur Portfolio 12 (1977): 115-137. online
• Marks, Arthur S. "The statue of King George III in New York and the iconology of regicide." American Art Journal 13.3 (1981): 61-82. online on tearing down statues
• Marling, Karal Ann. George Washington Slept Here: Colonial Revivals and American Culture, 1876-1986 (Harvard University Press, 1988).
• Mitnick, Barbara J., et al. George Washington: American Symbol (Hudson Hills, 1999).
• Savage, Kirk. "The self-made monument: George Washington and the fight to erect a national memorial." Winterthur Portfolio 22.4 (1987): 225-242. online
• Schwartz, Barry. "Social change and collective memory: The democratization of George Washington." American Sociological Review (1991): 221-236. online
• Tschachler, Heinz. George Washington and Political Fatherhood: The Endurance of a National Myth (McFarland, 2020) re "Father of his country" slogan.
• Young, Christopher J. "Memory by Consensus: Remembering the American Revolutionary War in Chicago." Journal of American Studies 50.4 (2016): 971-997. online

External links

• "Memory and Myth: George Washington in American Art" from Smithsonian
• "George Washington in American Art" Lesson plan for secondary schools, from Bill of Rights Institute

Notes and References

1. https://www.jklmuseum.com/tag/stanley-meltzoff/ "Stanley Meltzoff Archives: The 1976 Bell System Telephone Book Cover"
2. Book: Pencak, William . Pennsylvania's Revolution . . 2010 . 337 . 9780271035796.
3. Web site: The Battle Cry of Peace (1915) . 30 July 2013 . 19 February 2019 . Stanford University.
4. Book: The Presidents on Film: A Comprehensive Filmography of Portrayals from George Washington to George W. Bush . Sarah Miles . Bolam . Thomas J. . Bolam . . 2007 . 392 . 9780786424818.
5. Book: Robertson, Patrick . Guinness Movie Facts & Feats . registration . . 1991 . 49 . 9780851129082.
6. Book: Reinhart, Mark S. . Abraham Lincoln on Screen: Fictional and Documentary Portrayals on Film and Television . . 1 January 2009 . 46 . 9780786452613.
7. Book: Hilger, Michael . Native Americans in the Movies: Portrayals from Silent Films to the Present . . 16 October 2015 . 332 . 9781442240025.
8. Book: Rollins, Peter C. . The Columbia Companion to American History on Film: How the Movies Have Portrayed the American Past . . 24 March 2004 . 201 . 9780231508391.
9. Book: Nowlan, Robert A. . The American Presidents, Washington to Tyler: What They Did, What They Said, What Was Said About Them, with Full Source Notes . . 10 January 2014 . 68 . 9781476601182.
10. News: Patrick O'Neal; Versatile Actor, Restaurateur . 15 September 1994 . 19 February 2019 . Myrna . Oliver . . https://web.archive.org/web/20160311091438/http://articles.latimes.com/1994-09-15/news/mn-38764_1_versatile-actor . 11 March 2016 . live .
11. News: President's Day: How the 'leader of the free world' has been played on screen, from conflicted statesmen to heroic action heroes . 18 February 2019 . 19 February 2019 . Joe . Sommerlad . Independent.
12. An American Carol . Frank . Scheck . 10 February 2008 . 19 February 2019 . The Hollywood Reporter.
13. Beyond the Mask – REVIEWS . Justin . Tucker . 17 September 2015 . 19 February 2019 . . 20 February 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190220002850/http://www.urchicago.com/reviews/2015/9/17/beyond-the-mask.html . dead .
14. News: A beefy George Washington avenges Lincoln's death in this cheekily inaccurate and dumb animated comedy . June 30, 2021 . . Inkoo . Kang . October 25, 2021 .
15. News: Richard Basehart to star in 'Valley Forg' special . Paul . Henniger . 30 November 1975 . 19 February 2019 . . 50 . Newspapers.com.
16. News: Goodson attacks "gimmickry" . . 26 May 1976 . 15 . 19 February 2019 . Newspaperarchive.
17. Book: Coyne, Michael . Hollywood Goes to Washington: American Politics on Screen . . 30 September 2008 . 60 . 9781861895776.
18. Book: Roberts, J. F. . The True History of the Blackadder: The Unadulterated Tale of the Creation of a Comedy Legend . . 11 October 2012 . 258 . 9781409051718.
19. The Crossing . 3 January 2001 . 19 February 2019 . Michael . Speier . . Penske Business Media, LLC..
20. News: TELEVISION REVIEW; Is That You, Mr. W., or a Dream Sequence from 'Frasier'? . Ron . Wertheimer . 13 January 2003 . 19 February 2019 . . 5 .
21. Web site: George Washington .
22. Winnerling, Tobias and Kershbaumer, Florian. Early Modernity and Video Games., p. 70, 106, 148, 160.
23. Book: Weiss, Brett . Classic Home Video Games, 1989–1990: A Complete Guide to Sega Genesis, Neo Geo and TurboGrafx-16 Games . . 9 July 2018 . 132 . 9780786492312.
24. News: New Prince of Persia Game to be Revealed at E3, According to Voice Actor . Paul . Tamburro . 8 June 2015 . 27 November 2019 . . Evolve Media LLC.
25. News: George Washington stars as the villain in Assassin's Creed III extra content . Jeff . Grubb . 3 October 2012 . . 27 November 2019.
26. Web site: BioShock Infinite PC Review . 22 March 2013 . . Ryan . McCaffrey . 27 January 2022 .
27. Web site: A Cold Day in Hell - Team Fortress 2 comics. Valve. August 16, 2024.
28. News: The Historically Inaccurate George Washington in The Council . Jef . Rouner . 3 September 2018 . 27 November 2019 . Houston Press.
29. News: George Washington vs William Wallace. Epic Rap Battles of History . https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/dl7CLaZFG1c . 2021-12-13 . live. 30 June 2014 . . 11 April 2021.