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the men who would be kings
From Kurt Russell to Jack White: actors who have walked in the shoes of Elvis and Nixon
Michael Shannon (left) and Kevin Spacey in the upcoming film “Elvis & Nixon.’’ (Steve Dietl/Amazon Studios & Bleecker Street)
Gemma La Mana
Ralph Nelson
By Ed Symkus
Globe Correspondent

On Dec. 21, 1970, two international icons met for the first and only time. It was the day that Elvis Presley paid a visit to President Richard M. Nixon at the White House.

A handwritten letter from Presley about his concern with America’s drug abuse problem made its way from a guard to staffer Bud Krogh, Nixon’s deputy assistant Dwight Chapin, and finally Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, who OK’d the meeting. That afternoon Presley and Nixon sat in the Oval Office, chatted about drugs, communist brainwashing, Presley’s career, the Beatles, and Presley’s desire to get a badge from the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs and become a Federal Agent at Large. Nixon said yes. Photos were taken, Presley gave Nixon a big bear hug, and he eventually got his badge.

The new film “Elvis & Nixon,’’ opening Friday with Michael Shannon as Elvis and Kevin Spacey as Nixon, focuses more on the build-up to the visit than the time in the Oval Office. Shannon, who bears no resemblance to Elvis, dresses and moves like the King but does not even attempt to speak like him. Spacey, a gifted impersonator, commits to capturing Nixon exactly, from his slight stoop to his scowl to the perfect voice impression. “Elvis & Nixon’’ plays loose with the facts, but it’s goofy fun.

And it’s a remake. The mockumentary “Elvis Meets Nixon,’’ with Bob Gunton as Nixon and Rick Peters as Elvis, aired on Showtime in 1997, and was a straight-up comedy, with both men doing spot-on portrayals of their characters, while talking heads, including Dick Cavett, Tony Curtis, Graham Nash, and Wayne Newton provided “commentary.’’

The occasion of actors portraying the president and the King has been a constant in film and on television for decades. Dozens have taken on each of them in parts ranging from a few seconds to starring roles. Here are a few that you should check out.

Bruce Campbell in “Bubba Ho-Tep’’ (2002)

He’s Elvis as an old man in a Texas nursing home, sharing an adventure with John F. Kennedy (Ossie Davis), who’s also still alive. Campbell slicks his hair, gets the accent down, has sexual urges, and though he moves around with a walker, still knows his karate kicks.

Tyler Hilton in “Walk the Line’’ (2005)

Hilton is first seen in this Johnny Cash biopic when Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) peeks into Sun Recording Studio where Elvis is ripping out a cover of “Milk Cow Blues.’’ He returns later in a backstage moment, offering Cash some chili fries, then does an exciting onstage rendition of “That’s All Right, Mama.’’

Gil McKinney in “Elvis Has Left the Building’’ (2004)

Elvis only gets flashback status in this farce about a cosmetics saleswoman (Kim Basinger) who, as a little girl, met the polite, casually dressed singer when he was getting his Caddy fixed in her mom’s garage. Now grown up, she keeps accidentally killing Elvis impersonators (look for Tom Hanks as one of them).

Jonathan Rhys Meyers in “Elvis’’ (2005)

The Brit actor nabbed a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Elvis from his upstart days in 1952 to his comeback in 1968. His range stretches from a courteous and shy young man to a fireball of hip-shaking excitement, then moves to drug-addled confusion. He’s got the look and the accent, but lip-syncs all of the songs.

Kurt Russell in “Elvis’’ (1979)

Russell did it before Meyers, and was nominated for an Emmy, which he should have won. Russell completely embodies Elvis here, from the way he combs his hair to how he holds his guitar; from the way he walks and talks and gyrates to his revelations of self doubt before his comeback show. Alas, he, too, lip-syncs.

Jack White in “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story’’(2007)

Yes, it’s the White Stripes frontman in a silly rock spoof with John C. Reilly as a chameleonic performer. White’s Elvis, boasting a faux pompadour and a bit of a Southern accent, rants about being the King and makes sure to throw a karate chop in Dewey’s direction.

Richard M. Dixon in “Where the Buffalo Roam’’ (1980)

Bill Murray steals every scene as Hunter S. Thompson. But Nixon impersonator Dixon (voice dubbed by Brian Cummings) owns a bathroom incident where, standing at a urinal, he answers Thompson’s question about what the country is doing for the doomed. That answer can’t be printed in a family publication.

Philip Baker Hall in “Secret Honor’’ (1984)

Hall, who neither looks nor sounds like Nixon, is stunning in Robert Altman’s adaptation of the one-man play. At home, dictating his memoirs into a tape recorder, Nixon keeps refilling his glass of Chivas Regal, getting drunker and more incoherent. He curses at the Kennedys and Kissinger, believes he’s on trial, and contemplates suicide. A powerhouse performance.

Anthony Hopkins in “Nixon’’ (1995)

Hopkins got an Oscar nomination for his hard-drinking, foul-mouthed, exhausted and, at a few points, sympathetic Nixon in Oliver Stone’s film. With little physical or vocal resemblance to Nixon, Hopkins, convincing as both a younger man in the 1950s and an older man in the 1970s, keeps this mostly a study in inner conflict.

Frank Langella in “Frost/Nixon’’ (2008)

Langella won a Tony for his Nixon on Broadway, and was Oscar-nominated for this screen adaptation of his post-presidential TV interviews/duels with David Frost. His Nixon is a proud but paranoid man who can unnervingly become charming, then manipulative. The best scene is of him during a drunken late-night phone conversation in which he bares his soul.

James McManus in “Black Dynamite’’ (2009)

In this absurd ’70s-set blaxploitation spoof, former CIA agent Black Dynamite (Michael Jai White) must find the villain who’s running drugs into the ghetto. It’s President Nixon! McManus portrays him, with a good vocal impersonation and reasonable resemblance, as a nunchucks-wielding maniac who knows his kung fu.

Ed Symkus can be reached at esymkus@rcn.com.