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Actresses who have played Mary Lincoln-your favorites? - Printable Version

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Actresses who have played Mary Lincoln-your favorites? - LincolnMan - 12-01-2012 07:45 PM

With Sally Field as the latest to play the role of Mary Lincoln, there is an ever expanding list to consider for those who are our favorites.
Besides Sally Field, some who have played MTL include but are not limited to:

Mary Tyler Moore, Julie Harris, Sada Thompson, and Ellen Burnstyn.

Who are your favorites?

RE: Actresses who have played Mary Lincoln-your favorites? - L Verge - 12-01-2012 08:15 PM

Again, I haven't seen the movie; but physical appearance as my only guide, I would have to vote for Sally. Sada would be my other choice.

Being of the age where I have seen Sally Field go from Flying Nun to serious actress, I suspect that I am going to enjoy her portrayal of Mary Lincoln.

RE: Actresses who have played Mary Lincoln-your favorites? - LincolnMan - 12-02-2012 08:05 AM

You will Laurie. She does an amazing job-not a nun's habit in sight. No, really, she is fantastic as MTL.

RE: Actresses who have played Mary Lincoln-your favorites? - Gene C - 12-02-2012 09:25 AM

Mary was a complicated figure in her own right. In all the movies she gets a side or supporting role, and you never get a good look at the real and total woman. Sally Field did a good job, I wish they had made her part bigger.

Behind every great man, is a good woman.
Behind the downfall of every great man, is usually another woman

RE: Actresses who have played Mary Lincoln-your favorites? - LincolnMan - 12-02-2012 09:40 AM

Gene: Insightful comments, as always. I, too, was wishing that her role had been expanded but the movie was not about her-as we all know. Maybe someday she'll get a first-class movie that she so richly deserves.

RE: Actresses who have played Mary Lincoln-your favorites? - L Verge - 12-02-2012 11:52 AM

Gene, loved your comment at the end of your post. Too bad some of our modern big-wigs didn't see that beforehand.

RE: Actresses who have played Mary Lincoln-your favorites? - Hess1865 - 12-02-2012 08:33 PM

I'll take Julie Harris in 'The Last Of Mrs. Lincoln'
An incredible performance by Miss Harris, who incidentally, turned 87 today!!
Thankfully you can get the DVD on Amazon.
Worth watching-it makes Sally Field's interpretation look like a SNL outake

RE: Actresses who have played Mary Lincoln-your favorites? - RJNorton - 12-03-2012 05:12 AM

Here's Julie Harris (The Last of Mrs. Lincoln)

[Image: Last+of+Mrs.+Lincoln.jpg]


RE: Actresses who have played Mary Lincoln-your favorites? - LincolnMan - 12-03-2012 07:46 AM

Interestingly, Julie Harris has a Detroit connection. An ancestor in her direct line is buried in Detroit's Elmwood Cemetery-

Rev. Samuel Smith Harris 09/14/1841-08/21/1888:

Rev. Harris was from Alabama. He became the Second Bishop of Michigan in the Episcopal Church.

Connection: He was an officer in the Confederate Army. After the war, he became a lawyer and minister. He entered the ministry. He is the great-grandfather of actress Julie Harris.

RE: Actresses who have played Mary Lincoln-your favorites? - Laurie Verge - 12-03-2012 09:15 AM

Well then, I'll change my vote to Julie Harris if she has Confederate roots!!! LOL.

RE: Actresses who have played Mary Lincoln-your favorites? - LincolnMan - 12-03-2012 09:18 AM

Laurie: You're too funny! But how ironic that she played the wife of President Lincoln.

RE: Actresses who have played Mary Lincoln-your favorites? - Mike B. - 12-12-2012 10:41 PM

I would have to say it is a very hard role to play it would seem.

Any historical figure can be hard to do. But someone who provokes such differing reactions would be extremely hard, I bet.

RE: Actresses who have played Mary Lincoln-your favorites? - LincolnMan - 12-13-2012 07:03 PM

Yes, it is a difficult role. I think that the best actress would be one not falling into a portrayal of MTL in a one-dimensonal way-MTL as insane, for instance- that certainly does not do her justice.

RE: Actresses who have played Mary Lincoln-your favorites? - RJNorton - 12-14-2012 06:01 AM

I wonder how many folks in the audience realize that Sally Field, at 66, is playing a woman who was 20 years younger (Mary was 46).

RE: Actresses who have played Mary Lincoln-your favorites? - Jim Garrett - 12-14-2012 06:46 AM

I have never seen The Last of Mrs. Lincoln. However, Sally Fields, AKA Gidget, does an excellent job. She is on the board of the Ford's Theatre Society and was at Ford's back in October.