9. Confederate Hollywood
From the beginnings to rather recent times portrayals of Confederates have been a mainstay of American cinema. After all, the Confederacy is a rather large and interesting slice of American history. Given the virulent malice today against everything Confederate, it might surprise many folks to see that during Hollywood’s Golden Age an astounding number of major stars of American cinema have had no objection to portraying Confederates, usually as sympathetic characters. Many of such films showed Confederate flags in favourable contexts and sometimes in glorification. What has changed in recent times is that there have been evil Confederates appearing more often on the screen and the once popular theme of good Southerners oppressed by Reconstruction has disappeared.
The list below presents Northern and foreign actors who have played more or less attractive Confederates. The list does not include 1) those who portrayed very villainous Confederates; 2) those who were Southern-born or have Southern background; and 3) portrayals of Southerners not in the Confederate period:
Nick Adams: The Rebel
Tod Andrews: The Gray Ghost
Armand Assante: The Hunley
Christopher Atkins: Guns of Honor
Richard Basehart: The Andersonville Trial
Anne Baxter: Three Violent People
Louise Beavers: Belle Starr
Noah Beery: The Last Outpost
Tom Berenger: Gettysburg
Ward Bond: Gone with the Wind
Marlon Brando: Appaloosa
Walter Brennan inimitably played Confederates and other Southerners in many films although he was born in Boston. Brennan was for decades the strongest conservative in leftist Hollywood.
Lloyd Bridges: The Blue and the Gray
Pierce Brosnan: The Son
Bruce Cabot: The Best of the Badmen, The Undefeated
David Keith and Robert Carradine: The Long Riders
Jim Caviezel: Ride with the Devil
Montgomery Clift: Red River
James Coburn: Major Dundee
Gary Cooper: Dallas, Vera Cruz, Operator 13
Robert Cummings: So Red the Rose
James Dale: Echoes of War
Jane Darwell: Gone with the Wind
Olivia de Haviland: Gone with the Wind
Colleen Dewhurst: The Blue and the Gray
Angie Dickinson: Gray Ghost
Brian Donlevy: The Woman They Almost Lynched
Michael Douglas: The Ghost and the Darkness
Clint Eastwood: The Outlaw Josey Wales, Ambush at Cimarron Pass
Hope Emerson: The Guns of Fort Petticoat
Errol Flynn: The Santa Fe Trail, Rocky Mountain
Henry Fonda: Jesse James, The Return of Frank James
Glenn Ford: Texas
John Ford: The Birth of a Nation
John Forsythe: Escape from Fort Bravo
William Forsythe: Echoes of War
Clark Gable: Gone with the Wind
Kathryn Grant: The Guns of Fort Petticoat
Peter Graves: The Raid
George Hamilton: The Long Ride Home
Richard Harris: Major Dundee
Gabby Hayes: Arizona Kid, Southward Ho!
Van Heflin: The Raid
Charlton Heston: Three Violent People, Arrowhead
William Holden: Texas
Leslie Howard: Gone with the Wind
Rock Hudson: The Undefeated, The Lawless Breed
Alex Hyde-White: Ironclads
Jason Isaacs: Field of Lost Shoes
Jewel: Ride with the Devil
Van Johnson: Siege at Red River
Richard Jordan: Gettysburg
Stacy and James Keach: The Long Riders
Buster Keaton: The General
Arthur Kennedy: Red Mountain
Alan Ladd: Red Mountain, Proud Rebel
Stephen Lang: Gods and Generals
Vivien Leigh: Gone with the Wind
John Lund: Five Guns West
George Macready: The Rebel
Hattie McDaniel: Gone with the Wind
Tobey Maguire: Ride with the Devil
Victor Mature: Escort West
Doug McClure: Shenandoah
Dylan McDermott: Texas Rangers
Joel McRea: Border River, The Outriders
Ray Milland: Copper Canyon
Thomas Mitchell: Gone with the Wind
Chris Mitchum: Rio Lobo
Elizabeth Montgomery: Belle Starr
Jeanette Nolan: The Guns of Fort Petticoat
Maureen O’Hara: Deadly Companions, Rio Grande
Dennis O’Keefe: The Eagle and the Hawk
Eleanor Parker: Escape from Fort Bravo
Barbara Payton: Drums in the Deep South
Gregory Peck: The Yearling
Tyrone Power: Jesse James
Jurgen Prochnow: Guns of Honor
Ronald Reagan: The Last Outpost (Cavalry Command)
Pamela Reed: The Long Riders
Christopher Reeve: The Bostonians
Jonathan Rhys-Myers: Ride with the Devil
Jorge Rivero (Mexican star): Rio Lobo
Cliff Robertson: The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid
Roy Rogers: The Arizona Kid, Southward Ho!
Kurt Russell: Mosby’s Marauders
Tom Selleck: Last Stand at Saber River
Martin Sheen: Gettysburg, Guns of Honor
Madolyn Smith: The Rose and the Jackal
Robert Stack: Great Day in the Morning
James Stewart: Shenandoah
Meryl Streep: Secret Service (her opening monologue is in front of a large Confederate flag)
Margaret Sullavan: So Red the Rose
Donald Sutherland: The Hunley
Shirley Temple: The Littlest Rebel
Gene Tierney: Belle Starr
Lawrence Tierney: The Best of the Badmen
Constance Towers: The Horse Soldiers
Claire Trevor: Texas
Tom Tyler: The Best of the Badmen
Skeet Ulrich: Ride with the Devil
Jan-Michael Vincent: The Undefeated
John Wayne: The Searchers, True Grit, and doubtless others.
Richard Widmark: Alvarez Kelly
Jeffrey Wright: Ride with the Devil
Robin Wright: The Conspirator
Here are some Southern-born or Southern background actors who have also played Confederates: Claude Akins, Gene Autry, Glenn Campbell, John Carradine, Patricia Clarkson, Joseph Cotten, James Craig, Robert Duvall, Frankie Faison, Miriam Hopkins, Jeffrey Hunter, Ben Johnson, Kris Kristofferson, Anson Mount, Audie Murphy, John Payne, Dennis and Randy Quaid, Tex Ritter, Will Rogers, Randolph Scott, Randy Travis.
In the Enola Gay President Truman, considering whether to drop the atomic bomb, is seated in front of an array of flags, one of which is Confederate, or possibly a Mississippi or Georgia flag. Robert Redford plays an actor wearing a Confederate uniform in (X) Inside Daisy Clover. In **The Ghost and the Darkness Michael Douglas is a famed lion hunter, an American who is described as having come to Africa because his people lost a war. In (T)Warm Springs Franklin D. Roosevelt is inspired by the example of Confederate general Francis Nicholls, who lost an arm and a leg in the War but went on to become Governor of Louisiana. In (T)Texas (1941) William Holden calls a carpetbagger “a dirty Yankee.” In the postwar setting of (T)The Missouri Traveler (1958) Lee Marvin survives unscathed a lavish presentation of the Southern flag and anthem.
