The debut episode of this monumental NBC series portrayed America’s 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, as a husband and father, accentuating the real man rather than his public image.
Subsequent episodes examined Lincoln (superbly played by Hal Holbrook) as a prairie lawyer, a sagacious analyst of people, a shrewd politician, a peace-minded commander-in-chief who had to learn to wage war, and a post-war President planning for reconstruction in the days before his assassination.
Lincoln leads his divided nation into the Civil War, although his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln (Sada Thompson), behaves erratically in the wake of their 11-year-old son Willie’s death, which embarrasses and endangers the president politically when a cabal of senators questions her loyalty to the Union and sparks rumours that she has been leaking information to the Confederacy.
The President’s joking and storytelling erode the confidence of some of his colleagues and Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase (Roy Poole) and his ambitious daughter Kate (Elizabeth Ashley, pictured) embark on an underhanded attempt to undermine Lincoln’s 1864 reelection bid.
With the Civil War over, Lincoln plans Reconstruction with his cabinet and General Grant.
Meanwhile, he suffers unsettling dreams and omens.
The final episode (‘The Last Days’) depicted events leading up to – but not including – the President’s assassination.
The series ends as Lincoln and Mary Todd return to the White House to prepare for a trip to Ford’s Theatre to see Our American Cousin on the fateful night of 14 April 1865.
The historical drama was written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, based on Carl Sandburg’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Abraham Lincoln.
NBC aired the first three episodes of the six-hour miniseries during the 1974/75 season, with the final three episodes aired during the 1975/76 season. The storyline consciously avoided the momentous events of the Douglas debates, the Gettysburg Address and his assassination.
Hal Holbrook endured three hours of painstaking makeup every day for the 12 weeks of filming, with layers of foam rubber applied to his face to create the familiar features.
He won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor and returned to the role of Abraham Lincoln in 1985 and 1986 for the North & South series.
Abraham Lincoln
Hal Holbrook Mary Todd Lincoln
Sada Thompson John Nicolay
Michael Cristofer Robert Lincoln
James Carroll Jordan Tad Lincoln
John Levin General Ulysses S. Grant
Norman Burton Salmon P. Chase
Roy Poole Kate Chase Sprague
Elizabeth Ashley Judge David Davis
Richard Dysart Secretary of War Simon Cameron
John Randolph Edwin Stanton
Bert Freed Willie Lincoln
Michael-James Wixted Lt. Elmer Ellsworth
David Huffman
Episodes
Mrs Lincoln’s Husband | Sad Figure, Laughing | Prairie Lawyer || The Unwilling Warrior | Crossing Fox River | The Last Days
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The President’s joking and storytelling erode the confidence of some of his colleagues and Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase (Roy Poole) and his ambitious daughter Kate (Elizabeth Ashley, pictured) embark on an underhanded attempt to undermine Lincoln’s 1864 reelection bid.
Hal Holbrook endured three hours of painstaking makeup every day for the 12 weeks of filming, with layers of foam rubber applied to his face to create the familiar features.
Tad Lincoln
