The final installment in John Jakes’s Civil War trilogy – following North and South (1985) and North and South: Book II (1986) – focuses on the Reconstruction period and concludes the continuing saga of two tormented families: the Hazards (from the North) and the Mains (from the South). Both families face the deaths of loved ones at the hands of old enemies.
The only main cast member missing is Patrick Swayze, whose dashing Orry Main was the principal heart-throb in the original miniseries and the first sequel. But Orry is killed in the shadowy opening scene of Heaven and Hell , which ended any chance of Swayze’s participation.
Returning to their old roles are James Read as George Hazard, a wealthy Yankee war hero who falls in love with his deceased friend Orry’s widow while helping her save Mont Royal, the family plantation; Philip Casnoff as the evil and twisted Elkanah Bent (who was actually killed in the second miniseries but we’ll gloss over that); Wendy Kilbourne as George’s doomed wife Constance; and Jonathan Frakes as George’s wimpy but good-hearted brother, Stanley.
New to the principal cast are Kyle Chandler as Orry’s troubled younger cousin Charles Main (played in the earlier series by Lewis Smith), Robert Wagner as grumpy older brother Cooper Main, and Stan Shaw as former slave Isaac, who travels to Charleston as a delegate to a congress of freed blacks.
Making brief guest appearances are Peter O’Toole as a drunken actor bringing Shakespeare to the West, Billy Dee Williams as a Reconstruction slave organiser, and Rip Torn as a buffalo hunter and trader who understands and cares for the Indians he deals with.
Elkanah Bent
Philip Casnoff George Hazard
James Read Madeline Main
Lesley-Anne Down Constance Hazard
Wendy Kilbourne Stanley Hazard
Jonathan Frakes Charles Main
Kyle Chandler Judith Main
Cathy Lee Crosby Brett Hazard
Genie Francis Ashton Main Fenway
Terri Garber Prudence
Mariette Hartley Willa
Rya Kihlstedt Will Fenway
Tom Noonan Isaac
Stan Shaw Adolphus
Rip Torn Cooper Main
Robert Wagner Francis Cardozo
Billy Dee Williams Gettys
Cliff De Young Lt. Pickles
Gary Grubbs Jim
Chris Burke Scar
Gregory Zaragoza Sam Trump
Peter O’Toole Jane
Sharon Washington Maureen
Ann Dowd Titus
Darryl Theirse Gus
Cameron Finley Beaufort
Brad Leland Micah
Julius Tennon Magic Magee
Steve Harris Captain Venable
Keith Szarabajka Isabel Hazard
Deborah Rush Stanton
Ron Frazier Edwin
Jerry Cotton Keyes
Tony Frank Jupiter Smith
Bruce MacVittie Duncan
Randy Moore Jack Quinlan
Woody Watson
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