It’s always fascinating to look at how important historical figures have been portrayed in the movies.  It’s usually a matter of accurate costumes and grand make-up, especially in the case of actors looking to make like King Henry VIII.  If we were asked to make a quick sketch of Henry, we’d probably all come up with basically the same thing — the portly fellow, with the fur vest, and a little hat, probably with a beard.  Would we draw him that way because we’re familiar with the Holbein portrait of the real ruler, or because that’s the way we’ve seen King Henry in the movies?  Hard to tell….

One of the more accurate impersonators of the King was actor Charles Laughton, who received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal in The Private Life of Henry VIII from 1933.  Laughton seemed to inhabit the skin of the King with uncanny ease, and though the film was in black and white, you could easily imagine the lush robes and thick velvet capes that he wore.  Laughton reprised the role of the King in 1953′s Young Bess, where Henry raised his fiery daughter Elizabeth, played by Jean Simmons, to be his successor.  Twenty years after his early Henry triumph, Laughton was even more physically perfect for the role and now benefitted from magnificent color photography that made those swank Tudor costumes dazzle the eye. 

Many of us fondly recall a couple of 1960s-era Henry VIIs, first in the person of the lusty and virile Robert Shaw as he played the King in 1966′s A Man for All Seasons, co-starring Paul Scofield as Sir Thomas More.  Shaw was appropriately larger-than-life and held his own in the acclaimed adaptation of Robert Bolt’s play, which won four Oscars including Best Picture and one for Scofield, and Shaw himself was nominated as Best Supporting Actor for his Henry. 

Another successful Henry came in 1969 in the form of Richard Burton, as he played the King in producer Hal Wallis’ ambitious historical romance Anne of the Thousand Days, with newcomer Genevieve Bujold as Anne Boleyn.  Burton, like Laughton and Shaw before him, seemed born to play the flamboyant monarch, and was nominated for an Oscar for his work.  The film overall received eleven important nominations — Best Picture, Best Writing, Best Actress for Bujold, Best Supporting Actor for Anthony Quayle, and more — but only managed to win for its historically-impressive costume design. 

Our very own very American Charlton Heston played Henry in 1977′s Crossed Swords, a version of Mark Twain’s beloved novel The Prince and the Pauper.  English actor Keith Michell practically made a career of playing Henry, making his initial splash in the saga The Six Wives of Henry VII on British TV in 1970, then played him again in a 1972 film Henry VIII and His Six Wives, and finally in 1996 in yet another version of The Prince and the Pauper, this one for television.  Actor Alan Bates did the same in another TV  adaptation of Twain’s tale in 2000.

Henry VIII has been used a few times to comic effect; babyboomers might recall a two-part episode of TV’s Bewitched with Ronald Long as Henry.  Couldn’t find a photo but here’s at least a weird recording of one of the songs Samantha sings to Henry –

Henry also met up with Jeannie on I Dream of Jeannie.  Even more hilarious, scandalous and oh so British was comedian Sid James’ version of Henry VII in 1971′s naughty Carry On Henry, part of the popular Carry On film series beloved by many precisely for its extreme silliness and va-va-voom sexiness.

A couple of the most recent Henry VIII portrayers turn the old pot-bellied and roaring kingly stereotype on its ear.  On television, super-sexy Jonathan Rhys Meyers has been heating things up with his emminently do-able Henry in the miniseries The Tudors, seen over here on Showtime cable network.  On movie screens, actor Eric Bana played Henry for Scarlett Johanssen and Natalie Portman as the Boleyn sisters, in The Other Boleyn Girl.  Eschewing the usual broad histrionics, both Bana and Rhys Meyers emphasized their own considerable masculine charms as they turned Henry into a skilled romancer worthy of more than few sighs.  A different twist on the old monarch, to be sure!