Though actor Ed Flanders is a dead ringer for the late President Harry Truman, he was curiously not cast as Truman in the 1979 TV miniseries Backstairs at the White House, but instead as Calvin Coolidge. No matter: Flanders was Truman in MacArthur (1976) and several other film and TV reenactments of the war years. Outside of his many fictional trips to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Flanders has been seen in such films as Grasshopper (1970) and The Exorcist 3. As Dr. Donald Westphal on the TV series St. Elsewhere (1984-88), Ed Flanders made headlines in 1987 for being the first mainstream-TV character to "moon" the audience (in close-up, yet).
Ed Flanders
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- Was a member of the Old Globe Theatre Company in San Diego.
- Made his Broadway debut as Goldberg in the 1967 production of Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party.
- Portrayed both Presidents Coolidge and Truman.
- Delivered an unscripted soliloquy during the taping of the final episode of St. Elsewhere that was ultimately included by the producers.
- Retired to a ranch in Northern California.
- Battled depression and took his own life in 1995.