Today, I started thinking about the star-studded movie “The Longest Day” (1962) since it is D-Day today.

The movie is full of every male star during that era you can think of:
John Wayne
Robert Mitchum
Robert Ryan
Sal Mineo
Richard Burton
Eddie Albert
Sean Connery
Red Buttons
Richard Beymer
Henry Fonda
Jeffrey Hunter
Roddy McDowall
Edmund O’Brien
and the list goes on

But there is one role that really stuck out for me: Henry Grace’s performance as Dwight Eisenhower.

Set designer Henry Grace as Eisenhower

President Eisenhower for appearance comparison

Grace was actually a set decorator. His work dated back to films such as ”The Gorgeous Hussy” (1936) and went all the way up into the 1960s with “The Man From Uncle” and “My Favorite Martian.”  ”The Longest Day” is the only movie he acted in. He was chosen for the film because of his surprising resemblance to our 34th president.

(Eisenhower was actually considered to play himself, but makeup artists couldn’t make him look young enough, according to IMDB.)

Next time you watch the film, make sure to look out for Grace! It’s a very long, but very good movie.

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