Henry Fonda played Abraham Lincoln in John Ford’s 1939 film Young Mr. Lincoln.
The film portrays Lincoln before his presidency, beginning with his life in New Salem, Illinois, in 1832 and continuing into his early legal career in Springfield. Fonda plays him as awkward, thoughtful, humorous, and morally serious rather than as the fully formed wartime president familiar from later history.
Directed by John Ford and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, the film dramatizes a murder trial inspired by the real case of William “Duff” Armstrong. In the story, Lincoln challenges eyewitness testimony by using an almanac to question whether the witness could truly have seen the crime by moonlight.
The casting is sometimes confused with other 1939 stars listed among the wrong options. Tyrone Power was considered for the role, but Fonda became the film’s defining presence. Young Mr. Lincoln was nominated for an Academy Award for Lamar Trotti’s original story and entered the National Film Registry in 2003 for its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance.