Ben Bradlee, portrayed by Tom Hanks
Ben Bradlee was the executive editor of The Washington Post who led the newsroom for 26 years. He is remembered for transforming the paper into what it is today, reporting on topics like the Pentagon Papers, the Watergate scandal and President John F. Kennedy. One of his most notable decisions in his role, and the subject of this movie, was his decision, made with then-publisher Kay Graham, to publish stories based on information from the Pentagon Papers.
The Post had done months of research based on top-secret documents to disclose the information to the public about the Pentagon Papers, but The New York Times was enjoined by a federal court from printing more after the paper released its first story on the scandal. Former editor Daniel Ellsberg gave the information to The Washington Post, and its staff worked through obstacles to get the stories to the public. The lawyers they contacted were opposed to representing them. Despite that, the editors still published the information. Days after the publication went to post, the Supreme Court ruled that the newspapers could not be prevented from printing information on the Pentagon Papers.
Bradlee resigned July 31, 1991, but continued to be remembered for his work and services. In 2007, he was awarded Legion d'honneur, France's highest decoration. In 2013, he was praised by President Barack Obama for the work he did during his time at The Washington Post, including the Pentagon Papers stories, as well as the Watergate stories, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
On Oct. 21, 2014, at the age of 93, Bradlee died in his Washington, D.C., home from natural causes.
After portraying Capt. Chesley Sullenberger in 2016's Sully, Hanks took another stab at playing a real-life person, as Ben Bradlee, in The Post.
During The Hollywood Reporter's Actors Roundtable, Hanks said, "I was competing with Jason Robards because he played Ben Bradlee [and won an Oscar for the 1976 movie All the President's Men]. He owns that role. And I was actually given permission to forget about it by Bradlee himself. I watched all the video I could of him, and he gave quite a number of interviews and talked about" — he breaks into Bradlee's voice — "'Well, ya know, they made that movie, and every day someone comes up and says, "Well, ya don't look like Jason Robards!" There's been a lot of Hamlets, a lot of Richard IIIs, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were a lot of Ben Bradlees."'
For his performance, Hanks is nominated for a Golden Globe in the best actor in a motion picture drama category.
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