Douglass Dilman/Film

Douglass Dilman was an American politician who represented New Hampshire in the United States Senate before acceding to the office of President of the United States after his predecessor President Fenton and the speaker of the House died in an accident in Frankfurt.
After a career as a university professor, Dilman sought elected office and ran for Senator. He was eventually made President Pro Tempore as a gesture from the party to Black citizens of the country, and did not expect to achieve higher office. Subsequently, President Fenton was killed and ill Vice President Noah Calvin refused to take the oath of office. The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 determined that the President Pro Tempore was next in line and Dilman assumed office. From the outset, Dilman's own administration sought to undercut his involvement in any official proceedings, out of conflicting desires to both minimise a Black man's participation in politics as much as to protect him from being hurt in the polls.
After Dilman tired of being a puppet and began to make his own policy choices, Secretary of State Arthur Eaton and influential Senator Watts sought to upend his administration and take over the party at the next leadership race. Watts accepted and hid evidence of assassin Robert Wheeler's killing of the South African Defence Minister in order to deal a blow to Dilman's public image, who had stated his own belief that Wheeler had been innocent. After learning of his guilt, Dilman arranged to extradite Wheeler and appeared at the party convention, seeking to be chosen to lead the party and the country by the electors and not by the quirks of the line of succession.
==Personality==
==Notes==
===Behind the Scenes===
*President Dilman was played by American actor James Earl Jones.The Man - IMDB - Retrieved 27 October 2024James Earl Jones - IMDB - Retrieved 27 October 2024 Jones was upset that the film was released theatrically, as the the rest of the people behind the film had treated it as a television special and had not put in the amount of work they would have had they known the film was going to be released to theatres.This is James Earl Jones - Greg Braxton - 7 January 2009 - The Los Angeles Times - Retrieved 27 October 2024 - Archived 23 April 2019
===References & Connections ===
*Dilman was ranked 25 out of 142 fictional film presidents, ahead of Leslie McCloud but behind Tom Dobbs.Every Fictional President in Film History: Ranked (#30-21—Fighters, Winners, and…Mike Brady?) - 27 June 2018 - America Fun Fact of the Day - Retrieved 8 December 2024
==Appearances==
*The Man (first and final appearance)
==See also==
*Tom Beck
==References==
Category:Humans
Category:Heroes
Category:Politicians
Category:American politicians
Category:Senators
Category:United States Senators
Category:Presidents
Category:American Presidents
Category:American Government
Category:World Leaders
Category:Widowers
Category:University professors
Category:Washingtonians
Category:American characters
Category:Film characters
Category:Creator: Rod Serling
Category:Characters played by James Earl Jones
Category:20th century births