More Gods and Generals and Civil War Stuff

I took a look at the actor who played the ill-fated confederate Maj. Gen. George Pickett in Gods and Generals (2003).  Pickett was the general who led a charge up Cemetery Ridge on July 3, 1863 at the Battle of Gettysburg.  This action wiped out his entire division with about 50% casualties.  It was a blow that the confederacy would never overcome, and a turning point of the Civil War.

The actor was Billy Campbell (b. 1959).  This paragraph may seem like a temporal paradox, simply because Gods and Generals was the prequel to Gettysburg, but was filmed ten years later.  So, Pickett was played by Stephen Lang (b. 1952) in the earlier movie, Gettysburg, which took place after Gods and Generals; and in Gettysburg, Billy Campbell played Lt. Pitzer, a definite demotion (or promotion, if you go in filming sequence?).  I think it would have been easier on bloggers if they filmed the movies in historical sequence.

Back to Billy Campbell.  Campbell played Luke Fuller on "Dynasty" in his first important role.  He was then in "Crime Story" and played Det. Joey Indelli.  In 1991 Disney put him in The Rocketeer.  That was a light movie with a pretty good story and a great cast.

Between Gods and Gettysburg, he was in several movies, though none of note, and was again regular on several TV series'.  Since Gettysburg, he worked in the television series' "The O.C." and "The 4400" and a few more movies.  His career is still active, and I guess he is a bit more than a Bit Actor.

The other Gen. Pickett was Stephen Lang.  Lang had an early good role in Dustin Hoffman's TV version of "Death of a Salesman" and a little later played the title role of "Babe Ruth" on TV.

1993 brought him Gettysburg and also Tombstone, where he played Ike Clanton.  He worked with Steven Seagal in Fire Down Below, then played George Washington on TV in a series called "Liberty! The American Revolution."

Lang has been in 77 roles in movies and TV, and his biggest hit (megahit) is Avatar from 2009, the highest grossing film of all time.

Well, I covered one more character from the Civil War.  This could become a completely separate blog!