6 Actors Who Played Martin Luther King Jr. On Screen

Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, HBO Now, Hulu, iTunes, Vudu, Xfinity Stream. Also on DVD from Amazon, Best Buy, eBay

LeVar Burton

Ali (2001)

Burton, (Star Trek: The Next Generation's Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge, Roots’ Kunta Kinte) is the only actor to have played King who, like him, deeply studied Kierkegaard and Nietzsche in a seminary and can match King's flawless diction. If his brief turn as King in Ali gets your interest, get his audiobook of King's autobiography.

Here's Burton's favorite King quote: “A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true."

Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, FandangoNow, Google Play, iTunes, Redbox On Demand, Vudu, Xfinity Stream. Also on Blu-ray and DVD from Amazon, Best Buy, eBay

Paul Winfield

King: The Martin Luther King Jr. Story (1978)

King's widow, Coretta Scott King, had casting approval for this TV miniseries, and she hired Oscar nominee Winfield to play him as well as Cicely Tyson to play herself.

Winfield with his huge, empathic eyes and warm personality got an Emmy nomination for capturing King not just as a towering, rather remote public figure, but as a guy you feel you know. He's no match for the real man as an orator, though.

Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Google Play. Also on Blu-ray and DVD from Amazon, DVD from Best Buy, eBay

Nelsan Ellis

Lee Daniels’ The Butler (2013)

Ellis, the most charismatic actor on TV's True Blood, doesn't have a lot of scenes in this story of a black butler (Forest Whitaker) who worked at the White House from 1952 to 1986 and served eight presidents. But one speech wonderfully evokes King's ability to inspire the downtrodden.

Ellis's King tells the hero: “Young brother, the black domestic defies racial stereotypes by being hardworking and trustworthy. He slowly tears down racial hatred with his example of a strong work ethic and dignified character. Now, while we perceive the butler or the maid to be subservient, in many ways they are subversive without even knowing it."

Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, FandangoNow, iTunes, Redbox On Demand, Vudu, Xfinity Stream. Also on Blu-ray and DVD from Amazon, Best Buy, eBay

Dexter Scott King

The Rosa Parks Story (2002)

The actor who most resembles King physically is his son Dexter, named after the Montgomery church, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where the elder King had his first pastorate. Left virtually penniless when his father died, Dexter King became a millionaire producer in Hollywood, whose animated children's film about his dad, Our Friend Martin, got an Emmy nomination.

At 7, he told his mom, “You know, Mommy. I don't see how my daddy can do so much and talk to so many people, and not even get tired at all."

Where to watch: Xfinity Stream. Also on DVD from Amazon, eBay