George A. Billings
American actor (1870-1934)
George A. Billings (November 22, 1870 – April 15, 1934) was an American actor noted for his portrayals of Abraham Lincoln in films of the 1920s.
Biography
Born in Preston, Minnesota in 1870, he the son of Henry Orville Billings and Amanda Melvina Warr. Billings was a carpenter for most of his life. While working for the Los Angeles City Department, he heard Al and Ray Rockett were looking for a man that resembled Lincoln for the 1924 film The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln. He was hired for the film, despite a lack of prior acting experience, due to his striking resemblance to Lincoln, even down to the mole on his face. Billings went on to portray Lincoln in several more films.
In 1927, he also toured the mid-western United States playing Lincoln in a two-man play with Henry Fonda. Things started out well, but Fonda finally quit due to Billings prodigious drinking. It was Fonda's first professional job as an actor.
Filmography (all roles playing Abraham Lincoln)
The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln (1924)
Barbara Frietchie (1924)
The Man Without a Country (1925)
Hands Up!
“George A. Billings” enters the record as american actor (1870-1934). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what George, Billings and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5535926. VIAF identifies the subject as 315533763. The Library of Congress control number is no2002017587. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1870, 1934, 1924 and 1927.
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This entry incorporates text from “George A. Billings” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.