Nominated for Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

The film version of the Broadway musical comedy of the same name. In the days leading up to July 4, 1776, Continental Congressmen John Adams and Benjamin Franklin coerce Thomas Jefferson into writing the Declaration of Independence as a delaying tactic as they try to persuade the American colonies to support a resolution on independence. As George Washington sends depressing messages describing one military disaster after another, the businessmen, landowners and slave holders in Congress all stand in the way of the Declaration, and a single "nay" vote will forever end the question of independence. Large portions of spoken and sung dialog are taken directly from the letters and memoirs of the actual participants.

Cast

Delegates

An asterisk (*) indicates an actor or actress who was also in the original Broadway cast.

William Daniels as John Adams (MA)*

David Ford as John Hancock (MA)*

Ken Howard as Thomas Jefferson (VA)*

Ron Holgate as Richard Henry Lee (VA)*

Howard da Silva as Benjamin Franklin (PA)*

Donald Madden as John Dickinson (PA)

Emory Bass as James Wilson (PA)*

John Cullum as Edward Rutledge (SC)*

Jonathan Moore as Lyman Hall (GA)*

Roy Poole as Stephen Hopkins (RI)*

Howard Caine as Lewis Morris (NY)

John Myhers as Robert Livingston (NY)

Rex Robbins as Roger Sherman (CT)

William Hansen as Caesar Rodney (DE)

Ray Middleton as Thomas McKean (DE)

Leo Leyden as George Read (DE)

James Noble as Reverend John Witherspoon (NJ)

Charles Rule as Joseph Hewes (NC)*

Patrick Hines as Samuel Chase (MD)

Daniel Keyes as Josiah Bartlett (NH)

Others

Blythe Danner as Martha Jefferson