John Cusack and Edward Norton have each played which celebrity figure in different 20th century films?

John Cusack and Edward Norton have each played the US celebrity figure Nelson Rockefeller in a major US motion picture. Cusack was Rockefeller in the 1999 film "Cradle Will Rock", an American historical drama film written, produced and directed by Tim Robbins. Norton portrayed Rockefeller in the 2002 biopic "Frida", which was directed by Julie Taymor and which depicts the professional and private life of the surrealist Mexican artist. For his version of the screenplay, Norton received a good number of positive reviews.

In "Cradle Will Rock", the film's storyline fictionalizes true events that surrounded the development of the 1937 musical "The Cradle Will Rock" by Marc Blitzstein. It adapts history to create an account of the original production, bringing in other stories of the time to produce a social commentary on the role of art and power in the 1930s.

The film "Frida" is a biography of artist Frida Kahlo, who channeled the pain of a crippling injury and her tempestuous marriage into her work. Additionally, to support the main plot, historical events are noted. A good example concerns a group of workers who destroy the mural "Man at the Crossroads". This occurs following a dispute between Nelson Rockefeller and Diego Rivera over the inclusion of Russian communist leader Lenin in the artwork.

Nelson Rockefeller (July 1908—January 1979) was the 41st vice president of the US (1974–77). He is better known for being a four-term governor of New York (1959–73).