Anthony Hopkins, Trevor Howard and Charles Laughton have all played which historical figure in film?

William Bligh (1754-1817) was an English officer in the British Navy, who sailed with Captain James Cook on his third and final voyage in 1776. In 1787, Bligh was made captain of HMS Bounty and sailed to Tahiti to collect breadfruit trees. A mutiny on HMS Bounty famously prevented Bligh from finishing this task. In 1806, Bligh was made Governor of New South Wales in Australia and, after returning to England, was made a Rear-Admiral and later a Vice-Admiral of the Royal Navy.

Bligh has been depicted in films on several occasions, notably in the films 'Mutiny on the Bounty' in 1935 and 1962, and 'The Bounty' in 1984. English-American actor Charles Laughton (1899-1962) portrayed Bligh in the 1935 version of 'Mutiny on the Bounty', which was the highest-grossing film that year. It won an Academy Award for Best Picture, and as of 2022, is the only film to receive three nominations for Best Actor.

English actor Trevor Howard (1913-1988) starred in the 1962 film 'Mutiny on the Bounty'. Both this film and the previous version were based on the novel of the same name by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards.

Welsh actor Anthony Hopkins (born 1937) is the most recent actor to portray William Bligh in film. 'The Bounty' (1984) was based on Richard Hough's version of the real-life tale, 'Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian'. Fletcher Christian (1764-1793) was the first mate who took control of the ship during the mutiny.