- He has played 3 different historical American presidents; Gerald Ford in The Betty Ford Story (1987), Franklin D. Roosevelt in The Kennedys of Massachusetts (1990), Woodrow Wilson in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles - Paris, May 1919 (1993) as well as 1 fictional president in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006).
- Father, Clemens Sommer, was a professor of history at the University of North Carolina.
- Starred in two unrelated TV movies dealing with the Kennedys: "The Kennedys of Massachusetts" in which he played Franklin Roosevelt, and "A Woman Named Jackie" in which he played Joseph Kennedy Sr.
- In 1982, appeared in two films with Meryl Streep: sharing scenes with her in Still of the Night (1982) and narrating her character story in Sophie's Choice (1982). The following year they co-starred in Silkwood (1983).
- The hugely popular NHL team, Anaheim Ducks, got their name from his character, Mr. Gerald Ducksworth, in the movie the Mighty Ducks.
- He appeared with three of the five actors who played Jack Ryan (as of 2019): Harrison Ford in Witness (1985); Alec Baldwin in Malice (1993) and Ben Affleck in The Sum of All Fears (2002) - the latter being a film from the Ryan franchise.
- He was awarded the 1980 Outstanding Performance for "The Lady and the Clarinet" at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
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