IBSA’s commemoration of Illinois’ bicentennial in Maryville will include a visit from the state’s most famous resident. President Abraham Lincoln, as portrayed by Fritz Klein, will feature prominently in Wednesday evening’s celebration of “Pioneering Spirit: 200 & Counting.”
Klein has portrayed Lincoln for decades across the country and internationally, performing in schools, museums, historical reenactments, and on stage and film. The Springfield-based artist’s resemblance to Lincoln is uncanny—the Associated Press once mistakenly identified a photo of Klein as Lincoln himself.
Over the years, Klein has shared some fun facts about his vocation, including:
His voice is close to Lincoln’s, but not identical. The real-life Lincoln spoke in high, nasal tones that weren’t always pleasing to the ear, Klein told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 2010. He takes Lincoln’s intonation down a notch in his performances. “You have to strike a balance between public perception and reality,” Klein told the newspaper.
He makes his own pens. Klein’s fascination with handwriting started early and continued when he started portraying Lincoln. He taught himself to write right-handed, like the 16th President, and makes his own quill pens to practice the shaded writing Lincoln used.
He got his start during America’s bicentennial. Klein was living in Hawaii in the 1970s when someone suggested he could portray Lincoln in a U.S. bicentennial celebration. He turned the role down at first, he told the Illinois Times earlier this year, but changed his mind after the production’s director sent a makeup artist to turn Klein into Lincoln.
See Fritz Klein as Abraham Lincoln at the 2018 IBSA Annual Meeting, Nov. 7-8 at First Baptist Church, Maryville.
-Information from St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Springfield State Journal-Register, Illinois Times