List of ''From the Earth to the Moon'' characters

This is a list of characters, real and fictional, in the 1998 HBO docudrama TV miniseries From the Earth to the Moon.

Fictional and/or connective characters

• Tom Hanks appears as host of the first 11 episodes, introducing each from in front of a huge relief sculpture of the Greek god Apollo. This format is not used for the final episode, "Le Voyage dans la Lune", in which Hanks appears in character as Jean-Luc Despont, assistant to French filmmaker Georges Méliès.
• Lane Smith portrays Emmett Seaborn, a fictional news reporter for a fictitious television network. Seaborn appears in 6 episodes, covering America's space program from the earliest days through the flight of Apollo 13. He also appears in the final episode, reporting on the final Apollo 17 lunar mission, and is himself an interview subject in a mock documentary. The fictional character was added to provide a sense of continuity to the series, often serving as a Greek chorus. Seaborn's personality is similar in some respects to Walter Cronkite, though the real Cronkite is mentioned at times and seen in archive footage. The use of a fictional character also allows for dramatic conflict to be created more easily in episode 8, "We Interrupt This Program," with another fictional reporter Brett Hutchings (Jay Mohr).
• Clint Howard as fictional flight controller Paul Lucas in episode 8, "We Interrupt This Program".
• Jay Mohr as Brett Hutchins, a fictional young television reporter who competes for Emmett Seaborn's job in episode 8.
• John Michael Higgins as the host of a fashion show featuring the nine wives of NASA Astronaut Group 2 in episode 11, "The Original Wives' Club".
• Blythe Danner provides voice-over narration for much of the final episode, which is presented in a documentary format.

Astronauts

NASA ground personnel

• Dan Lauria as James E. Webb, NASA's second Administrator from 1961 to 1968; appears mainly in episodes 1 and 2.
• George Bartenieff as Hugh L. Dryden, NASA's first Deputy Administrator until 1965.
• John Carroll Lynch as Robert R. Gilruth, first Director of the Manned Spacecraft Center
• Reed Birney as John Houbolt, the NASA Langley engineer who fought to persuade NASA management that a separate spacecraft (the Lunar Module) was the easiest way to achieve a manned lunar landing.
• Stephen Root as Christopher Kraft, NASA's first Flight Director, later second Director of the Manned Spacecraft Center.
• Dan Butler as Flight Director Gene Kranz.
• Joe Spano as George Mueller, Associate Administrator of the Office of Manned Space Flight from September 1963 until December 1969; appears in episode 2.
• Sam Anderson as Thomas O. Paine, Webb's successor as NASA Administrator.
• Barry Bell as Rocco Petrone, Apollo Program Director
• Dann Florek as Robert Seamans, NASA's second Deputy Administrator from 1965 to 1968; appears in episodes 2 and 5.
• Jim Piddock as Flight Director John Hodge; appears in episode 1.
• Kevin Pollak as Joseph Francis Shea, head of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office.
• Nick Searcy as Deke Slayton, grounded Project Mercury astronaut who becomes Director of Flight Operations, responsible for supervising the astronauts and determining the flight rotation, appears in all the episodes except "The Original Wives' Club".
• Dakin Matthews as Dr. Floyd L. Thompson, director of NASA's Langley Research Center, who led the Apollo 1 accident review board.
• Norbert Weisser as Dr. Wernher von Braun

Astronauts' family members

• Betsy Brantley and Ann Cusack as Jan Armstrong, wife of Neil Armstrong
• Rita Wilson as Susan Borman, wife of Frank Borman.
• Rhoda Griffis as Martha Chaffee, wife of Roger Chaffee
• Cynthia Stevenson as Jane Conrad, wife of Pete Conrad
• Sally Field as Trudy Cooper, wife of L. Gordon Cooper
• Ruth Reid as Betty Grissom, wife of Gus Grissom
• Elizabeth Perkins as Marilyn Lovell, wife of James Lovell
• DeLane Matthews as Pat McDivitt, wife of James McDivitt
• Debra Jo Rupp as Marilyn See, wife of Elliott See
• JoBeth Williams as Marge Slayton, wife of Deke Slayton
• Wendy Crewson as Faye Stafford, wife of Thomas Stafford
• Jo Anderson as Pat White, wife of Ed White
• Deirdre O'Connell as Barbara Young, wife of John Young

Non-NASA personnel (non-fictional)

• Mason Adams as Senator Clinton P. Anderson, chairman of the Senate committee investigating the Apollo 1 fire in episode 2.
• Ronny Cox as Lee Atwood, president of North American Aviation, the Apollo spacecraft prime contractor.
• Andrew Rubin as Jules Bergman, ABC TV science editor
• Alan Ruck as Tom Dolan, an engineer at Chance Vought Industries who made the Moon-rendezvous report that landed at Houbolts desk.
• Isa Totah as Farouk El-Baz, a lunar geologist who trains Apollo 15 Command Module Pilot Al Worden to recognize lunar surface features from orbit in episode 10.
• Matt Craven as Tom Kelly, Grumman engineer responsible for managing the design and construction of the Lunar Module.
• Tchéky Karyo as Georges Méliès, a French filmmaker who made the 1902 film Le Voyage dans la Lune.
• John Slattery as Senator Walter Mondale
• David Clennon as geology professor Lee Silver, who trains the Apollo 15-17 landing crews to recognize important lunar material to collect, in episodes 10 and 12.
• Janis Benson as Senator Margaret Chase Smith
• Jack Gilpin as Ted Sorensen, Deputy Counsel to President Kennedy.
• Tom Nowicki as David Bell, director of the Office of Management and Budget.
• James Rebhorn as Harrison Storms, vice president of North American, responsible for the Command and Service Modules.
• Max Wright as Guenter Wendt, Pad Leader for the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.^[1]
• Al Franken as Jerome Wiesner, President John F. Kennedy's science advisor in episode 1.

Cameo appearances

• Andrew Chaikin, the author of the book A Man on the Moon on which the miniseries is largely based, appears in episode 1 as the moderator of NBC's Meet the Press.
• Guenter Wendt appears as an anonymous flight controller reviewing a flight plan with Deke Slayton, in the background of a scene in "We Have Cleared the Tower".

Notes

References

• Farmer, Gene; Dora Jane Hamblin (1970). First On the Moon: A Voyage With Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. Boston: Little, Brown and Co. pp. 51–54. Library of Congress 76-103950.