Cecil Gaines was a sharecropper's son who grew up in the 1920s as a domestic servant for the white family who casually destroyed his. Eventually striking out on his own, Cecil becomes a hotel valet of such efficiency and discreteness in the 1950s that he becomes a butler in the White House itself. There, Cecil would serve numerous US Presidents over the decades as a passive witness of history with the American Civil Rights Movement gaining momentum even as his family has troubles of its own. As his wife, Gloria, struggles with alcoholism and his defiant eldest son, Louis, strives for a just world, Cecil must decide whether he should take action in his own way.
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Forest WhitakerCecil Gaines
Oprah WinfreyGloria Gaines
David OyelowoLouis Gaines
John CusackRichard Nixon
Jane FondaNancy Reagan
Cuba Gooding Jr.Carter Wilson
Mariah CareyHattie Pearl
Terrence HowardHoward
Lenny KravitzJames Holloway
Aml AmeenCecil Gaines (15)
Michael Rainey Jr.Cecil Gaines (8)
James MarsdenJohn F. Kennedy
Alex PettyferThomas Westfall
Vanessa RedgraveAnnabeth Westfall
Alan RickmanRonald Reagan
Liev SchreiberLyndon B. Johnson
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