Teddy Roosevelt packed a lot into his 60-year life: soldier, politician, author, social reformer, environmentalist, big-game hunter, husband and father. Below, meet some of the people most important to America’s 26th president, and tap or mouse over the photos to see how they appear in The HISTORY® Channel’s two-part documentary event “Theodore Roosevelt.” Click on a category below or scroll through all.
-
All
-
Family
-
Friends & Colleagues
-
Commanders
-
Politicos
-
Influences
-
Foes
1
Thomas Byrnes
NYC Police Chief
Byrnes rose from Irish immigrant to New York’s top cop, becoming rich in the process. Roosevelt, newly appointed as a police commissioner, forced him to retire in 1895, part of a push to clean up the notoriously corrupt department from the top down.
Played by: Deon Lotz
2
Edith Carow
Second Wife
After the death of his first wife, Roosevelt married Edith Carow in 1886. The two had been close family friends since youth, and their marriage produced five children in 10 years. She became First Lady in 1901, with Roosevelt’s sudden ascension to the presidency.
Played by: Emily Child
3
Samuel Gompers
Labor Advocate
President of the American Federation of Labor, Samuel Gompers found an ally in Roosevelt, who shared his abhorrence for the terrible working conditions of the day. Later they had a falling out, and Gompers opposed Roosevelt’s 1912 presidential bid.
Played by: Kevin Otto
4
Alice Lee
First Wife
Alice Hathaway Lee married Roosevelt on his 22nd birthday in 1880, when she was 19. In 1884, two days after giving birth, and hours after the death of Roosevelt’s mother, she died of kidney failure. Roosevelt, gutted, fled for the Dakota wilderness.
Played by: Melissa Myburgh
5
Henry Cabot Lodge
Politician and Statesman
A Massachusetts-born blueblood, Congressman and later Senator Lodge became one of Roosevelt’s closest confidantes. The two shared an aggressive view of U.S. foreign policy—sometimes called “Big Stick diplomacy”—including the show of American naval might around the world.
6
William McKinley
U.S. President
The 25th president of the United States, McKinley was shot by an assassin in September 1901 and died days later from a gangrene-infected wound. Roosevelt, his vice president, finished McKinley’s term, then won election in a 1904 landslide.
Played by: Aubrey Shelton
7
John Pierpont Morgan
Gilded Age Financier
Among the richest men of the era, Morgan became a prime target for Roosevelt, who believed large corporate trusts wielded too much power. Roosevelt thwarted Morgan’s attempt to create a railroad monopoly in 1902-04, earning his reputation as a “trust buster.”
Played by: Robert B. Smith
8
Jacob Riis
Photographer and Activist
Reporter-turned-reformer Riis used his camera to document the appalling living conditions in the nation’s slums. Riis took Roosevelt on nighttime tours of New York tenement districts, opening the future president’s eyes to the realities of poverty.
Played by: Antony C. Hyde
9
John D. Rockefeller
Oil Magnate
As head of Standard Oil, Rockefeller built one of the largest monopolies in the U.S. Roosevelt took him on in 1906, charging the company with uncompetitive practices. Eventually the Supreme Court agreed and ordered it broken into 34 separate companies.
10
Alice Roosevelt Longworth
Eldest Daughter
Roosevelt’s oldest child—born to his first wife—was known for spirited antics like smoking on the White House roof and carrying a snake in her purse. Her famous quotation: “If you can’t say something good about someone, sit right here by me.”
Played by: Melissa Myburgh
11
Anna 'Bamie' Roosevelt
Sister
Roosevelt’s older sister Anna (known as “Bamie” and “Bye”) helped raise baby Alice after his first wife’s death and became a trusted adviser to her brother. “If Auntie Bye had been a man, she would have been president,” Alice said.
12
Archibald Roosevelt
Son
Archie was Roosevelt’s fifth child, born in 1894. He distinguished himself as an officer in both World War I and II. Between the wars, he became caught up in the Teapot Dome scandal but was not accused of wrongdoing.
13
Elliott Roosevelt
Brother
Like Roosevelt, his younger brother Elliott was a sickly child. But unlike Theodore, who transformed himself into a rugged outdoorsman, Elliott descended into alcoholism, dying at age 34. Even so, he was revered by his daughter, future First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
Played by: Oliver Schaal
14
Ethel Roosevelt
Daughter
Roosevelt’s youngest daughter Ethel, born in 1891, had her social debut at the White House. During World War I, she volunteered as a nurse and served in France with the American Ambulance Hospital alongside her surgeon husband, Richard Derby.
Played by: Katia Rixton
15
Kermit Roosevelt
Son
Kermit, Roosevelt’s second son, accompanied him on a 1913-14 expedition into the Brazilian jungle, during which the former president caught malaria and nearly died. Kermit fought in both world wars but, plagued by depression and alcoholism, took his own life in 1943.
Played by: Sven Ruygrok
Martha Bulloch Roosevelt
Mother
Born into a wealthy Southern slave-owning family, the future president’s mother “Mittie” supported the Confederacy in the Civil War, while her husband backed the North. Martha died of typhoid fever at age 48, hours before Roosevelt’s first wife.
16
Quentin Roosevelt
Son
The youngest son of Roosevelt and his wife Edith, Quentin, known for his charm and humor, dropped out of college during World War I to enlist as a pilot. He was killed in combat over France in July 1918, at age 20.
Played by: Kellen de Bruijn
17
Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.
Eldest Son
Roosevelt’s first son Ted served in both world wars, attaining the rank of brigadier general. He led troops in the June 1944 D-Day invasion, but died of a heart attack the following month, at age 56.
Theodore Roosevelt, Sr.
Father
Roosevelt’s father was a wealthy businessman and widely respected philanthropist, who actively supported his sickly son. After his death, at age 46 in 1878, Roosevelt called him “the best man I ever knew. He combined strength and courage with gentleness, tenderness and great unselfishness.”
Played by: Greg Parvess
18
William Sewall
Wilderness Guide
"As a sickly young man, Roosevelt traveled to northern Maine, hoping the mountain air would help restore his health. Sewall became his guide to the Maine woods, his trusted companion, and later helped work his ranch in the Dakota Territory.
Played by: Jandre Le Roux
19
William Howard Taft
U.S. President
When Roosevelt decided not to seek reelection in 1908, he chose his friend Taft as his successor. Taft won the presidency, but Roosevelt, unhappy with his policies, opposed him in 1912, first in the Republican primaries, then with the Bull Moose Party. Both lost to Democrat Woodrow Wilson.
Played by: Gavin Werner
20
Booker T. Washington
Author, Educator & Orator
In October 1901, Washington became the first Black American invited to dinner at the White House—outraging many Southern politicians. Responding to the uproar, Roosevelt wrote a friend, “I shall have him to dine just as often as I please.”
Played by: Stevel Marc
21
Leonard Wood
Rough Riders Commander
An army officer and physician, Wood was Roosevelt’s close friend and fencing partner. In 1898, Roosevelt recruited him to lead the Rough Riders in Cuba during the Spanish-American War and served as his second in command.
Played by: Mark Elderkin
Theodore Roosevelt Stories
Read more than two dozen stories on Theodore Roosevelt: cowboy, soldier, statesman, conservationist, adventurer, reformer—and America’s first modern president.
Learn More
The Ultimate Guide to the Presidents
Watch full videos, documentaries, episodes and more online with the HISTORYVault.
Start Free Trial
1
2
3
5
10
12
16
21
4
13
14
17
6
9
7
8
11
15
18
19
20