7 actors who played Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and how they compare to the civil rights leader

Winfield captured the determination and passion of King well, so much so that he earned an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of the civil rights leader.

In addition to getting the hair and mustache right, Winfield captured the essence of MLK's expressions while he preached or spoke publicly. Yet Winfield avoided "a conscious impersonation," the New York Times reported in 1978.

"It's impossible to do the man justice—his deep, rich baritone voice and tremendous breath control were brilliant just from an acting point of view. I couldn't have done it," Winfield told the publication. "Dr. King's father said to me, 'There was only one Martin.' As an actor, I had to be free to expand here, add there."

The movie is based on real events that happened during the Selma to Montgomery marches and follows the journey of a young girl who, after seeing King deliver a speech, is moved and joins in the marches.

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There's something just a little bit off about his impersonation of King's voice — he's too soft-spoken and sounds more like he's from New York.

The film was inspired by Stewart Burns' book "Daybreak of Freedom," and follows a timeline from Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat on a "whites only" bus in 1955 to the end of the bus boycott the following year.

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Among other nominations and awards, the HBO film received three nominations – including Outstanding Actor for Wright — and one win at the 2002 NAACP Image Awards.

Variety's Phil Gallo wrote in 2001 that Wright played King "with hushed zeal and an inner flame that grows into a fuel burn by telepic's end."

The TV movie explored the life of civil rights activist Rosa Parks and the events that lead to her refusal to give up her seat on a "whites only" bus in 1955 and the subsequent bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama.

Not only does Dexter look like his father, but he also inherited the same powerful, booming voice that could get the attention of an entire room in a second.

The play, written by Katori Hall, tells the fictional story of April 3, 1968 — the night before King's assassination — in room 306 of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. In the UK, it won the Laurence Olivier Award for best new play in 2010. It opened on Broadway the following year.

We've associated Jackson's voice for years with iconic characters in Quentin Tarantino movies — such as Jules Winnfield from "Pulp Fiction" or Ordell Robbie from "Jackie Brown" — so it might seem hard to separate Jackson from these performances. Yet the New York Times' Ben Brantley called his portrayal of King "engagingly low-key."

The film followed the lives of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s and Malcolm X's widows after their assassinations.

However, he was not on screen for long — the majority of the movie follows Coretta Scott King, played by Angela Bassett, and Dr. Betty Shabazz, played by Mary J. Blige.

The film is a dramatic recount of King's voter rights campaign and the Selma to Montgomery marches of 1965.

Oyelowo shared a striking resemblance to Dr. King, and also mastered his speaking style. The actor won a Golden Globe for his performance in the film.

The New York Times' A.O. Scott wrote in 2014 that Oyelowo played the icon "with the requisite grace and dignity and also with streaks of humor, weariness and doubt."