Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns is promoting his latest work, Benjamin Franklin, a two-part, four-hour series airing on PBS. Broadway legend and Homeland star Mandy Patinkin is the voice behind the legendary writer, publisher, diplomat, and inventor. His wife, Deborah Franklin, is voiced by Carolyn McCormick. Liam Neeson, Josh Lucas and Paul Giamatti, among others, also lend their voices to the documentary.
The narrator of Benjamin Franklin is actor Peter Coyote. He’s known for his on-camera roles in films including A Walk to Remember (Rev. Sullivan), Patch Adams (Bill Davis), Roman Polanski’s Bitter Moon (Oscar), and Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Keys), among others.
Coyote won a Primetime Emmy as narrator of Ken Burns’ 2014 series The Roosevelts: An Intimate History. The late Edward Herrmann was the voice of Franklin Roosevelt; Meryl Streep was Eleanor Roosevelt; and Paul Giamatti was Teddy Roosevelt.
Coyote also narrated the 12-hour Ken Burns series on the National Parks, and Burns’ 2019 PBS documentary Country Music.
Fun fact: according to imdb, “Ken Burns considers Coyote to be his ‘narrator muse,’ and Coyote never reads Burns’ scripts in advance of performing the narrations.”
Benjamin Franklin premieres on PBS on Monday, April 4 at 8 pm.
