December 18, 1974: "The Missiles of October" Premieres On ABC

William Devane as JFK

December 18, 1974: The TV-movie The Missiles of October airs on ABC. William Devane plays President John F. Kennedy, and Martin Sheen plays his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. The film is based on Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis, written by RFK but not published until 1969, after his assassination.

The film also stars Howard Da Silva as Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, and Ralph Bellamy as U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson.

In 1979, Sheen starred in Blind Ambition, based on the memoir of John Dean, counselor to President Richard Nixon and defendant/informant in the Watergate case. In 1983, he starred in the NBC miniseries Kennedy, making him, as far as I know, to this day, the only actor ever to play both Jack and Bobby Kennedy. That same year, in The Dead Zone, he played a Senate candidate who, in a vision of the future by Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken), becomes a President who starts World War III.

In 2003, playing fictional President Jed Bartlet on The West Wing, Sheen was reunited with Devane, who played Secretary of State Lewis Berryhill. In 2007, he provided the voice of George Washington for the documentary Searching for George Washington.

Devane has also played fictional Presidents on Stargate SG-1 and 24, and in The Dark Knight Rises. In 1991, in the NBC film A Woman Named Jackie, he played Jack Bouvier, father of Jacqueline Kennedy.

Bellamy had played Franklin D. Roosevelt in Sunrise at Campobello in 1960, telling of FDR's initial struggle with polio before becoming President. He played FDR as President in the 1984 ABC miniseries The Winds of War and its 1988 sequel War and Remembrance, based on the World War II novels of Herman Wouk.

Da Silva, the original Jud Fry in Oklahoma! in 1943, played Benjamin Franklin in the 1969 Broadway musical 1776 and its 1972 film version. And he played FDR in the 1977 film The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover.

In 2000, a theatrical release about the Crisis was released, taking the Thirteen Days name from RFK's book, but based on another book about the Crisis, based on information declassified long after The Missiles of October aired.

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December 18, 1974 was a Wednesday. Pro Bowl linebacker Peter Boulware was born.

Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 3 games in the NBA:

* The Boston Celtics beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 131-99 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Washington Bullets beat the New Orleans Jazz, 113-90 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Detroit Pistons, 100-97 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit. Fred Brown scored 34 for the Sonics.

There were 4 games in the American Basketball Association:

* The Virginia Squires beat the Memphis Sounds, 112-86 at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 128-122 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis. George McGinnis led all scorers on the night with 45.

* The Kentucky Colonels beat the Spirits of St. Louis, 110-94 at the St. Louis Arena. Artis Gilmore scored 36 for the Colonels.

* And the San Diego Conquistadors beat the Utah Stars, 113-99 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena).

There were 6 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Minnesota North Stars, 7-0 at Madison Square Garden. Former Boston Bruins star Derek Sanders scored 3 goals and had an assist for the Rangers.

* The New York Islanders lost to the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 6-4 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat their arch-rivals, the Detroit Red Wings, 7-5 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Kansas City Scouts, 6-0 at the Kemper Arena (now the Hy-Vee Arena) in Kansas City.

* And the Montreal Canadiens beat the California Golden Seals, 4-3 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

And there were 2 games in the World Hockey Association. The Quebec Nordiques beat the Winnipeg Jets, 5-1 at the Colisée de Québec. And the Phoenix Roadrunners beat the Vancouver Blazers, 5-3 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum.