How Donald Trump Used Hollywood to Create ‘Donald Trump’

Most politicians have a public record of speeches and votes on issues of the day, but Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee for president, has left a different type of record: a near-constant presence in TV shows, movies, documentaries, pageants and even professional wrestling events over 30 years. His first television appearance seems to have been an uncredited 1981 cameo on the sitcom “The Jeffersons.”

Since then, Trump has seized on opportunities to create a recurring character over three decades: a larger-than-life New York billionaire named Donald Trump. His cameos have included numerous TV shows (“The Nanny,” “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “Sex and the City”) and movies (“Home Alone 2,” “Zoolander” and Woody Allen’s “Celebrity.”). Including his many interviews on late-night talk shows, appearances on beauty pageant and professional wrestling shows, and a recurring role on his reality program “The Apprentice,” his credits have numbered in the hundreds, according to the Internet Movie Database. His memorable cameos have been collected in at least one YouTube supercut.