---
name: "Charles McDowell"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/charles-mcdowell"
fi1m_id: "charles-mcdowell"
tmdb_id: 2327963
roles: []
born: "24 June 1926"
died: "5 November 2010"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-10-07T11:33:20.757285+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Charles McDowell

## Identity

Charles McDowell

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/charles-mcdowell
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** charles-mcdowell
- **TMDB ID:** 2327963
- **Same entity:** https://www.themoviedb.org/person/2327963

Actor. Born 24 June 1926 in Danville, Kentucky, USA. Died 5 November 2010.

## Details

- **Born:** 24 June 1926, Danville, Kentucky, USA
- **Died:** 5 November 2010
- **Elsewhere:** https://www.themoviedb.org/person/2327963

## Streaming the US now

- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*The Civil War*](https://film.one/tv/the-civil-war.md) (87)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Biography

Charles McDowell was an American journalist and commentator who voiced Samuel R. Watkins in Ken Burns's documentary series *The Civil War* (1990). He also supplied voices and served as a consultant on Burns's *Baseball* (1994).

Born in Danville, Kentucky, in 1926, McDowell spent nearly fifty years at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, later becoming a nationally syndicated columnist. He was a regular panellist on the PBS programme Washington Week in Review for eighteen years from 1978 and contributed to other PBS productions, including as writer, narrator and host of Summer of Judgment: The Watergate Hearings.

McDowell died in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 2010.

*Sources: nytimes.com, en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *The Civil War* (1990), Fi1m 87, as Samuel R. Watkins (voice) — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-civil-war.md)

## Complete filmography (2)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Baseball* (1994), series, as (voice)
- *The Civil War* (1990), series, as Samuel R. Watkins (voice) — Fi1m 87, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-civil-war.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/charles-mcdowell