The next Santa is comin’ to town

Paul Giamatti is the latest actor to don the red-and-white suit and hat to play Santa Claus, a.k.a. Kris Kringle and St. Nick, with the new family comedy “Fred Claus,” opening Friday.

Giamatti’s Nicholas Claus tries to be a merry soul, but he’s battling the bulge as well as an efficiency expert about to shutter the North Pole. And to make matters worse, Santa’s rapscallion of an older brother, Fred (Vince Vaughn), is in town to earn some money. The cast includes Kevin Spacey and Miranda Richardson.

One of the most memorable actors to play Santa was Edmund Gwenn, who won an Oscar for supporting actor as Kris Kringle in the heartwarming 1947 family classic, “Miracle on 34th Street.” Over the years, there have been several remakes of the holiday favorite: Thomas Mitchell, who was Scarlett O’Hara’s father in “Gone With the Wind,” played Kris in the 1955 TV version; funnyman Ed Wynn performed the role in a 1959 TV adaptation; and Sebastian Cabot of “Family Affair” took over the role in a 1973 TV remake.

And then Oscar-winning director Richard Attenborough put on the white whiskers to play Kris in the poorly received 1994 feature remake.

Edward Asner sort of worked up to the role. He costarred in a 1991 TV movie about Santa, “Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus,” then voiced St. Nick in the 1996 animated TV special, “The Story of Santa Claus” and finally got to don the costume to play the jolly guy in “Elf,” the 2003 Will Ferrell comedy.

The late Broadway actor John Call certainly isn’t a household name, but for fans of truly bad cinema, he’ll forever be known as Santa Claus in “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians,” a well-stuffed 1964 turkey that also stars a young Pia Zadora as a green-faced Martian child.

But since 1994, comic actor Tim Allen has taken over the reins as the most popular Santa, thanks to his portrayal of everyman Scott Calvin, who is transformed into Santa Claus after accidentally killing St. Nick on Christmas Eve in “The Santa Clause.” The yuletide comedy was so well received that it spawned two sequels: “The Santa Clause 2” (2002) and “The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause” (2006).

-- Susan King