<P> North and South is the title of three American television miniseries broadcast on the ABC network in 1985, 1986, and 1994 . Set before, during, and immediately after the American Civil War, they are based on the 1980s trilogy of novels North and South by John Jakes . The 1985 first installment, North and South, remains the seventh - highest rated miniseries in TV history . North and South: Book II (1986) was met with similar success, while 1994's Heaven and Hell: North and South Book III was poorly received by both critics and audiences . </P> <P> The saga tells the story of the enduring friendship between Orry Main of South Carolina (Patrick Swayze) and George Hazard of Pennsylvania (James Read), who become best friends while attending the United States Military Academy at West Point but later find themselves and their families on opposite sides of the war . The slave - owning Mains are rural planters, while the Hazards, who resided in a small Northern mill town, profit from ownership of manufacturing and industry capital, their differences reflecting the divisions between North and South that eventually led to the Civil War . </P> <P> The initial 1985 miniseries cast Patrick Swayze as Orry Main and James Read as George Hazard with Lesley - Anne Down as Orry's love interest Madeline and Wendy Kilbourne as George's future wife Constance . Kirstie Alley played George's outspoken abolitionist sister Virgilia, with Genie Francis as Orry's "good" sister Brett and Terri Garber as his selfish and wicked sister Ashton, as well as Philip Casnoff as Elkanah Bent, George and Orry's nemesis . All of these actors returned for the 1986 sequel, joined by Parker Stevenson as Billy Hazard, George's brother and Brett's husband . </P> <P> North and South (1985) also featured many well - known actors as guest stars, including Elizabeth Taylor as bordello proprietor Madam Conti, David Carradine as the sadistic Justin LaMotte, Hal Holbrook as Abraham Lincoln, Gene Kelly as Bent's father Senator Charles Edwards, Robert Mitchum as Colonel Patrick Flynn, M.D., Johnny Cash as abolitionist John Brown, Jean Simmons as Orry's mother Clarissa Main, Mitchell Ryan as Orry's father Tillet Main, John Anderson as George's father William Hazard, Jonathan Frakes as George's older brother Stanley Hazard, Inga Swenson as George's mother Maude Hazard, Robert Guillaume as abolitionist Frederick Douglass, Morgan Fairchild as Burdetta Halloran, David Ogden Stiers as Congressman Sam Greene, and Olivia Cole as Madeline's devoted but doomed servant Maum Sally . John Jakes' wife Rachel also made an appearance in Episode 6 as Lincoln's wife Mary . North and South: Book II (1986) saw the return of Carradine as LaMotte, Holbrook as Lincoln, and Stiers as Congressman Greene, as well as new guests Lloyd Bridges as Jefferson Davis, Anthony Zerbe as Ulysses S. Grant, Nancy Marchand as Dorothea Dix, James Stewart as Miles Colbert, Wayne Newton as Captain Thomas Turner, and William Schallert as Robert E. Lee, with Linda Evans as Rose Sinclair and Olivia de Havilland as Mrs. Neal . 1994's Heaven and Hell featured Peter O'Toole as "louche actor" Sam Trump and Billy Dee Williams as Francis Cardozo . </P>

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