Casting Jesus: A look at actors who have played the Son of God in movies
Casting Jesus for the silver screen has always been tricky. Directors must balance the actor's ability to project a sense of both divinity and humanity. Have a look at some of the actors who have played Jesus over the decades.
hollywood Updated: Mar 07, 2014 12:03 IST
Casting Jesus for the silver screen has always been tricky. Directors must balance the actor's ability to project a sense of both divinity and humanity. They also need to sell tickets, and thus have often cast handsome, leading-man types.
In the new movie Son of God, Jesus is played by Portuguese actor Diogo Morgado, whose appearance has been compared to Brad Pitt and a young Marlon Brando, and who has inspired a Twitter hashtag of Hot Jesus.
Here are some of the actors who have played Jesus over the decades:
HB Warner, The King of Kings, director Cecil B. DeMille, 1927: This famous silent movie was in black and white, but the final scene, the Resurrection, was in Technicolor.
Claude Heater, Ben-Hur, director William Wyler, 1959: Heater's face was not shown in the film; all we saw was the back of his head.
Jeffrey Hunter, King of Kings, director Nicholas Ray, 1961: This film was nicknamed 'I was a Teenage Jesus' because of Hunter's youthful teen-idol looks, but actually he was in his 30s.
Max von Sydow, The Greatest Story Ever Told, director George Stevens, 1965: Director Stevens cast the admired Swedish actor as Jesus and surrounded him with Hollywood actors like John Wayne, who had one line: "Truly this man was the son of God."
Ted Neeley, Jesus Christ Superstar, director Norman Jewison, 1973: Neeley became the "rock star Jesus" as the star of Andrew Lloyd Webber's rock opera on both stage and screen.
Victor Garber, Godspell, director David Greene, 1973: A musical retelling of the New Testament's Gospel of Matthew with a score by Stephen Schwartz.
Willem Dafoe, The Last Temptation of Christ, director Martin Scorsese, 1988: The film was one of the few to present a Jesus conflicted about his identity and vulnerable to earthly temptations.
Jim Caviezel, The Passion of the Christ, director Mel Gibson, 2004: One of the most controversial movies ever made, due both to its graphic depiction of Jesus' crucifixion and to allegations of anti-Semitic content.
Diogo Morgado, Son of God, director Christopher Spencer, 2014.
Watch video: Son of God Movie - trailer
