This is a chronological listing of our initial filmography of Jesus. Use the Jesus Filmography Name Index for alphabetical searches. Ultimately we'll be converting this to an online database with expanded credits such as alternative titles, writers, and short critical summaries. Much of our material has been based on the pioneer work of Roy Kinnard and Tim Daly's Divine Images: A History of Jesus on the Screen [1992, Citadel Press] as well as W. Barnes Tatum's recent Jesus at the Movies: A Guide to the First Hundred Years, [1998, Polebridge Press].
These books and related works are available for online ordering from Illiteralist Books. We also invite you to submit information on other Jesus films, whether they're of a historical or allegorical type.
Frank Russell
The Passion Play of Oberammergau, 1897
DIR: Henry C. Vincent
PROD: Richard G. Hollamen, Albert G. Eaves
COUNTRY: USA
M. Norman
The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ, 1908
COUNTRY: FRANCE
Charles Kent
Though Your Sins Be as Scarlet, 1911
COUNTRY: USA
Robert Henderson-Bland
From the Manger to the Cross, 1913
DIR: Sidney Olcott
COUNTRY: USA
Frederick W. Huntley
The Three Wise Men, 1913
COUNTRY: USA
Sydney Ayres
The Last Supper, 1914
DIR: Lorimer Johnstone
COUNTRY: USA
Hobart Bosworth
Business is Business, 1915
DIR: Otis Turner
COUNTRY: USA
George Fisher
Civiization, 1916
DIR: Thomas H. Ince
COUNTRY: USA
Howard Gaye
Intolerance, 1916
DIR: D. W. Griffith
PROD: D. W. Griffith
COUNTRY: USA
Gaye later directed himself as Jesus in Restitution, 1918.
Giovanni Pasquali
Christus, 1917
DIR: Giuli Antamoro
COUNTRY: Italy
Howard Gaye
Restitution, 1918
DIR: Howard Gaye
COUNTRY: USA
See also his Jesus in Intolerance
Halvard Hoff
Leaves from Satan's Book, 1922
DIR: Carl Theodor Dreyer
COUNTRY: Denmark
Gregori Chmara
I.N.R.I., 1923
DIR: Robert Weine
COUNTRY: Germany
Adolph Fassnacht
The Passion Play, 1924
DIR: Dimitri Buchowetzki
COUNTRY: Germany
H. B. Warner
The King of Kings, 1927
DIR: Cecil B. DeMille
PROD: Cecil B. DeMille
COUNTRY: USA
Philip Van Loan
Jesus of Nazareth, 1928
COUNTRY: USA
Robert Le Vignan
Golgotha, 1935
PROD: Julien Duvivier
COUNTRY: France
Luis Alcoriza
Mary Magdalene, 1946
DIR: Miguel Torres
COUNTRY: Mexico
Millard Coody
The Lawton Story, 1949
DIR: William Beaudine, Harold Daniels
PROD: Kroger Babb
COUNTRY: USA
Lawton, Oklahoma's annual Passion Play turned into film by exploitation distributor Babbs and shot in "Natural Color."
Charles P. Carr
The Westminster Passion Play, 1951
COUNTRY: UK
Robert Wilson
I Beheld His Glory, 1952
DIR: John T. Coyle
PROD: Rev. James K. Friederich, L.H.D.
COUNTRY: USA
Cameron Mitchell
The Robe, 1953
DIR: Henry Koster
PROD: Frank Ross
COUNTRY: USA
Mitchell provided the (uncredited) voice-over for Jesus's sole line: "Father, forgive them..." Jesus "stand-in" was unidentified and shot from the back, out of frame, or at a distance
First film shot in CinemaScope.
Robert Wilson
Day of Triumph, 1954
DIR: Irving Pichel, John T. Coyle
PROD: Rev. James K. Friedrich, L.H.D.
COUNTRY: USA
Jon Shepodd
The Power of Resurrection, 1958
DIR: Howard Schuster
PROD: Family Films
COUNTRY: USA
Claude Heater
Ben-Hur, 1959
DIR: William Wyler
PROD: Sam Zimbalist
COUNTRY: USA
Jeffrey Hunter
King of Kings, 1961
DIR: Nicholas Ray
PROD: Samuel Bronston
COUNTRY: USA
Known in film circles of the time as "I Was a Teenage Jesus."
?????
The Sin of Jesus, 1961
Reportedly a "Sub-professional, amateur production." [Divine Images, 1992]
Roy Mangano
Barabbas, 1962
DIR: Richard Fleischer
PROD: Dino De Laurentis
COUNTRY: USA/Italy
Dino De Laurentis' brother-in-law was cast as Jesus.
John Drew Barrymore
Pontius Pilate, 1964
DIR: Irving Rapper, Gian Paolo Callegari
PROD: Enzo merolle
COUNTRY: Italy/France
John Drew Barrymore plays BOTH Jesus Christ and Judas Iscariot.
Max Von Sydow
The Greatest Story Ever Told, 1965
DIR: George Stevens
PROD: George Stevens
COUNTRY: USA
"Stevens has outdone himself by producing an austere Christian epic that offers few excitements of any kind." TIME
Luis Alvarez
The Redeemer,1965
PROD: Rev. Patrick Payton
COUNTRY: Spain
Jesus overdubbed by MacDonald Carey, narration by Sebastian Cabot
Enrique Irazoqui
The Gospel Accoding to Saint Matthew, 1966
DIR: Pier Pasolini
PROD: Alfredo Bini
COUNTRY: Italy/France
"Pier Pasolini has made a pic poles apart from the many which have told the story of Christ...eminently moveable and believable" VARIETY
Woody Strode
Black Jesus, 1968
DIR: Valerio Zurlini
PROD: Carlo Lizanni
COUNTRY: Italy
This Jesus/Patrice Lumumba allegory was dubbed and released as Black Jesus in the early 70's.
Bernard Verley
The Milky Way, 1969
DIR: Luis Buñuel
PROD: Serge Silberman
COUNTRY: France
"Buñuel employs no fantastic effects, though this is a livelier fantasy than, say, Wizard of Oz." NY TIMES
George Figgs
Multiple Maniacs, 1970
DIR: John Waters
COUNTRY: USA
Figgs later played an abortion clinic picketer in Water's Polyester.
Donald Sutherland
Johnny Got His Gun, 1971
DIR: Dalton Trumbo
PROD: Bruce Campbell
COUNTRY: USA
"...the work of a Norman Rockwell who couldn't draw." NY TIMES
Allan Arbus
Greaser's Palace, 1972
DIR: Robert Downey
COUNTRY: USA
A zootsuited Jesus returns to the American "Old West" via parachute.
"Sometimes inventive, sometimes maddening." Martin & Porter VIDEO GUIDE 1998
Donyale Luna
Salomé, 1972
DIR: Carmelo Bené
COUNTRY: Italy
"Single sequence of note is Bené's striking mocking vision of Christ nailing himself to the cross, unable to finish the job." VARIETY
Radomir Reljic
The Master and the Margherite, 1972
DIR: Aleksander Petrovic
COUNTRY: Yugoslavia/Italy
Peter O'Toole
The Ruling Class, 1972
DIR: Peter Medak
PROD: Jules Buck, Jack Hawkins
COUNTRY: UK
O'Toole received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
Victor Garber
Godspell, 1973
DIR: David Greene
PROD: Edgar Lansbury
COUNTRY: USA
"A relentlessly simplistic approach to the New Testament interpreted in overbearing children's-threatre-style mugging..." VARIETY
Robert Elfstrom
The Gospel Road, 1973
DIR: Robert Elfstrom
PROD: Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash
COUNTRY: USA
Johnny put up the cash and June played Mary Magdalene in this pseudo-documentary filmed on location in Israel.
Ted Neely
Jesus Christ, Superstar, 1973
DIR: Norman Jewison
PROD: Norman Jewison, Robert Stigwood
COUNTRY: USA
"Broadway and Israel meet head on and disastrously in the movie version of the rock opera." NY TIMES
?????
Him, 1974
Alledgedly a pornographic film. [Divine Images, 1992]
Finn Tavbe
I Saw Jesus Die, 1976
Alledgedly a pornographic film. [Divine Images, 1992]
Zalman King
The Passover Plot, 1976
DIR: Michael Campus
PROD: Golan & Golobus
COUNTRY: USA
"...Drains the vitality out of the Christ story through excessive verbiage and montonous overacting." VARIETY
Robert Powell
Jesus of Nazareth, 1977
DIR: Franco Zeffirelli
PROD: Vincenzo Labella
COUNTRY: UK/Italy
Richard Lynch
God Told Me To, 1977
DIR: Larry Cohen
PROD: Larry Cohen
COUNTRY: USA
"A delirious mix of sci-fi, pseudo-religious fantasy and horror detective fiction..." TIME OUT FILM GUIDE 1998
Ken Colley
Monty Python's Life of Brian, 1979
DIR: Tery Jones
COUNTRY: UK
Colley has also played Frederic Chopin, Adolph Eichmann, and Admiral Piett in the Star Wars series.
Brian Deacon
Jesus, 1979
DIR: Peter Sykes, John Kirsh
PROD: John Heyman
COUNTRY: USA
"...a Classic Comics version of this oft-told tale" VARIETY
Deacon was also in Satan's Daughters (74) and A Zed and Two Noughts (65)
Chris Sarandon
The Day Christ Died, 1980
DIR: James Cellan Jones
PROD: Martin Manulis
COUNTRY: USA
Beside this TV film, Sarandon has also played a vampire in Fright Night (85) and a Reverend in Bordellos of Blood (96)
John Rubinstein
In Search of Historic Jesus, 1980
DIR: Henning Schellerup
PROD: Charles E. Sellier, Jr., James L. Conway
COUNTRY: USA
John Hurt
History of the World, Part I, 1981
DIR: Mel Brooks
COUNTRY: USA
Brooks is the waiter at the Last Supper, staged ala Da Vinci.
Malachi Jara Kohan
Hail, Mary, 1985
DIR: Jean-Luc Godard
PROD: Philippe Malignon, Francois Pelissier
COUNTRY: France/Switzerland
"The film's bark is worse than its bite." COMMONWEAL
Willem Dafoe
The Last Temptation of Christ, 1988
DIR: Martin Scorese
PROD: Harry Ufland
COUNTRY: USA
Jurgen Prochnow
The Seventh Sign, 1988
DIR: Carl Schutz
PROD: Ted field, Robert W. Cort
COUNTRY: USA
No "Das Book" but still an entertaining mess featuring biblical disasters and Demi Moore.
"If the seventh sign of the Apolcalype is anything like the film The Seventh Sign, the world needn't worry." VARIETY
Matteo Bellina (young Jesus)
Alessandro Gassman (mature Jesus)
A Child Called Jesus, 1989
DIR: Franco Rossi
PROD: Ridha Turki
COUNTRY: Italy
Lothaire Bluteau
Jesus of Montreal, 1989
DIR: Denys Arcand
PROD: Roger Frappier, Pierre Gendron
COUNTRY: Canada/France
"Wickedly funny, searingly honest satire on the way the message of Jesus Christ has been distorted through history." VARIETY
?????
The Return of Jesus Christ, 1992
DIR: Jes Joergen Thorson
COUNTRY: Denmark
AKA The Many Loves of Jesus.
Jeff Goldblum
The Favor, the Watch and the Very Big Fish, 1992
DIR: Ben Lewin
COUNTRY: UK/France
"Goldblum broods menancingly and deludes himself that he is really Christ. The effect is doslocating." TIME FILM GUIDE 1998
"Muddled madcap comedy... Annoying frantic" Martin & Porter VIDEO GUIDE 1998
Filmography of Jesus |
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Jesus at the Oscars
Outing for Jesus | The Apocalypse WILL be Televised | Jacob's Ladder
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