How many Alien actors have also been in Bible movies?
The list includes Sigourney Weaver, Ian Holm, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Lance Henriksen, Dan Hedaya, Ewen Bremner, Sean Harris, Colin Salmon, and Darwin Shaw.
For almost a year and a half, I have been going through the cast lists for various movie franchises, looking for actors who have also appeared in Bible films.
I started with Star Wars, a sci-fi series that began in 1977, and I recently tackled The Omen, a horror series that began in 1976. In-between, among other things, I also looked at The Exorcist, a horror series that began in 1973.
This week—as Alien: Romulus comes to theatres—I thought it might be fun to look at the Alien franchise, which is both sci-fi and horror and also goes back to the 1970s. And indeed, the more I thought about it, the more I began to notice some interesting connections between the Alien movies and the Bible-movie genre.
For starters, Ridley Scott, who directed the original Alien in 1979 and two of its prequels in the 2010s, has also directed an actual Bible movie, i.e. 2014’s Exodus: Gods and Kings—and in it, he cast a few of the Alien actors he’d worked with before, including the franchise’s biggest star, Sigourney Weaver.
In addition, there are only seven actors who show their faces in the original Alien,1 and of those seven, four have appeared in at least one Bible film. That’s more than half the visible cast! I can’t think of any other major non-biblical film in which such a high percentage of the actors also worked on Bible films.
Starting with the third film, 1992’s Alien³, the Alien franchise began to take on some serious religious overtones, to the point where 2012’s Prometheus explicitly deals with the creation of life on Earth.2 Ridley Scott even suggested in an interview that Jesus, in the back-story to that film, was a member of the same species as the “Space Jockey” that was seen in the original Alien.3 That almost makes the Alien franchise kind of Bible-adjacent in its own right.
More trivially, but still fun: In 2004’s Alien vs Predator—the first of two cross-overs with the Predator franchise—some explorers discover a cache of high-tech weapons inside an ancient pyramid, and one of them says, “This is like finding Moses’ DVD collection.” The actor who delivers that line is Ewen Bremner, who went on to appear in Exodus: Gods and Kings, an actual Moses movie!
So, that settled it. Dive into the Alien franchise I did.
A few quick points, before we get to the gallery:
As before, I limited my search to the credited actors, and I did not investigate any of the actors who were listed at the IMDb as “uncredited”.
A few of these actors appeared in multiple Alien films, but I am listing them just once, in connection with their first appearance in the franchise.
I believe only two actors have appeared in three or more Alien movies—Sigourney Weaver (four films between 1979 and 1997) and Lance Henriksen (three films between 1986 and 2004, including two of Weaver’s)—and both of them, as it happens, have a Bible movie under their belt.
The “Bible films” featured here are films and TV shows that adapt biblical narratives. This includes fictitious stories that take place in the ancient world and have some sort of connection to the biblical narrative, like In the Name of Ben-Hur, as well as films that put biblical stories in quasi-modern settings, like Paradise Lost?.
Films that allegorize biblical characters (e.g. Ma), films that put biblical characters in modern settings after the events of the Bible (e.g. The Seventh Sign), and films about people who produce films and plays that are based on the Bible (e.g. Salome’s Last Dance) all go in the ‘Honourable Mentions’ list.
The Alien actor with the most Bible-movie experience is arguably Darwin Shaw, who has at least four Bible movies under his belt—but his role in the Alien franchise is limited to a single deleted scene from Prometheus.
If we limit our focus to actors who appeared in the actual finished films, then the record is shared by Ian Holm, Daniel Kash, Peter Guinness, and Sean Harris, all of whom appeared in two Bible movies each.
The Bible movie with the most Alien actors is, not surprisingly, Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)—the Moses movie directed by Ridley Scott. It has four actors with Alien experience, three of whom worked with Scott on Alien films.
Three other Bible movies have at least two Alien actors each: In the Beginning (2000), The Bible (2013), and A.D. The Bible Continues (2015).
One extra note: in addition to the nine films released so far, a TV series called Alien: Earth is expected to premiere next year, and at least one of the actors involved is a Bible-movie veteran—so I might update this post when that comes out.
And now, to the gallery itself!
The movies
Alien (1979)
Sigourney Weaver (Ripley) played Tuya in Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014).
Harry Dean Stanton (Brett) played Saul/Paul in The Last Temptation of Christ (1988).
John Hurt (Kane) played Jesus in History of the World, Part I (1981).
Ian Holm (Ash) played Zerah in Jesus of Nazareth (1977) and voiced Pontius Pilate in The Miracle Maker (1999).
Aliens (1986)
Lance Henriksen (Bishop) played Cyrus in The Book of Daniel (2013).
Daniel Kash (Private Spunkmeyer) played Simon Peter in The Visual Bible: The Gospel of John (2003) and the High Priest in Joseph and Mary (2016).
Alien³ (1992)
Danny Webb (Robert Morse) played Laban in In the Beginning (2000).
Peter Guinness (Peter Gregor) played Admatha in The Bible Collection: Esther (1999) and Nebuchadnezzar in The Bible (2013).
Christopher Fairbank (Thomas Murphy) played the Idol Worshipper in In the Beginning (2000).
Vincenzo Niccoli (Alan Jude) played Simeon in The Bible Collection: Joseph (1995).
Niall Buggy (Eric Buggy) played Nathan in King David (1985).
Paul McGann (Walter Golic) voiced David in Testament: The Bible in Animation (1996).
Alien Resurrection (1997)
Dan Hedaya (General Perez) played Yaocav, i.e. James the brother of Jesus, in The Passover Plot (1976); he also played Father Frank in four episodes of The Book of Daniel (2006), a TV series about an Episcopal priest who has visions of Jesus.
Alien vs Predator (2004)
Colin Salmon (Maxwell Stafford) played Gabra, the Ethiopian eunuch, in A.D. The Bible Continues (2015).
Ewen Bremner (Graeme Miller) played the Expert in Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014).
Adrian Bouchet (Sven) played Judah Ben-Hur in In the Name of Ben-Hur (2016).
Andy Lucas (Juan Ramirez) played a Tax Collector in The Nativity Story (2006).
Aliens vs Predator: Requiem (2007)
This film did not, apparently, introduce any new actors with Bible-movie credits (but see the Bible-adjacent-movie section below).
Prometheus (2012)
Sean Harris (Fifield) played Thomas in The Bible Collection: Jesus (1999) and Satan in Paradise Lost? (2015); he also played Bart Bork in The Discovery of Heaven (2001), a movie about an angel who is told to retrieve the stone tablets bearing the Ten Commandments.
Emun Elliot (Chance) played Abiram in Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014).
Florian Robin (Mechanic 2, in the centre of the photo below) played Rufus in The Passion (2008).
Giannina Facio (Shaw’s Mother) played Jethro’s Sister, standing behind Zipporah in the shot below, in Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014).
Darwin Shaw (one of the Elder Engineers in a deleted scene) played Adam in a prologue to Jesus (1979) that was added to the film circa 2001,4 Semitic Jesus in The Gospel of Thomas (2009), Peter in The Bible (2013), and Benia in The Red Tent (2015).
Alien: Covenant (2017)
This film did not, apparently, introduce any new actors with Bible-movie credits (but see the allegorical-quasi-biblical-movie section below).
Alien: Romulus (2024)
This film did not, apparently, introduce any new actors with Bible-movie credits.
The TV show
Alien: Earth (probably 2025)
It’s too early to say who all the actors in this series will be, but one of them is Babou Ceesay, who played John in A.D. The Bible Continues (2015).
Honourable mentions
Alien actors who have appeared in allegorical quasi-biblical films
Amy Seimetz (Faris in Alien: Covenant) played a motel clerk named Misti in Ma (2015), a film about a Mary-like figure who goes to Las Vegas to give birth to a possibly miraculous child.
Alien actors who have played people making Bible movies and plays
Charles Dance (Dr Jonathan Clemens in Alien³) played D.W. Griffith in Good Morning Babylon (1987), a movie about the making of Intolerance (1916); he also narrated the docudrama series Testament: The Story of Moses (2024).
Leon Herbert (Edward Boggs in Alien³) played an anonymous man who plays Naaman the Executioner in Salome’s Last Dance (1988), a film about a brothel that puts on a performance of Oscar Wilde’s play about Salome and John the Baptist.
Alien actors who have appeared in Bible-adjacent films
Several actors with Alien experience have appeared in films and TV shows that feature biblical characters or have some sort of tenuous connection to the Bible but are not adaptations of biblical stories, per se.
The Seventh Sign (1988) is an apocalyptic film set in the present day that has a flashback to the beating of Jesus by the Romans.
Michael Biehn (Corporal Hicks in Aliens) played Russell Quinn.
Megiddo: The Omega Code 2 (2001) is a Christian end-times movie that climaxes with the fulfillment of various biblical prophecies.
Michael Biehn (Corporal Hicks in Aliens) played David Alexander.
The Discovery of Heaven (2001) is a Dutch film about an angel who is told to retrieve the stone tablets bearing the Ten Commandments.
As noted above, Sean Harris (Fifield in Prometheus) played Bart Bork.
The Book of Daniel (2006) is a TV series about an Episcopal priest who has visions of Jesus.
As noted above, Dan Hedaya (General Perez in Alien Resurrection) played Father Frank.
Evan Almighty (2007) is a comedy about a modern politician who is told by God to build an ark just like Noah did.
David St James (Surgeon in Alien Resurrection) played Committee Member.
The Ten (2007) is a comedy with ten episodes, all set in the present day, based on the Ten Commandments.
Winona Ryder (Annalee Call in Alien Resurrection) played Kelly La Fonda.
The Shack (2017) is a drama about a man in the present day who meets the three Persons of the Trinity, including God the Son, i.e. Jesus.
Ty Olsson (Nathan in Aliens vs Predator: Requiem) played 1950’s Mack’s Grandpa.
Ryan Robbins (Truck Driver in Aliens vs Predator: Requiem) played Emil Ducette.
Messiah (2020) is a Netflix series about a man from the Middle East who might be the second coming of Jesus.
John Ortiz (Morales in Aliens vs Predator: Requiem) played Felix Iguero.
And, I think that about covers it. Did I miss any actors? If so, please let me know!
-
Past Bible-movie/franchise overlap galleries:
Star Wars | Harry Potter | Downton Abbey | Indiana Jones | The Exorcist | Labyrinth + Willow | Dune | The Omen
In addition to the seven actors who played the Nostromo’s crew, the film’s cast includes Bolaji Badejo, who played the Xenomorph, and Helen Horton, who provided the voice of the ship’s computer. Neither of them have any Bible-movie experience that I know of.
One could argue that the hints of religion began even earlier, in 1986’s Aliens, in which the android is named Bishop—part of a recurring pattern in James Cameron films, where “good” supporting characters have religious-sounding names like Ensign Monk (1989’s The Abyss) and Grace Augustine (the Sigourney Weaver character in 2009’s Avatar).
This connection is never made explicit in the film, but it is strongly hinted at when we learn that the Engineers—the species that created life on Earth—were planning to wipe out all life on Earth two thousand years ago, apparently as payback for the death of Jesus.
The eight-minute prologue was posted to the Jesus Film Project’s YouTube channel in 2011, but Wikipedia says it was added to the Jesus film itself ten years earlier, in 2001.