How many Dune actors have also been in Bible movies?
The list includes such names as Jose Ferrer, Max von Sydow, Patrick Stewart, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, William Hurt, Susan Sarandon, and James McAvoy.
The Dune movies directed by Denis Villeneuve take themselves very, very seriously. Based on a classic sci-fi novel published in 1965, they are truly epic films, full of massive, awe-inspiring images and heavy religio-political themes.
But there’s also a moment in the most recent film, Dune: Part Two, that reminded me of a comedy—and not just any comedy, but a famous Bible-movie parody.
In one scene, Paul Atreides—the son of an assassinated governor who has been hiding with the Fremen, the original settlers of the desert planet Arrakis, ever since his father was betrayed in the previous film—listens to the Fremen argue over whether he is the Mahdi, the prophesied messiah that some of them have been waiting for. Paul insists that he isn’t. But then Stilgar, one of the Fremen leaders, says, “The Mahdi is too humble to say he is the Mahdi. Even more reason to know he is!”
As soon as Stilgar said that, it was impossible not to think of the scene in Monty Python’s Life of Brian in which the title character insists to a crowd that has followed him that he isn’t the messiah they think he is—and one member of the crowd replies, undeterred, “Only the true messiah denies his divinity!”1
As it happens, I had been thinking about possible overlaps between the Dune movies and the Bible-movie genre even before I saw Dune: Part Two. But that scene made the connection between the two things much stronger than I had anticipated.
And what sort of overlaps had I been thinking of?
Well, for one thing, the Dune stories draw on the same Middle Eastern setting, broadly speaking, that the Bible does. It is well-known that many of the concepts in the original novel—such as the aforementioned “Mahdi”—were borrowed from Islam, but there are elements of Judaism and Christianity in the mix, too.2
The Dune movies also overlap with the Bible-movie genre on a specifically cinematic level. There have been three adaptations of Dune over the past 40 years, from the David Lynch film in 1984 to the Sci Fi Channel miniseries in 2000 to the current films directed by Villeneuve. A miniseries based on two of the sequel novels, called Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune, also aired in 2003. And every single one of these films and TV shows has featured several actors with Bible-movie experience.
So, I figured it was time to do another of my franchise-actors-in-Bible-movies posts, with images from as many of the relevant films as I could find.
If you’ve seen my earlier posts along these lines, you know the drill: I go through the cast lists for every movie or TV series at the IMDb; I go through the filmographies for just about every credited actor on those lists; and then I track down every Bible movie I can find on disc, streaming, or YouTube that features one of those actors, and I capture images of the actors playing all the relevant characters.
Two things about the current post, and how it compares to the others:
One, I did the first of these franchise-actors-in-Bible-movie posts, about the Star Wars universe, a little more than a year ago. Since then, I have done similar posts for Harry Potter, Downton Abbey, Indiana Jones, and so on. But this Dune post marks the first time since Star Wars that I have tackled another sci-fi universe. (Notably, it is widely believed that the Dune books were a major influence on Star Wars.)
And two, the Dune “franchise” is different from the others I’ve tackled inasmuch as these films, for the most part, don’t share any actors or storylines. Yes, two of them did get sequels, but instead of a single interconnected universe that spans the decades,3 what we have here are three completely separate adaptations of the novel, made by three completely different sets of people. You could even say they’re three different franchises. So that’s a change from my earlier posts.
Anyway, let’s get to the new gallery. A few quick points:
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”.
I also generally did not look into actors who played anonymous members of groups like ‘Young Fremen Patrol’ or ‘Harkonnen Commander’, etc.
A few of these actors appeared in multiple Dune films, but I am listing them just once, in connection with their first appearance in the franchise.
The “Bible films” featured here are films and TV shows that adapt biblical narratives. This includes fictitious stories that are set in the ancient world and have some biblical plot points, like The Little Drummer Boy or The Book of Clarence, as well as films that put biblical stories in modern settings or dress them up in modern clothes, etc., like Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Films about angels and demons (e.g. Good Omens), films that put biblical characters in modern settings after the events of the Bible (e.g. The Seventh Sign), films about modern people who think they’ve discovered big secrets about biblical figures (e.g. The Body), and films about modern people who dramatize the Bible (e.g. Hail, Caesar!) all go in the ‘Honourable Mentions’ list but don’t get added to the gallery unless one of the Dune actors plays one of the biblical characters.4
A few interesting patterns and coincidences:
There are two different characters named Leto Atreides—one is Paul Atreides’ father, the other is his son—and every single actor who has played one of those characters has appeared in at least one Bible movie, too.
Two of the actresses who have played Paul’s mother, Lady Jessica Atreides, have also appeared in TV-movies about Jacob and his family directed by Roger Young: Alice Krige, from Children of Dune, played Jacob’s wife Rachel in The Bible Collection: Joseph, while Rebecca Ferguson, from the two most recent Dune movies, played Jacob’s daughter Dinah in The Red Tent.
Other characters who have been played by at least two Bible-movie veterans include Doctor Liet Kynes and the Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV. Two other characters—Stilgar and Gurney Halleck—have been played by at least one Bible-movie actor and one Bible-adjacent-movie actor.5
The Dune actors with the most Bible-movie experience are Jose Ferrer and Max von Sydow, both of whom appeared in five such films.
In addition to co-starring in the 1984 version of Dune, they also co-starred in two of the same Bible movies: The Greatest Story Ever Told, and the 1984 version of Samson and Delilah.
The Bible movie with the most Dune actors is The Book of Clarence, which has three. The Bible-adjacent series Good Omens also has three Dune actors.
And now, to the gallery itself!
The movies and miniseries
Dune (1984)
Jurgen Prochnow (Duke Leto Atreides) played Jesus (and the second-coming alter ego of Jesus named David Bannon) in The Seventh Sign (1988), as well as Haman in The Bible Collection: Esther (1999); he also played Andre Vernet in The Da Vinci Code (2006), which is set in the present day but has a couple of flashbacks to Mary Magdalene.
Jose Ferrer (Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV) played Herod Antipas in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), Ben Haramed in The Little Drummer Boy (1968), Gamaliel in Peter and Paul (1981), and the High Priest in Samson and Delilah (1984); he also played the Angel of the Lord in Gideon (1971), which I have not been able to see.
Max von Sydow (Doctor Liet Kynes) played Jesus in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), Sidka in Samson and Delilah (1984), Peter in Quo Vadis? (1985), David in The Bible Collection: Solomon (1997), and Tiberius in The Inquiry aka The Final Inquiry (2006).
Patrick Stewart (Gurney Halleck) voiced the Pharaoh Seti in The Prince of Egypt (1998).
Freddie Jones (Thufir Hawat) played Diomedes in The Nativity (1978); he also played George, a man who plays God in a creation play, in The Passion (1999).
Dean Stockwell (Doctor Wellington Yueh) played Hissar in the episode ‘Daniel in the Lion’s Den’ in Greatest Heroes of the Bible (1978).
Silvana Mangano (Reverend Mother Ramallo) played Rachel in Barabbas (1961).
Paul L. Smith (The Beast Rabban) played Peter in The Gospel Road (1973); he also played an unspecified character in Moses the Lawgiver (1974), and he played Gideon in Masada (1981), which isn’t biblical but does take place in first-century Judea.
Leonardo Cimino (The Baron’s Doctor) played Caleb in Give Us Barabbas! (1961); he also played the Head Cardinal in The Seventh Sign (1988), an apocalyptic film set in the present day that has a flashback to the beating of Jesus by the Romans.
Frank Herbert’s Dune (2000)
William Hurt (Duke Leto Atreides) voiced Jairus in The Miracle Maker (1999).
Giancarlo Giannini (Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV) played Laban in The Bible Collection: Jacob (1994); he also played the Pope in Joshua (2002), a film set in the present day in which a stranger who comes to a small town may or may not be Jesus.
Ian McNiece (Baron Vladimir Harkonnen) voiced Ahab in Testament: The Bible in Animation (1996) and played Potiphar in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1999); he also played Dr Sproul in The Body (2001), which is about a priest who investigates a claim that an archaeologist may have discovered the skeleton of Jesus.
Klára Issová (Servant Girl; she also played Lichna in Children of Dune) played the Virgin Mary in the Anděl Páně aka An Angel of the Lord movies (2005-2016) and Mary Magdalene in Killing Jesus (2015).
Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune (2003)
James McAvoy (Leto Atreides II) played Pontius Pilate in The Book of Clarence (2023); he also played Lord Asriel in His Dark Materials (2019-2022), a fantasy series in which his character helps defeat an angel who used to be the biblical figure Enoch.
Alice Krige (Lady Jessica Atreides) played Bathsheba in King David (1985) and Rachel in The Bible Collection: Joseph (1995).
Steven Berkoff (Stilgar) played Herod in Oscar Wilde’s Salome (1992), which he also directed, and Potiphar in In the Beginning (2000).
Susan Sarandon (Princess Wensicia Corrino) played Livilla in A.D. Anno Domini (1985).
Dune aka Dune: Part One (2021)
Oscar Isaac (Duke Leto Atreides) played Joseph in The Nativity Story (2006).
Rebecca Ferguson (Lady Jessica Atreides) played Dinah in The Red Tent (2014).
Sharon Duncan-Brewster (Doctor Liet Kynes) played Samson’s Mother in The Bible (2013).
Babs Olusanmokun (Jamis) played Asher the Torturer in The Book of Clarence (2023).
Dune: Part Two (2024)
Florence Pugh (Princess Iluran) played Eve in Paradise Lost? (2015).
Dylan Baldwin (Harkonnen Translator; I don’t know for a fact that he’s in the shot below, but it’s from the only scene I can think of with a translator, who is standing to Feyd-Rautha’s left) played Simon Zealotes in Testament: The Parables Retold (2022).
Hopi Grace (Fremen Nun) played Jezebel in The Book of Clarence (2023).
The prequel series
Dune: Prophecy (2024)
Sarah-Sofie Boussnina (Princess Ynez) played Martha in Mary Magdalene (2018) and is reportedly playing Claudia in The Way of the Wind, which is still in post-production.
Jodhi May (Empress Natalya) played Leah in A.D. The Bible Continues (2015).
Cathy Tyson (Mother Superior Raquella Berto-Anirul) played Herodia, a female version of King Herod, in Liverpool Nativity (2007).
Charithra Chandran (Young Francesca) played Bekkie in a modernized version of the parable of the talents in Testament: The Parables Retold (2022).
The more-research-needed pile
Dune actors I could not identify
Matthew Sim played the Spice Steward in Dune: Part Two; in the credits, he appears right after some Harkonnen characters and right before some members of the Emperor’s entourage, so I assume he is affiliated with one of those two groups, but I can’t tell which one. He played Prisoner #1 in In the Beginning (2000) and a Soothsayer in The Ten Commandments (2006), as per the photos below.
Honourable mentions
Dune actors who have played allegorical Bible characters
Javier Bardem (Stilgar in the 2021 film and its sequel) played Him, a sort of allegorical version of God, in mother! (2017).
Dune actors who have played actors playing Bible characters
Leon Herbert (Oldest Elder in Dune: Part Two) played a 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.
As noted above, Freddie Jones (Thufir Hawat in the 1984 film) played George, a man who plays God in a creation play, in The Passion (1999), a British movie about a love affair between a passion play’s costume designer and the actor who plays Jesus.
Dune actors who have appeared in Bible-adjacent films
Over a dozen actors with Dune 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.
As noted above, Jurgen Prochnow (Duke Leto Atreides in the 1984 film) played David Bannon, who is eventually revealed to be the second coming of Jesus; he also played Jesus himself in the flashback.
As noted above, Leonardo Cimino (The Baron’s Doctor in the 1984 film) played the Head Cardinal.
The Body (2001) is about a priest who investigates the claim that an archaeologist may have discovered the skeleton of Jesus.
As noted above, Ian McNiece (Baron Vladimir Harkonnen in the 2000 miniseries and its sequel) played Dr Sproul.
Joshua (2002) is set in the present day and is about a stranger who comes to a small town and may or may not be Jesus.
As noted above, Giancarlo Giannini (Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV in the 2000 miniseries) played the Pope.
The Second Coming (2003) is a two-part miniseries about a man who learns that he is the Son of God and has to find some way to prevent the apocalypse.
Neil Bell (Sardaukar Bashar in the 2021 film) played a Homeless Man.
Anděl Páně aka An Angel of the Lord (2005) is a Czech movie about an angel who is sent to Earth after ruining Jesus’ birthday party in Heaven. It had a sequel in 2016.
As noted above, Klára Issová (Servant Girl in the 2000 miniseries, and Lichna in Children of Dune) played the Virgin Mary in both films.
Oldrich Navrátil (Naib #1 in the 2000 miniseries) played Správce, which I think means Administrator, in the first film.
The Da Vinci Code (2006) is about a conspiracy to hide the “fact” that Jesus had a child with Mary Magdalene; it has a few flashbacks to the biblical era.
As noted above, Jurgen Prochnow (Duke Leto Atreides in the 1984 film) played Andre Vernet.
Hail, Caesar! (2016) is partly about the making of a Bible movie in the 1950s.
Josh Brolin (Gurney Halleck in the 2021 film and its sequel) played Eddie Mannix.
His Dark Materials (2019-2022) is partly about a war between rival angel factions across different universes; one angel used to be the biblical figure Enoch.
As noted above, James McAvoy (Leto Atreides II in Children of Dune) played Lord Asriel.
Jade Anouka (Sister Theodosia in Dune: Prophecy) played Ruta Skadi.
Good Omens (2019-2023) is about an angel and a demon and takes place primarily in the modern era, but it includes some flashbacks to the biblical era.
Gloria Obianyo (Female Fremen in the 2021 film) played Uriel.
Jordan Long (Smuggler Driver in the 2024 film) played Police Officer Fred.
Siân Phillips (Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam in the 1984 film) played Mrs Henderson.
L’Étranger (2020) is a music video by Zlatko Teskere.
Veronika Bellová (Girl #1 in Children of Dune) played the Virgin Mary as well as a Cleaning Lady.
Mrs. Davis (2023) is about a nun who fights an artificial intelligence while having a marital relationship with Jesus in some sort of parallel dimension.
Vic Zander (Elder in the 2024 film) played Lord Oliver.
And, I think that about covers it. Did I miss any actors? If so, please let me know.
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Past Bible-movie/franchise overlap galleries:
Star Wars | Harry Potter | Downton Abbey | Indiana Jones | The Exorcist | Labyrinth + Willow
— This post was updated on November 18, 2024, to add the actors from Dune: Prophecy.
Watching the two scenes back-to-back, one thing that jumps out at me is how happy the two characters are to have come up with such a clever reason for believing in their messiahs.
E.g., the Bene Gesserit, an all-female religious order that includes Paul’s mother Jessica, has a name that is part-Hebrew (“Bene” means “children of”) and might be quasi-Catholic (it has been speculated that “Gesserit” is derived from “Jesuit”).
Downton Abbey has only been around for a dozen years or so, but the Harry Potter franchise lasted a couple decades if you count the Fantastic Beasts films. Indiana Jones goes back to the 1980s and Star Wars goes back to the 1970s, and both of those franchises put out new installments with some of the original actors just within the past year. Even the Exorcist franchise, with all its mutually contradictory sequels and prequels, has kept tying things back to the original 1973 movie; just seven months ago, The Exorcist: Believer brought back two of the original film’s co-stars half a century after they first played their characters!
Case in point: Jurgen Prochnow, who played Duke Leto Atreides in the 1984 version of Dune, is in The Seventh Sign and The Da Vinci Code, both of which are modern-day stories with biblical flashbacks. He’s in the flashbacks from the former film, so that one’s in the gallery, but he’s not in the flashbacks from the other film, so that one isn’t.
And because Prochnow also appeared in a bona fide Bible film, i.e. The Bible Collection: Esther, all of his images appear together in the regular section of the gallery.
Stilgar was played by Steven Berkoff in Children of Dune and by Javier Bardem in the 2020s films, while Gurney Halleck was played by Patrick Stewart in the 1984 film and by Josh Brolin in the 2020s films. Berkoff and Stewart have clear Bible-movie experience (see the gallery above), while Bardem and Brolin are Bible-adjacent in different ways: Bardem starred in 2017’s mother!, which is partly an allegorical retelling of the Bible, while Brolin played a movie executive who produces a Bible movie in 2016’s Hail, Caesar!.