How many Exorcist actors have also been in Bible movies?
The list includes such Hollywood veterans as Max von Sydow, Richard Burton, George C. Scott, James Earl Jones, and Colleen Dewhurst.
I’ve done it for Star Wars, Harry Potter, Downton Abbey, and Indiana Jones.
Now, with The Exorcist: Believer in theatres, I figured it was time to go through the cast lists for the Exorcist movies and TV series and take a look at the actors from this franchise who have also done some work in the Bible-movie genre.
Not surprisingly, there are Bible-movie actors in nearly every one of these movies. The title character in the original film was, of course, played by Max von Sydow, who had played Jesus in The Greatest Story Ever Told just eight years earlier and went on to appear in four more Bible movies after The Exorcist. And the sequels have starred such veterans of the Bible-movie genre as Richard Burton and George C. Scott.
Ordinarily, I’d wait for the new Exorcist movie to come out on video before finishing a gallery like this, so that I could capture some images from the new film too… but it seems the only actor from the new film who has any sort of Bible-movie connection is a guy who’s attached to a modernization of a Bible story that hasn’t even been filmed yet. So there’s no reason not to just go ahead and post this gallery now.
I may update this gallery as new films and images become available, though.
A few quick points:
As always, I limited my search to all the credited actors, and I did not investigate any of the actors who were listed at the IMDb as “uncredited” (with one exception, i.e. Colleen Dewhurst, who did some uncredited work as the voice of the demon in The Exorcist III and was too big a name not to look up).
A few of these actors appeared in multiple Exorcist films, but I am listing them just once, in connection with their first appearance in the franchise.
The Exorcist actor with the most Bible-movie experience is easily Max von Sydow, who has five such credits. James Earl Jones has four, if you count the three animated projects he was involved with. Colleen Dewhurst, who lent her voice to The Exorcist III, and Ben Daniels, who starred in the TV series, have three apiece.
The Exorcist movie with the most Bible-movie actors is The Exorcist III, which has five such actors. (The Exorcist TV series also has five, if you count the guest stars… but that series had the advantage of being 20 episodes long.)
The Bible movies with the most Exorcist actors are 1997’s The Bible Collection: David, 1997’s The Bible Collection: Solomon, and the 2013 short film The King, all of which have two such actors. No other Bible movie has more than one.
And now, to the gallery!
The movies
The Exorcist (1973)
Max von Sydow (Father Lankester Merrin) 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).
Lee J. Cobb (Lt Kinderman) played Zadok in Day of Triumph (1954).
Wallace Rooney (Bishop Michael) supposedly played Older Jonathan in one of the David episodes of The Old Testament Scriptures (1958), but I could not identify him in the latter film series.
Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)
Richard Burton (Father Philip Lamont) played Marcellus Gallio in The Robe (1953).
James Earl Jones (Older Kokumo) played Balthazar in Jesus of Nazareth (1977); he also narrated The Creation (1981) and Noah’s Ark (1989) and voiced Pharaoh in The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible: Moses (1986), none of which I have seen.
The Exorcist III (1990)
George C. Scott (Lt Kinderman, on the left in the photo below) played Abraham in The Bible: In the Beginning… (1966); he also played the Devil in Don Juan in Hell (1960).
Scott Wilson (Dr Temple) played Judah, aka Judas, in The Passover Plot (1976).
Viveca Lindfors (Nurse X) played Eleilat in The Story of Ruth (1960) and Claudia in King of Kings (1961).
George DiCenzo (Dr Alan Stedman) voiced an unidentified character in The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible: Joshua and the Battle of Jericho (1985).
Colleen Dewhurst (the voice of Pazuzu, when he speaks through Father Karras in the scene below) played Rebekah in The Story of Jacob and Joseph (1974), Elizabeth in Mary and Joseph: A Story of Faith (1979), and Antonia in A.D. Anno Domini (1985).
Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)
Ben Cross (Semelier) played Solomon in The Bible Collection: Solomon (1997) and Tiberius in Ben-Hur (2010).
David Bradley (Father Gionetti) played the Old Rabbi in The Young Messiah (2016); he also played Druid Quane in Britannia (2018-2021), a series with a gospel-adjacent subplot.
Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005)
Clara Bellar (Rachel Lesno) played Tamar in The Bible Collection: David (1997).
Rick Warden (Corporal Williams, the mustachioed soldier in the middle in the photo below) played Jared in The Bible Collection: Jesus (1999).
The Exorcist: Believer (2023)
Richard C. Carr (Dr Carr) is currently attached to play Benjamin Jacobson in Master of Dreams (2024, maybe), a modernization of the story of Joseph and his brothers.
The TV show
The Exorcist (2016-2017)
Ben Daniels (Father Marcus Keane) played Jonathan in The Bible Collection: David (1997), Caiaphas in The Passion (2008), and Pontius Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert (2018).
Daniels is the only series regular who has been in any Bible films. I won’t track down any images of the guest stars just yet, but I’ll list the relevant actors below.
Guest stars who appeared in Bible films:
Chris Clowers (Possessed Man / S1E4) played a Dove in Noah’s Ark (2014).
Kenn E. Head (Chicago Sun Reporter / S1E6) played Aaron in The Chosen (2017).
Minita Gandhi (Reporter / S1E6 + S1E8) played Mary in The King (2013).
LaShawn Banks (Producer / S1E7) played Herod in The King (2013).
Michael Adamthwaite (Greg / S2E1 + S2E2) voiced Esau, Isaiah, Simon the Tanner, and other characters in Superbook (in episodes produced in 2013-2020).
Guest stars who appeared in (possibly) Bible-adjacent films:
Christopher Meister (Construction Worker / S1E1) played Thaddeus in Heaven Is Hell (2014), a film about “a devout Christian” who “finds her beliefs shattered when she awakens in a war-ravaged Heaven and joins a rogue band of biblical characters battling against a corrupt God and a treacherous archangel.”
Christopher Kahler (Possessed Homeless Man / S1E2 + S1E6) played Jesus Christ in The Night-Like Daydreams of Wolfgang Deedle (2013), a film about a therapist whose “group regression goes awry and his fantasies take over”.
Amélie Eve (Grace / S2E1, etc.) played Missy Phillips in The Shack (2017), a film about a grieving father who meets the three Persons of the Trinity.
Bob McCracken (Father Robert / S2E8) played a Doctor in Miriam (2007), a film about a virginal Hasidic teenager who discovers that she is pregnant.
A guest star who appeared in both a Bible film and a Bible-adjacent film:
Jay Brazeau (Tribunal President / S2E2) voiced an unidentified character in The Beginner’s Bible: Joseph and His Brothers (1996) and played Tony in The Shack (2017).
Honourable mentions
In addition to the TV guest stars listed above, a few actors from the Exorcist movies have appeared in films and shows that feature biblical characters or have some sort of connection to the Bible but are not adaptations of biblical stories, per se.
The Sin of Jesus (1962) is a short film based on an Isaac Babel story in which Jesus refuses mercy to a young woman in the present day.
John Coe (Old Man in Dream in The Exorcist III) played A Man.
Moses: Fallen. In the City of Angels. (2005) is a film about a fallen angel who works as a human assassin; the series has characters with names like Moses and Jesus, but as far as I can tell, none of them are actual characters from the Bible.
Hank Garrett (the Conductor in Exorcist II: The Heretic) played Lucky Palermo.
The Book of Daniel (2006) is a TV series about an Episcopalian priest who appears to have regular conversations with Jesus.
Ellen Burstyn (Chris MacNeil in the original film and The Exorcist: Believer) played Bishop Beatrice Congreve.
Britannia (2017-2021) takes place during the Roman occupation of Britain in the AD 40s; in Season 2, it introduced a subplot tied to the death of Jesus.
As noted above, David Bradley (Father Gionetti in Exorcist: The Beginning) played Druid Quane.
And, I think that about covers it.
I believe The Exorcist: Believer is supposed to be the start of a new sequel trilogy, so as new films come out, I may update this list.
In the meantime, did I miss any actors? If so, please let me know!
— Updated May 3, 2024, to add Michael Adamthwaite.