Whenever I think of Jesus I think of Robert Powell, the actor who played Jesus in the movie “Jesus of Nazareth.” He is portrayed with blonde hair and blue eyes and a thin frame. I don’t know if this is accurate, but its the image that comes to mind. I truly enjoy this movie, and the depiction of St. Peter.
First of all, nah, Robert Powell ain’t really blond in the film (though the kid playing the child Jesus
appears to be), but he does have the blue eyes, which never blinks when it is staring (as someone else already mentioned).
BTW, I think the award for the most blonde Jesus that has ever graced the screen belongs to
Robert Elfstrom in Johnny Cash’s
The Gospel Road (1973).
Does anyone else think of this movie when they think of Jesus and the bible?
I’ll admit that having seen quite a lot of Jesus films in my lifetime, I could no longer think of a specific Jesus film when imaging the events of the Bible. And to be honest, after doing a bit of research on the period, I’ve been recently trying to steer clear of the frail, pretty-boy, freshly-bathed Anglo-Saxon Jesus of many folk religious art and some Jesus films.
But if I could describe it, my personal image would probably be a sort of cross
between Bruce Marchiano (
The Gospel of Matthew), Colin Powell’s
gruff, bellicose Jesus (from Dennis Potter’s
Son of Man), Joseph Mawle’s
portrayal (from BBC’s
The Passion), the
ragged,
quite haggardish Jesus of some of Russian painter
Nikolai Ge’s artworks, and
a certain artist’s depiction of a Jewish Jesus, with a dash of Jim Caviezel and the
Christ of Byzantine and
early medieval iconography.
Is this a bad thing that I have one particular image in my head of Jesus?
One word: no.

And you’re not the only one:
Jesus of Nazareth is actually quite popular and well-known (though there was some controversy
during its first airing), that for many, Robert Powell is the default face of Jesus. Kinda like how there are people who imagine Charlton Heston in his red-and-brown clothes and big white beard when the subject is Moses.
