# Actors who have played God **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 18, 2008, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-god/449706 "2008-05-18T01:06:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-god/449706/21 "2008-05-18T22:14:14Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally Posted by **Walloon** > God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit? [Road Lawyers and Other Briefs](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245392/) has a scene with all three. Unfortunately, imdb’s entry doesn’t list the actors. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-god/449706/22 "2008-05-19T12:13:19Z")
[Jim Backus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Backus#From_acting_to_writing). I had the record. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-god/449706/23 "2008-05-19T12:23:27Z")
Charlton Heston also played an uncredited God in Paul Hogan’s **Almost an Angel** In the Old Days, the movies were afraid of offending people, and either didn’t say who played God or didn’t even show God or let you hear him – you dealt with a lot of Heavenly intermediaries. So when **The Ten Commandments** came out, they wouldn’t say whose voice was God’s. The iMDB credits **Dennis Hayne** , not Charlton Heston, with being the Voice of God in **The Ten Commandments** > **[The Ten Commandments (1956) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049833/fullcredits#cast)** > > The Ten Commandments (1956) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. And Nobody is the Voice of God in **The Next Voice You Hear** > **[The Next Voice You Hear... (1950) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042786/fullcredits#cast)** > > The Next Voice You Hear... (1950) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. Here’s a listing for **God** from the iMDB: [http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0026790/](http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0026790/) ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-god/449706/24 "2008-05-19T12:57:41Z")
In my extremely limited film experience, it’s the _directors_ who try to play God… In opera, there’s only one example I can think of, and that’s in Arnold Schoenberg’s “Mose und Aaron” - the voice of God is to be sung by six solo singers. Schoenberg was quite concerned about the idea of one singer being God, but he needed some means of having the burning bush ‘speak’. Six singers seemed to him to be the way to get around the impiety of having humans as the voice of God. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-god/449706/25 "2008-05-19T12:59:52Z")
[QUOTE=Rubystreak] **Actors who have played God** [/QUOTE] :dubious: That’s the **director’s** job! ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-god/449706/26 "2008-05-19T14:04:14Z")
Ronald Reagan in the White House. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-god/449706/27 "2008-05-19T15:53:34Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] And Nobody is the Voice of God in **The Next Voice You Hear** [/QUOTE] Just to clarify, the “Voice of God” is never heard in _The Next Voice You Hear_. People are always tuning in their radios just _after_ God’s fireside chats, and we hear instead some announcer reading a transcription. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-god/449706/28 "2008-05-19T22:01:51Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] The iMDB credits **Dennis Hayne** , not Charlton Heston, with being the Voice of God in **The Ten Commandments** [/QUOTE] Actually, it credits Dennis Hayne with being the voice of “God (Pillar of Fire)”, not the voice of God from the burning bush to which I referred earlier, or the voice heard on Mount Sinai. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-god/449706/29 "2008-05-19T23:38:18Z")
Don’t forget Bill Cosby. > [@](#): > > Noah…how well can you tread water? ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-god/449706/30 "2008-05-20T00:21:19Z")
[QUOTE=Sir Prize] The IMDB lists Tony Curtis, Faye Dunaway, Rodney Dangerfield, Marianne Faithfull and Billy Dee Williams among others. [http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0026790/](http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0026790/) [/QUOTE] Now I remember, Marianne Faithfull played God on an ep of _Absolutely Fabulous_. It was genius casting for that show. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-god/449706/31 "2008-05-20T01:00:44Z")
> [@](#): > > Actually, it credits Dennis Hayne with being the voice of “God (Pillar of Fire)”, not the voice of God from the burning bush to which I referred earlier, or the voice heard on Mount Sinai. But it also doesn’t credit Heston with being the Voice of God on any of its pages. ---
**Author:** ![Surbey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@Surbey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surbey)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-god/449706/32 "2008-05-20T03:59:38Z")
[QUOTE=Derleth] Ronald Reagan in the White House. [/QUOTE] Reagan was more than God. Not even God could stop communism… ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-god/449706/33 "2008-05-20T06:12:10Z")
[QUOTE=Surbey] Reagan was more than God. Not even God could stop communism… [/QUOTE] REAGAN SMASH! Faster than a speeding dialectic, more powerful than a manifesto, able to leap tall collectives in a single bound, it’s Superron! Look, up in the sky! It’s a chimp! It’s a ham! No, it’s… uh… where am I? Nancy? ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-god/449706/34 "2008-05-20T11:47:22Z")
Will Smith in The Legend of Bagger Vance is supposed to be God. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-god/449706/35 "2008-05-20T23:59:32Z")
[QUOTE=Rubystreak] _Evan Almighty_ is on in the background here, with Morgan Freeman as God. [/QUOTE] He also was God in _Bruce Almighty_. And he was The President in _Deep Impact_. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2008, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-god/449706/36 "2008-05-21T02:57:49Z")
I always felt Audrey Hepburn was playing God in her final film, **Always** with Richard Dryfess and Holly Hunter. Her character’s name was “Hap” but she had that air of omnicience that was so Godlike. And that barbering scene with Dryfess in the middle of a burnt out forest and her in all white. That was just brilliant. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-have-played-god/449706.md?page=1)