Josephus mentioned it. But since Josephus mentions Jesus, some people refuse to accept his histories.
Totally but that still makes him spectacularly famous, like absolutely one of the most famous human beings to walk the earth. More people have heard of him than almost any famous person in history
Yeah there is absolutely plenty of evidence for the existence of Pilate outside the Bible and Josephus. Including coins and writings. He was a minor figure but he did clear exist.
Sources on Pontius Pilate are limited, although modern scholars know more about him than about other Roman governors of Judaea.[14] The most important sources are the Embassy to Gaius (after the year 41) by contemporary Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria,[15] the Jewish Wars (c. 74) and Antiquities of the Jews (c. 94) by the Jewish historian Josephus, as well as the four canonical Christian gospels, Mark (composed between 66 and 70), Luke (composed between 85 and 90), Matthew (composed between 85 and 90), and John (composed between 90 and 110), each authored anonymously;[14] he is also mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (composed between 85 and 90) and in the First Epistle to Timothy (written in the second half of the 1st century). Ignatius of Antioch mentions him in his epistles to the Trallians, Magnesians, and Smyrnaeans[16] (composed between 105 and 110).[17] He is also briefly mentioned in Annals of the Roman historian Tacitus (early 2nd century), who simply says that he put Jesus to death.[14] Two additional chapters of Tacitus’s Annals that might have mentioned Pilate have been lost.[18] The written sources provide only limited information, and each has its own biases, with the gospels in particular providing a theological rather than historical perspective on Pilate.[19]
Besides these texts, dated coins in the name of emperor Tiberius minted during Pilate’s governorship have survived, as well as a fragmentary short inscription that names Pilate, known as the Pilate Stone, the only inscription about a Roman governor of Judaea predating the Jewish–Roman wars to survive.[20]
The issue is that most of the writings that mention Pilate also mention Jesus.
Preach it! I think Neil Armstrong is overrated, too.
How about all the guys involved in the Gunfight at the OK Corral? Couple of outlaws, couple of lawmen, they’ve been on screen countless times.
But even if you take out the ones that do that’s a lot of evidence he existed (for a minor figure from the 1st Century AD)
Also I don’t think any serious historian thinks Josephus is completely made up, just that the couple of sentences where he suddenly seems to start believing Jesus is the son of god despite never indicating anything of the sort elsewhere are a bit sus.
Good one, but Wyatt Earp alone would be famous without that, since he survived until 1929, and worked even in film a bit- consultant. They rest- Doc Holiday, etc are only famous for that gunfight.
Wyatt Earp even got his own TV series!
Earp became famous because of his very popular biography that he cooperated on. Which means it was a lot of bullshit. Without that book he wouldn’t be known now. Same with all the rest since that account of the gunfight became the definitive account.
Roger Bushell, “Big X”, the leader of the escape committee at Stalag Luft III, was portrayed by Richard Attenborough in the movie The Great Escape (where his character is called Roger Bartlett – but they changed all the names for the film) and by Ian McShane in the TV movie The Great Escape: The Untold Story
Similarly, the camp commndant, Friedrich Wilhelm von Lindeiner-Wildau was played (as “von Luger”) by Hannes Messemer in The Great Escape and by Manfred Andrae in the TV movie.
Lentulus Batiatus ( also called Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Vatia) was the Lanista, the guy who ran the gladiator school that trained Spartacus.
According to Wikipedia:
Of course, Spartacus himself was portrayed multiple times, but he’s a more important figure, and might not be seen as “minor” His appearances in film and TV are listed on his Wikipedia page:
I like that last one – I wasn’t familiar with it.
And he got to write that book as he went to Hollywood and lived that long. William Hart pushed to get the biography published. The book was bad as his wife kept making them cuts stuff out.
James Gavin was portrayed by Robert Ryan in The Longest Day and by Ryan O’Neal in A Bridge too Far. Robert Ryan was about 20 years too old. O’Neal was just right.
If it wasn’t for a newspaper editor who was essentially his publicist, nobody would have heard of Jesse James. He was a guerrilla fighter during the war and continued his lawless ways after the war. The Robin Hood angle was bullshit; he was a murderous asshole, and he was shot in the back of the head by another murderous asshole.
Bricktop–the African-American chanteuse in Paris from the Jazz Age to the 70s–portrayed herself in one Woody Allen movie (Zelig) and was portrayed by another actress in a different Woody Allen movie (Paris at Midnight). She may be a contender.
Abbie Hoffman has been portrayed in a bunch of movies, sometimes by name (Steal This Movie, Trial of the Chicago Seven) and sometimes by shirt (Forrest Gump) or by himself (Born on the Fourth of July). He was depicted by a cutout in The Big Fix. He was never really the major player he fancied himself to be.
Muhammad Ali’s #1 sidekick Bundini Brown was played by:
Chi McBride in King of the World (2000)
Vondie Curtis-Hall in Ali American Hero (2000)
Jamie Foxx in Ali (2001)
Lawrence Gilliard Jr. in One Night in Miami (2020)
The only one of these movies that I’ve actually seen is “King of the World,” and I recognized the Bundini character before they said his name, despite Chi McBride being bald in real live.
I’ll have to watch “Ali” sometime. Foxx wouldn’t have looked much like him unless they added some padding.