There was a time when cinema was unstoppable. “All legends”, wrote in 1927 Abel Gance, one of the great enthusiastic silent film directors who stopped at nothing, “all legends, all mythologies and all myths, all founders of religions, yes all religions … await their exposed resurrection, and the Heroes crowd at the gates.” Of course, Jesus was also present in this turmoil, which hardly got any weaker in the following decades – and each decade then looked for its own Jesus actor. At the end of the fifties it was Claude Heater, who has intense memories of his time in Jesus – you probably had to believe him when he died in 1992 Marin Independent Journal recounted his experiences on set: “There were people on the set who, when they saw me, got down on their knees and made the sign of the cross.”
Few will be familiar with the name Claude Heater, he does not appear in the credits of the film in which he embodied Jesus: “Ben Hur”, 1959, one of the most successful Hollywood films in history, millions of viewers around the world saw. It is easy to forget that Christ plays a major role here; the spectacular moments remain in the memory, the legendary chariot race, the ruthless Roman imperialism, the desperate conflict between childhood friends Ben Hur and Messala. But: The novel on which the film is based, by Lew Wallace, which became one of the great book successes in America, has a tricky subtitle: “Ben-Hur – A Tale of the Christ”.
The production manager was enthusiastic about the actor: great voice, wonderful spiritual face
You never see Claude Heater’s Jesus face in the whole film, Jesus is only ever filmed from behind or from afar in wide panoramic shots. Or his face is hidden by walls or by the cross he is carrying to Calvary. It was his only role in the cinema, Claude Heater made his career on the opera stages of the world, it also led him to Bayreuth. A Christ who became Tristan.
“Portraying Christ is a little tricky and scary,” said Ben Hur director William Wyler. “He’s gotta be the most famous person who ever lived.” Wyler’s ideas were a little lofty for a blockbuster, that you should “see” Jesus in other people’s reactions to him. A phantom figure. “You thought you saw him, heard his voice, but not really.”
He was successful on many opera stages: Claude Heater.
(Photo: Songartisticendeavor/CC BY-SA 4)
Claude Heater also sang on the stages of Italy in the 1950s and it was there that Henry Hennigson, executive producer of ‘Ben Hur’ – the film was shot at Cinecittà in Rome – saw him. Hennigson was fascinated and told Wyler about the discovery: great voice, beautiful spiritual face.
“Above all,” recalls Claude Heater, “they were interested in the hands. They wanted strong but sensitive hands.” In the most beautiful scene of the film, these hands are fully used. Then Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) moves through Nazareth with the squad of galley slaves. The inhabitants rush over and bring water to the men, exhausted from the march through the desert. Not that one, a centurion snaps at a man who also wants to give Judah water; he grabs the vessel, drinks himself in front of Judah, spits out the rest. Judah falls to the ground in grim despair: God help me. Two hands with a drinking vessel come into view, it’s Jesus stroking the cooling water over Judah’s face. He lets him drink, Judah looks up.
Claude Heater has been mocked again and again in various film stories
Jesus gently touches the Judahs with his fingertips – this is reminiscent of Michelangelo’s famous scene of the creation of man, which can be seen in the opening credits of the film. “I told you…”, the centurion booms, but then Jesus straightens up – Claude Heater is over 1.90 meters tall – and looks at him, the centurion stops. It’s like in a western when the nasty cowardly villain is paralyzed by the hero’s gaze. The cinematic narrative breaks up, but there is no return shot of Jesus’ face. The troop sets off again, Jesus stands in the landscape and looks after him. A powerful male image, an unusually virile savior, not a sufferer like the Christ actors Henry Warner, Jeffrey Hunter, Max von Sydow and James Caviezel.
Claude Heater was born on October 25, 1927 in Oakland, California, he died on May 28, 2020. He was a Mormon, served as a missionary in his youth, then enlisted in the Marines in 1945. He was quite critical of his religion and wrote the book “Fatal Flaws of the Most Correct Book on Earth” in 2007. In 1950 he went to New York, played on Broadway, later he went to Italy for voice training and sang alongside Montserrat Caballé. In 1959 Karajan brought him to the Vienna State Opera for two years.
In the early 1960s, Claude Heater trained his voice from baritone to tenor, then sang from 1964 to 1968 at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. He acted in many Wagner operas, naturally also in Bayreuth, where Wieland Wagner held him in high esteem. After retiring from the stage, he ran a studio in San Francisco for over thirty years, where young singers developed their voices.
Claude Heater has been derided time and time again in various film stories as an ambitious guy who believed in great make-believe but was tricked by Hollywoodians. An invisible man in cinema history against his will. The Jesus is certainly a supporting role, but the character Claude Heater is unusually complex – and how her two contrary moments, the inwardness of Jesus and the stage pathos of a heroic tenor, go together remains one of the inexplicable creative phenomena.