Robert Powell (actor)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robert Powell (center)

Robert Powell (born June 1, 1944 in Salford , Greater Manchester ) is a British actor .

Life

Robert Powell was born in Salford, the youngest of two sons, a mechanical engineer and a housewife. His brother Harry is three years older than him. Powell attended Manchester Grammar School. His classmate was a certain Krishna Pandit Bhanji who would later become world famous as Ben Kingsley .

He began his acting career at age 20 while still attending the University of Manchester . In 1967 he made his film debut in Peter Yates Robbery , and 2 years later followed the first leading role in Peter Collinson's Charlie Dusts Millions .

On August 29, 1975, Powell married Barbara Lord, whom he is still married to today. The two have two children, Barney (born November 23, 1977) and Kate (born 1979).

International fame came when he accepted the title role in Franco Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth in 1977, a role that posed a challenge to the 33-year-old. In order to prepare for it, he withdrew to a monastery several months before filming began in order to credibly portray the calm and serenity of Christ.

Producer Lew Grade even demanded that Robert divorce his wife since Christ was also single, but Robert refused.

First it was Ian McShane , who was supposed to represent Jesus, Robert Powell was supposed to represent Judas. But after a few scenes that had already been shot, Franco Zeffirelli found: “If Judas had had such eyes, what presence would Christ have had?” The roles were swapped.

1981 followed the lead role as Captain Keller in the Australian mystery thriller The Survivor .

Powell never got the desire to go to Hollywood , he wanted to stay in the UK . Here he shot mainly crime novels and thrillers in which he played the "villains" in the last few decades.

Films (selection)

  • 1969: Charlie dusts off millions (The Italian Job)
  • 1972: Asylum
  • 1973: Experiments (The Asphyx)
  • 1974: Mahler
  • 1975: Tommy
  • 1976: Beyond good and evil (Al di là del bene e del male)
  • 1977: Jesus of Nazareth (Gesù di Nazareth)
  • 1978: The 39 Steps (The Thirty Nine Steps)
  • 1980: Harlequin (Harlequin)
  • 1980: Jane Austen in Manhattan
  • 1981: Survivor (The Survivor)
  • 1982: The Hunchback of Notre Dame ( The Hunchback of Notre Dame , TV movie)
  • 1982: imperative
  • 1983: Agents Die Twice (The Jigsaw Man)
  • 1983: The Secret of the Phantom Caverns
  • 1984: Soulless - A man plays God ( Frankenstein , TV movie)
  • 1986: Shaka Zulu (mini-series, 10 episodes)
  • 1986: Lost in the jungle (Laggiù nella giungla)
  • 1987: The Sins of D'Annunzio (D'Annunzio)
  • 1990: The Long Conversation with the Bird (TV movie)
  • 1991: In the First Circle ( The First Circle , TV movie)
  • 1992: Chunuk Bair - Hill of Death (Chunuk Bair)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Robert Powell on IMDb http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0694293/ on January 21, 2008
  2. More Cinema Obscura on the Way from Scorpion Releasing ... The Survivor on April 9, 2012