Ten Most Memorable Movie and TV Gods

Morgan Freeman in 'Bruce Almighty' and 'Evan Almighty'

When Hollywood needs to cast a kindly father figure to serve as the moral center of a film, it turns to Morgan Freeman. (Think the driver in "Driving Miss Daisy" or Red in "The Shawshank Redemption.") So it's no surprise that, eventually, Freeman would play that most fatherly of father figures, God. He's inhabited the role twice--appearing to Jim Carrey in "Bruce Almighty," and now to Steve Carell in its sequel, "Evan Almighty"--playing the Lord with the same reassuring confidence he brings to so many of his movies, mixing humor and warmth with an impressive display of miracles and a humble insistence that even He cannot possibly answer all the prayers he receives. -- Michael Kress

Alanis Morrissette in 'Dogma'

When shooting "Dogma" in 1999, filmmaker Kevin Smith chose a well-known figure to play the role of God: musician Alanis Morrissette. The movie starred Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as angels, Chris Rock as Jesus' 13th disciple who had been left out of the Bible because he was black, and Linda Fiorentino as a descendant of Christ who worked in an abortion clinic.

Needless to say, the movie's controversial themes caused an uproar in the religious community. Dressed in gold, with her long brown hair falling loosely around her face, Morrissette was an ethereal God in an otherwise snarky movie. And how did Smith deal with the classic problem of singers trying to act? Easy. He didn't give her any lines, just one big scream. -- Lilit Marcus

Val Kilmer in 'Prince of Egypt'

He was Jim Morrison, Elvis, and Batman. Maybe that lineup doesn't exactly scream "God," but it's an impressive list of pop culture iconic heavyweights. Like Charlton Heston before him, Val Kilmer's turn as God was a minor contribution to his larger role as Moses in the DreamWorks animated film "The Prince of Egypt." The movie stands out among Bible epics for gorgeous art, sweeping music, and relative fidelity to the Bible. But if it hasn't achieved the status of cultural touchstone, perhaps it's because of Kilmer's Moses-God combo: it has plenty of beauty, but not enough boom.

Since "Prince," Kilmer has appeared mostly in smaller roles or smaller films. But last year Kilmer took to the stage in a musical production of "The Ten Commandments"--this time only as Moses. Maybe God was a once-in-a-lifetime role. -- Patton Dodd

Graham Chapman in 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail'

This 1975 classic British comedy is a send-up of the Arthurian legend, as King Arthur (played by Monty Python founding member Graham Chapman) and his hapless knights encounter an odd amalgam of characters as they attempt to recover the Holy Grail. Their mission is launched at the direct behest of God (also voiced by Chapman), who takes the form of a crown-clad, yellow-eyed, bearded man situated between neatly parted clouds.

Chapman's God is somewhat hassled, shouting, "Of course it's a good idea!" when Arthur praises God's choice of quest, and dismissing Arthur's groveling and averted eyes as "So depressing...like those miserable Psalms." -- Holly Lebowitz Rossi

'Cute Guy God' in 'Joan of Arcadia'

On the CBS series Joan of Arcadia, "What If God Was One of Us?" wasn't just a theme song, it was the question underpinning each week's plot. The show's star, angsty teen Joan Girardi, wakes up one morning to discover that God is talking to her through the guise of the people around her--and often telling her things she doesn't want to hear. Over the course of a two-year run, the Deity appears as a Goth punk, a small girl in frilly socks, a Nigerian doctor, and as simply "Cute Guy." As Joan grapples with God's baffling requests--in one episode, he asks her to take piano lessons--she learns that, in fact, the Lord works in mysterious ways.

Like Joan, the audience becomes hyperattuned to every passerby on the show--because God could be the person sitting next to you on the bus. -- Laura Sheahen

Harry Shearer in 'The Simpsons'

Giving voice to the weary Rev. Lovejoy, the earnest Ned Flanders, and Almighty God, Harry Shearer has a significant religious presence on the animated Fox hit. The God of "The Simpsons" appears in the (animated) flesh when Marge dreams she and Homer are in the Garden of Eden and when Homer decides to start his own religion. And the characters often petition God--like when God knocks over the winning bowling pin at Ned's request.

Other than in the Garden of Eden scene--where God is actually Ned Flanders--God on "The Simpsons" is a giant sandal-and-white-robe-wearing man with a white, flowing beard. Like everyone else on the show, God has a self-effacing sense of humor, once confessing about Sunday's church obligation, "You know, sometimes even I'd rather be watching football. Does St. Louis still have a team?"
-- Holly Lebowitz Rossi

Charlton Heston in 'The Ten Commandments' and 'Almost an Angel'

Once upon a time, all the big roles in Hollywood went to Charlton Heston. He was the leading man in a string of blockbusters--"Ben-Hur," "Khartoum," "Planet of the Apes"--and in small masterworks like "Touch of Evil." But before all that, he was God. Heston's career-making role as Moses in "The Ten Commandments" is well known, but in one of the film's most famous scenes--God's visitation of Moses at the burning bush--Heston played opposite himself. Heston's divine voiceover was uncredited and became the stuff of movie trivia, but in retrospect it is hard to miss Heston's haunting tone coming from within the fiery bush.

Heston would provide God's voice again in a silly Paul Hogan vehicle called "Almost an Angel," and he has led many a fan through the Bible in his TV/video series. But "The Ten Commandments" is his legacy, his everlasting contribution to God in the movies. -- Patton Dodd

Eric Dearborn in 'Bedazzled'

Loosely based on the 1967 film of the same name starring Dudley Moore, Peter Cook, and Raquel Welch, "Bedazzled" stars Brendan Fraser as Elliot Richards, a socially inept nerd with a longstanding crush on a beautiful co-worker (Frances O'Connor). Elliott ends up making a deal with the Devil (Elizabeth Hurley)--seven wishes for his soul--in the hopes that he can transform himself into the perfect man for Alison. AS he undergoes a series of amusing transformations--becoming a Colombian drug lord, an overly sensitive man, etc.--we learn to be careful what you wish for, since the devil is in the details, after all, and the devil lies.

We also learn that Elliot couldn't have possibly sold his soul, since it belongs to God. It is God (Eric Dearborn) who ultimately teaches Elliott that, as the saying goes, it's what's on the inside that counts. We see the Lord and the devil playing chess and realize that maybe, just maybe, she's aiding and abetting the Almighty. -- Ellen Leventry

Howie Mandel in 'St. Elsewhere'

"St. Elsewhere" was a 1980s television show about a broken-down training hospital in Boston named was St. Eligius--after a saint known for mortification and compassion for the poor--but given the derisive nickname that served as the title of the series. One of the doctors was Fiscus (Howie Mandel), a bit crass and drawn to the dark and edgy. In an episode called "After Life," Fiscus is shot in the chest. As he is on the operating table, we see him wander through hell and then heaven. And God looks like... Howie Mandel.

The message was that, since we are each made in God's image, each of us sees God in ourselves and ourselves in God, and that we best understand God through our own filter and looking within ourselves. -- Nell Minow