Celebrity Biographies
Claude Heater
His face was never seen, but he played Jesus Christ in “Ben-Hur”, directed in 1959 by William Wyler, winner of eleven Oscars. Opera singer Claude Heater passed away at the age of 92, in San Francisco, on May 28, 2020.
Born in Oakland on October 25, 1927, Claude Heater grew up in a Mormon family. At the age of 25 he moved to Italy to study music and become an opera baritone. He triumphed at the Vienna State Opera and at the San Francisco Opera.
While acting in Rome, he caught the attention of one of the producers of Wyler’s film, who thought that his voice and hands were ideal for giving the character of Jesus of Nazareth a presence, compensating for the fact that his face was not going to appear. Despite the fact that his name does not appear in the credits, his scenes left their mark, especially the one in which he offers the protagonist water.
He did not repeat himself in the cinema, but he did go on the Broadway stage. During the last years of his career, Claude Heater taught opera classes in San Francisco and ran for the United States Congress as a Republican candidate.