I don't know everything there is to know about celebrities/actors. I love films and actors/actresses. Does anyone know if actor Richard Gere was born Jewish ?I know his faith is Buddhist. He looks Jewish and as King David it's even more apparent.
shareFloatingOpera7,
What does it mean for someone to "look Jewish"? Does a Jew look like Gene Wilder or Woody Allen or Sen. Joseph Lieberman one of the famous Jerrys - Seinfeld, Springer, Stiller?
Yes. Some people look ethnic even if they are not. I know Caucasian-looking Mexicans and Hispanics, African-American looking Hindi people, etc. And to me Richard Gere has a slightly Semitic quality. Why else would he be cast as King David ?
shareFloatingOpera7,
I’m sorry if I come across as contentious, but it’s just that you’ve hit on one of my pet peeves.
I’ll focus on the last two sentences of your most recent post.
“...to me Richard Gere has a slightly Semitic quality.”
The Ancient Hebrews, Israelites, and Jews had pretty consistent coloring and features, although this is certainly no longer the case amongst modern day Jews, and has not been for quite some time. Richard Gere doesn’t even come close to matching the description of what these ancient people looked like.
“Why else would he be cast as King David?”
By this logic, everyone else in this movie that is playing a character of the same ethnicity should have a similar “look” to Richard Gere, but this is clearly not the case - a wide variety of features, complexion/skin tone, hair color and eye color, sometimes within the same family. I guess that you could say that they all look like they are of predominantly European descent, except for a couple of people with bit parts who looked like they might have a little blood in them from the East-Indian Sub-Continent, such as the messenger that comes to tell King Saul that the Prophet Samuel is dead; the Guardian Of The Ark who rats out David when he’s staying with the Priests at Nob; and the first soldier that King Saul orders to kill the Priests, who refuses, and then is killed by Saul. These guys, along with Jack Klaff who played Jonathan, actually come the closest to looking like their ancient counterparts.
Obviously, attempts to achieve a close to ethnically accurate appearance for the characters did not play a major role in the casting of this movie, nor has it ever played a role in the casting of most Biblical movies. Have most of the actors that have played Jesus come even close to looking like a First Century Jew living in Israel? No.
It was really just a silly question for you to ask (the one about why else would Richard Gere get cast as King David).
Richard Gere playing King David is a way for the director to say how he feels about the actual King David. Now, Gere is a great actor in his own right, but he is no King David. David was the greatest warrior and probably the overall hero of the Hebrew Bible, and let's face it, Gere is no King David.
"I don't believe in quantum physics when it comes to matters of the heart." - Bull Durham
Some people interpret certain statements in the Bible as implying David was a Redhead.
"It's not about money.... It's about sending a Message..... Everything Burns!!!"
what does a hindi person look like? hindi is a language, not a race...
shareHis mother jewish. He now buddhist before that he was christian as his father.
shareI for one was glad to see a David that was not depicted as blonde hair and blue eyed as had been in movies prior to this one.
To the poster who stated some believe David had red hair, I have come across people who believed this. While I cannot say definitively that he didn't have red hair - the reason I was given by those who believe he did is the use of the word "fair" in the King James translation. However, at the time of that translation, "fair" could mean "beauty/handsome" but some apply it as we use it today to mean pale or light.
As to Gere's performance - his distress as he called out "is the young man Absalom dead?" will forever ring as a true performance. Just as the bible states that David had to be chastised by his General that he was insulting the people that he cared more about the kingdom's enemy's (his son's) death than their victory - I can hear it in his voice and in his entire body as he cries out for his son in that scene.
I also loved hearing the 23rd Psalm given music as it might have been sung back then.
this will always be how I envision David.