Robert Powell

Acting

Robert Powell

Born 1944-06-01 · Salford, Manchester, England, UK

Robert Powell (born June 1, 1944) is an English actor. In 1964, he started his acting career while attending Manchester University. In 1967, he made his film debut, and later landed his first starring role in The Italian Job (1969). Some of his well known movies include Franco Ziefirelli's "Jesus of Nazareth" (1977), Ken Russell's Tommy (1975) and Mahler (1974), the remake of The Thirty Nine Steps (1978), and the popular TV series "Doomwatch" (1970). Robert married on 29th August, 1975 to Barbara 'Babs' Lord. They now have a son and a daughter. In 1982, Robert won the Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival for his performance in Imperative (1982). He won the best actor award at the Paris Film Festival for Harlequin (1980). For his portrayal of Jesus in Jesus of Nazareth he received best actor awards from TV Times and Italian TV Times, the international arts prize at the Fiuggi Film Festival, grand prize at the Saint-Vincent Film Festival, and a nomination as best actor from The Irish Academy of Film and Television arts. In reference to his role as Jesus in Jesus of Nazareth, Robert said, "I hope Jesus Christ will be the last in my line of sensitive young men for quite a while.".

Acting credits

The Italian Job poster
6.9

Charlie's got a 'job' to do. Having just left prison he finds one of his friends has attempted a high-risk job in Torino, Italy, right under the nose of the mafia. Charlie's friend doesn't get very far, so Charlie takes over the 'job'. Using three Mini Coopers, a couple of Jaguars, and a bus, he hopes to bring Torino to a standstill, steal a fortune in gold and escape in the chaos.

The Italian Job

1969

Tommy poster
6.5

After a series of traumatic childhood events, a psychosomatically deaf, dumb and blind boy becomes a master pinball player and the object of a religious cult.

Tommy

1975

Romeo.Juliet poster
7.5

The tale centers on an eccentric bag lady who rescues the stray cats of Venice and puts them on a boat to set sail for the new world. It has not been re-released for the home video market. This lack of availability, which has been described as making it "more rare than the dinosaur" has made it a sought-after item in some circles.

Romeo.Juliet

1990

Asylum poster
6.0

A young psychiatrist applies for a job at a mental asylum and must pass a test by interviewing four patients. He must figure out which of the patients, is in fact, the doctor that he would be replacing if hired.

Asylum

1972

Beyond Good and Evil poster
5.7

The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and his Jewish companion Paul Ree meet a beautiful young Russian intellectual and draw her into a ménage-à-trois.

Beyond Good and Evil

1977

The Hunchback of Notre Dame poster
5.7

Quasimodo, the hunchback bellringer of Notre Dame's cathedral, meets a beautiful gypsy dancer, Esmeralda, and falls in love with her. So does Quasimodo's guardian, the archdeacon of the cathedral, and a poor street poet. But Esmeralda's in love with a handsome soldier. When a mob mistakes her for a witch, it's up to Quasimodo to rescue her and claim sanctuary for her in the cathedral.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

1982

Mahler poster
6.8

Famed composer Gustav Mahler reflects on the tragedies of his life and failing marriage while traveling by train.

Mahler

1974

The Jigsaw Man poster
5.0

Philip Kimberly, the former head of the British Secret Service who defected to Russia, is given plastic surgery and sent back to Britain by the KGB to retrieve some vital documents. With the documents in hand, he instead plays off MI6 and the KGB against each other.

The Jigsaw Man

1983

Robbery poster
6.6

In this fictionalised account of the Great Train Robbery, career criminal Paul Clifton plans an audacious crime: the robbery of a mail train carrying millions in cash.

Robbery

1967

What Waits Below poster
4.4

The US military is running a test for a special type of radio transmitter, to be used to communicate with submarines, in a deep system of underground caves in Central America. When the signal from one of the transmitters suddenly disappears, a team of soldiers led by Major Elbert Stevens and cave specialists led by Rupert 'Wolf' Wolfsen including scientist Leslie Peterson are sent in to find out what happened. Exploring deep underground, they stumble upon a tribe of albino cave-dwellers who have apparently been isolated from the rest of the world for thousands of years. The cave-dwellers are hurt by radio frequencies and are able to see in infra-red frequencies, tracking the explorers by their body heat.

What Waits Below

1984

Colour Me Kubrick poster
5.7

The true story of a man who posed as director Stanley Kubrick during the production of Kubrick's last film, Eyes Wide Shut, despite knowing very little about his work and looking nothing like him.

Colour Me Kubrick

2005

The Thirty Nine Steps poster
6.8

The year is 1914 and Richard Hannay, Mining Engineer who is visiting Britain for a short time before returning to South Africa, is shocked when one of his neighbours, Colonel Scudder, bursts into his rooms one night and tells him a story that Prussian 'sleeper' agents are planning to pre-start World War I by murdering a visiting foreign minister. However, Scudder is murdered and Hannay is framed for the death by the 'sleepers'. Fleeing to Scotland Hannay attempts to clear his name and to stop the agents with the aid of Alex Mackenzie but not only is he is chased by Chief Supt Lomas for Scudder's death but by the agents who are headed by Appleton who has managed to hide himself in a high-placed position in the British Government...

The Thirty Nine Steps

1978

The Queen of Heaven poster
NR

The life of the Virgin Mary from the Crucifixion (33AD) till her miraculous departure/death (44AD). It also describes the early years of the Christian Church community.

The Queen of Heaven

2026

The Resurrection of Christ poster
NR

The story of Jesus Christ has been portrayed countless times throughout the history of cinema, from the chaste and embryonic staging of the silent film era to the frenetic dynamism of the digital age at the beginning of the 21st century. Death and rebirth are present in a perpetual cycle in which the sacred myth is transformed into the product of a spiritual franchise.

The Resurrection of Christ

2026

The Four Feathers poster
6.8

The fifth filming of the adventure classic about a British soldier in the 1880s who fights to regain his honor after being given four white feathers, symbols of cowardice.

The Four Feathers

1978

Harlequin poster
6.4

Up-and-coming senator Nick Rast's young son is terminally ill with leukemia. A mysterious faith healer, Gregory Wolfe, appears and seems to cure the boy. Rast's wife Sandy falls in love with Wolfe, but the powerful interests behind Rast's career, represented by geriatric monster Doc Wheelan are less happy with events.

Harlequin

1980

Pygmalion poster
NR

When linguistics professor Henry Higgins boasts that he can pass off Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle as a princess with only six months' training, Colonel George Pickering takes him up on the bet. Eliza moves into Higgins's home and begins her rigorous training after the professor comes to a financial agreement with her dustman father, Alfred. But the plucky young woman is not the only one undergoing a transformation.

Pygmalion

1981

Lady Killer poster
6.8

A shy, lonely American girl marries a charming man she meets while on vacation in England, unaware that he has sinister plans for her.

Lady Killer

1973

The First Circle poster
5.0

In the USSR, political prisoners who were scientists were not always sent to GULAG, but also to The First Circle (named after Dante's Inferno), a special incarceration unit near Moscow where they could work for the government.

The First Circle

1992

The Asphyx poster
6.0

Hugo is a brilliant turn-of-the-century scientist, loved and respected by his family and friends, admired by his colleagues. But he is a man quickly becoming obsessed with a curious and frightening question...What is the mysterious apparition found in the photographs of his dying subjects?

The Asphyx

1972

Love Sins poster
4.3

A biographical feature on the Italian literary giant, Gabriele D'Annunzio. Set in late 19th century Italy and France when the artistic style, Decadentismo, was beginning to take shape, the film focuses on D'Annunzio's life when he was already an established poet and journalist in Rome. A staunch opponent of democracy and commoners, he searches for passion and pleasure among the wealthy and noble. One such noblewoman Elvira Fraternali Leoni, serves as the muse for his first novel - The Pleasure (Il Piacere).

Love Sins

1987

The Legends of Treasure Island poster
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

The Legends of Treasure Island

1993

Frankenstein poster
6.7

A scientist who is obsessed with creating life finally does it, with tragic results.

Frankenstein

1984

The Survivor poster
5.2

When a 747 crashes shortly after take-off, the sole survivor is the pilot. Virtually unhurt, he and the investigators look for the answers to the disaster. Meanwhile mysterious deaths occur in the community and only a psychic, in touch with the supernatural, can help the pilot unravel the mystery surrounding the doomed plane.

The Survivor

1981