"Oh, Moses, Moses. You stubborn, splendid, adorable fool."

by Nathaniel R

It's 120 days until the Oscars. So for today's random number celebration let's talk Moses! According to the Bible he lived to be 120 years old. The most famous Moses film is inarguably The Ten Commandments (1956). We always forget that Charlton Heston wasn't actually Oscar-nominated for playing Moses in that now camp classic despite the film receiving seven Oscar nods including a Best Picture citation. Curiously and conversely, the film's only Golden Globe nomination was in Best Actor, Drama for Charlton Heston. How about that?

More Moses movie trivia after the jump...

• The Ten Commandments (1923) - silent film.
  Theodore Roberts as Moses
• The Ten Commandments (1956) - Cecil B Demille's remake of his own silent film. (7 Oscars nominations including Best Picture.)

• History of the World - Part 1 (1981) -  comedy.
  Mel Brooks as Moses
• Moses (1995) - miniseries. 1 Emmy nomination (Outstanding Miniseries)
  Ben Kingsley as Moses

• The Prince of Egypt (1998) -animated feature. 2 Oscar nominations (score & song)
  Val Kilmer as Moses. It had the misfortune of arriving a few years before the Best Animated Feature began but we think it definitely would have won.
• The Ten Commandments (2006) - miniseries. 3 Emmy nominations (craft categories only)
  Dougray Scott as Moses
• The Ten Commandments (2007) - animated feature.
  Christian Slater as Moses
• The Bible (2013) - miniseries. 3 Emmy nominations (including Outstanding Miniseries)
  William Houston as Moses

• Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) -feature.
  Christian Bale as Moses. Remember how much flack Ridley Scott got for this one? It was the first Moses feature to arrive after conversations about whitewashing and racial inequities in casting had gone mainstream.

Nobody has ever been Oscar-nominated OR Emmy nominated for playing Moses, unless you count nicknames and then we've got one: Cynthia Erivo as Harriet Tubman in Harriet (2019), the formerly enslaved hero and Underground Railroad icon who was nicknamed "Moses" for leading so many out of slavery. 

Comments

[Finbar McBride]

He wasn’t nominated for an Oscar, but Ryan O’Neal is fodder for an Almost There column for playing Moses “Moze” Pray in Paper Moon.

[TomG]

I'm still in shock that Anne Baxter didn't get a nomination for this film. Yul Brynner I understand since he got nominated for The King and I.

[TomG]

I'm still in shock that Anne Baxter didn't get a nomination for this film. Yul Brynner I understand since he got nominated for The King and I.

[Mr Ripley79]

Baxter definitely deserved the nomination in Supporting Actress,I think it was she after seeing this as a small boy who influenced my love of glamorous powerful women.

[ScottC]

I'll join the others in nothing surprise over the non-nomination for Baxter. It feels like just the kind of thing they'd nominate in that time period.

And in looking over all the nominees I'm left wondering - was this the year of the peak of nominating big even over the top films? So many of the nominees from The Ten Commandments and the King and I and Giant and Around the World in Eighty Days and Lust for Life to The Bad Seed and Baby Doll and Written on the Wind. I quite like some of these films but it's like the whole year was turned up to 11.