My brother was reminiscing about actors he had met. He mention Stewart Petersen. Stewart stared in "where the red fern grows", "against a crooked sky" and I believe "seven alone".

Many of you may remember him as Joseph Smith in "the first vision" from fhe early 70s.

My uber tbm sister in law mentioned several folks that played Joseph over the years. I had to speak up and say my all time favorite was the illustrious Vincent Price who portrayed Joseph in 1940 in the movie "Brigham Young."

Of course she was way too young to know who Vincent Price was and after googling him she got the most confused look on her face. She was upset a "horror picture" star and non mormon would even be allowed to portray the prophet.

Anyway..... Anyone have a favorite actor that played Joseph?

Jay Silverheels

I thought he nailed it!!!

Warren Jeffs tried hard to play Joseph Smith but maybe that act was not exactly what you had in mind.

Stan

Joseph Smith

Nice!

Don't know about actual portrayals but the idealized painting used on pamphlets and such very much resembled actor Michael Wilding

He's a little too old now, but I always thought William Fichtner would have been PERFECT to play JS.

And yeah, I think it's hilarious to see Vincent Price playing JS like a 1930's no-nonsense character out of The Grapes of Wrath.

Okay, now I have to see Vincent Price's portrayal of Joe. Your sister in law might not have a high opinion of "horror picture" actors, but I do.

Easy for me....1977 movie called Brigham. Joseph is played by Richard Moll who played "Bull" on tv comedy Nightcourt and the movie Flintstones.

That is exactly who came to mind when I read the OP. Richard Moll was really quite good.

HH =)

My favorite is the one who has also been playing Jesus Christ in a lot of the church films. John Foss.

Most inadvertently truthful the church has ever been about the motivations of not only JS to replace Christ(since when did a prophet need 12 apostles? Jesus Christ was the only one with 12 apostles at his side) but also the organization's aims for Joseph Smith to be equivalent to Christ. By extension, the "Christ authority" is given to the other prophets. You don't get a temple recommend if you answer "no" to questions 3 and 4.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/07/2021 08:38AM by thegoodman.

Vincent Price in a 1940s movie version, BRIGHAM YOUNG. Seems so appropriate.

I am NOT a fan of con man/swindler/pervert MORmON founder Joe Smith AT ALL...... or his resulting super predatory total BS MORmON church CULT /SCAM .....that now wants to ditch its Joseph Smith related book of MORmON name and history as it can.....EVEN THOUGH IT REALLY CAN"T (LMAO at the schizophrenic MORmONS!!)

As well, The Work and The Glory books and movies (series) are utterly nauseating for obvious MORmON reasons.

However, that said, Credit given where credit is due, Johnathan Scarfe did an incredible ....incomprehensibly good..... job of playing a very bad character who was (falsely) being portrayed as very good and a supposed servant of god.

I am a fan of Scarfe after seeing how well that he handled such a problematic role and assignment.

Johnathan Scarfe really has no equal in attempting to seriously playing Joseph Smith, even though the cheesy LDS Inc/ MORmON /BYU actor versions of Smith are much more fun to make fun of because they are so full of themselves and so odd just like Joseph Smith really was.

and FTR, Joseph Smith still major league SUCKS !!!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Scarfe