The Times on 2 Jan 2010 has an article on unsung artistic heroes. Various people chose their hero. Ken chose Robert Powell.
"...He is one of the greats, with Kingsley, Hopkins, Hurt- in a lineage that follows on from Olivier, Richardson, Redgrave."
"All music and lanky grace, he first came to my attention at the Arts Theatre in London, where he and a very young Ben Kingsley performed their own music in a play called A Smashing Day- a smash hit in 1965. I cast Powell nine years later in Mahler, a demanding film role that had him jumping through hoops of fire (literally) to convey the pain, courage and tragic beauty of Mahler’s creative process. I cast him again in Tommy, the film of The Who’s masterpiece, as Tommy’s idealised father, the Spitfire pilot Captain Walker.
He beat Al Pacino to the part of Jesus in Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth (1977). Nine months in the Tunisian desert emoting spiritual power, and Powell had spoilt it for all the other Jesuses. He has also made unique a multitude of iconic outsider heroes for film, TV and stage, and has carved out a spectacular career without relying on America or Harry Potter..."
