Best Movie Angels

By Raymond Lockley

Angels we have heard on high... and also on screen. Some of American cinema's most touching movies have featured angels as prominent characters. Not all of them were "good" angels, but there have been several which gave us a portrayal of angels as we might like to think they really are.

So, in honor of Christmas, and as a counterpoint to my list of Santas, here's my list of the best angels in significant roles in American movies:

Clarence, played by Henry Travers in It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Dudley, played by Cary Grant in The Bishop's Wife (1947)
Dudley, played by Denzel Washington in The Preacher's Wife (1996)
Michael, played by John Travolta in Michael (1996)
Seth, played by Nicholas Cage in City of Angels (1998)
Mr. Jordan, played by James Mason in Heaven Can Wait (1978)
Mr. Jordan, played by Claude Rains in Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)
Brigitta, played by Jeanette MacDonald in I Married an Angel (1942)
Mike, played by Robert Cummings in Heaven Only Knows (1947)
Al, played by Christopher Lloyd in Angels in the Outfield (1994)

Note: The perspicaceous reader may have already noticed that, despite angels be frequently portrayed as somewhat feminine (if not outright female) in classical paints and scupture, there is only one female leading angel in these lists--and that only as part of a dream fantasy of the leading male character of the movie. Interesting, no?

Honorable Mention

There were also some other memorable portrayals of angels in the cinema, but perhaps the protagonist angel was less archetypal [or archangel?] than needed to make the top honors. (If you've seen the movie, "Dogma", you understand exactly what I might mean!) In alphabetical order, here's my list of honorable mentions:

Arthur, played by Edmund Gwenn in For Heaven's Sake (1950)
Athanael, played by Jack Benny in The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945)
Bartleby, played by Ben Affleck in Dogma (1999)
Charles, played by Clifton Webb in For Heaven's Sake (1950)
King, played by Chazz Palminteri in Down to Earth (2001)
Loki, played by Matt Damon in Dogma (1999)
Nathaniel Messinger, played by Dennis Franz in City of Angels (1998)
Pete Sandich, played by Richard Dreyfuss in Always (1989)
Pete Sandidge, played by Spencer Tracy in A Guy Named Joe (1943)
The General, played by Kenneth Spencer in Cabin in the Sky (1943)

A Special Mention

While these lists are about angels in the movies, certainly we cannot omit one of most influential angels who, had his portrayer lived, may well have given wing and made the leap from the small screen to the silver screen: "Jonathan Smith", played by Michael Landon from 1984 to 1989 in "Highway to Heaven".

A Second Look

It is interesting to look at the lists of movies above and realize just how many of these angelic films are remakes:

*The original*	*Led to*
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)	It Happened One Christmas (1977) [TV]
The Bishop's Wife (1947)	The Preacher's Wife (1996)
A Guy Named Joe (1943)	Always (1989)
Der Himmel über Berlin (1987) [German]	City of Angels (1998)
Angels in the Outfield (1951)	Angels in the Outfield (1994)
Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)	Heaven Can Wait (1978) and Down to Earth (2001)

"Here Comes Mr. Jordan", by the way, not only has two remakes and a sequel--the 1947 "Down to Earth", which is also the name of the 2001 remake--but also reputedly inspired the TV series "Quantum Leap".

To index of lists