The Ten Commandments (1956 Film) - Cast

Cast

• Charlton Heston as Moses and the voice of God in burning bush sequence (Heston was credited only for his role of Moses)
• Yul Brynner as Pharaoh Rameses II
• Anne Baxter as Nefretiri
• Edward G. Robinson as Dathan
• Yvonne De Carlo as Sephora, Moses' wife and daughter of Jethro
• Debra Paget as Lilia
• John Derek as Joshua

Supporting cast

• Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Pharaoh Seti I
• Nina Foch as Bithiah, adoptive mother of Moses, sister to Seti I
• Martha Scott as Yoshebel, Hebrew mother of Aaron, Moses, and Miriam
• Judith Anderson as Memnet, slave attendant to Bithiah and Nefretiri
• Vincent Price as Baka the Master Builder
• John Carradine as Aaron, Moses' brother
• Olive Deering as Miriam, Moses' sister
• Douglass Dumbrille as Jannes
• Frank Dekova as Abiram
• Henry Wilcoxon as Pentaur, Rameses II's charioteer
• Eduard Franz as Jethro, sheikh of Midian
• Donald Curtis as Mered
• Lawrence Dobkin as Hur Ben Caleb
• H.B. Warner as Amminadab, Elisheba's father
• Julia Faye as Elisheba, Aaron's wife
• Lisa Mitchell as Lulua, Jethro's daughter
• Noelle Williams, Joanna Merlin, Pat Richard, Joyce Vanderveen, and Diane Hall as Jethro's daughters
• Abbas El Boughdadly as Rameses's Charioteer
• Fraser Heston as The Infant Moses
• John Miljan as The Blind One
• Francis J. McDonald as Simon
• Ian Keith as Pharaoh Rameses I, father of Seti I and Bithiah
• Paul De Rolf as Eleazar
• Woodrow Strode as King of Ethiopia
• Tommy Duran as Gershom, son of Moses and Sephora
• Eugene Mazzola as Rameses II's son
• Ramsay Hill as Korah
• Joan Woodbury as Korah's wife
• Esther Brown as Princess Tharbis

Other well-known talent in the film's "cast of thousands" included Herb Alpert as a Hebrew drummer, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer as a slave, Michael Ansara as an Egyptian taskmaster, Mike Connors as an Amalekite herder, Robert Vaughn as a spearman and a Hebrew, Clint Walker as a Sardinian captain, Mary Lou Cotterman as Ishara, one of Jethro's daughters, and DeMille himself as the film's narrator, all uncredited. For the original theatrical release, DeMille filmed an onscreen introduction, which was included in home video editions of the film but not the telecasts. In some of his earlier films, DeMille had provided narration, especially at the beginning of the film. This was the first of only two times he was seen as well as heard (the other was in the 1958 remake of The Buccaneer, in which he also provided an onscreen introduction). He also narrated portions of The Ten Commandments, to provide continuity between scenes, as he had in North West Mounted Police, Reap The Wild Wind, The Story of Dr. Wassell, Samson and Delilah, and The Greatest Show on Earth.

Heston, who previously worked for DeMille on The Greatest Show on Earth, won the part after he impressed DeMille (at an audition) with his knowledge of ancient Egypt. Interestingly enough, though Moses lived sometime in the New Kingdom, it was Old Kingdom Egyptian facts Heston spouted off at his audition that won him his legendary role.

Heston's newborn son, Fraser, appeared as the infant Moses. According to DVD commentary by Katherine Orrison (a protege and biographer of Henry Wilcoxon, who played Pentaur in the movie and served as associate producer), DeMille deliberately timed the filming of his scenes for when Fraser Heston was about three months old. This, and other stories about the making of the film, were related to Orrison by Wilcoxon and his wife, Joan Woodbury. Orrison later wrote the book Written in Stone: Making Cecil B. DeMille's Epic, The Ten Commandments.

DeMille did not want to cast anyone who had appeared in the 1954 Michael Curtiz film The Egyptian, but did eventually hire Michael Ansara (who had played the Hittite Commander), Mimi Gibson (who had played Ankhsenpaaten), John Carradine (who had a cameo as a tomb robber), and Peter Coe (who played an Egyptian soldier in both movies).