Samson and Delilah is a 1984 television movie

Television movie

A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...

 adaptation of the biblical story of Samson

Samson

Samson, Shimshon ; Shamshoun or Sampson is the third to last of the Judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Tanakh ....

 and Delilah

Delilah

Delilah appears only in the Hebrew bible Book of Judges 16, where she is the "woman in the valley of Sorek" whom Samson loved, and who was his downfall...

, starring Max von Sydow

Max von Sydow

Max von Sydow is a Swedish actor. He has also held French citizenship since 2002. He has starred in many films and had supporting roles in dozens more...

, Belinda Bauer, Antony Hamilton

Antony Hamilton

Antony Hamilton was an Australian actor, model, and dancer.-Early life:Hamilton was born in Liverpool, England, was adopted by an Australian RAF-hero and his wife soon after birth, and grew up on a sheep farm in Australia. He attended the Scotch College in Adelaide, where dance and ballet was a...

, Daniel Stern

Daniel Stern (actor)

Daniel Jacob Stern is an American film and television actor. He is known for his roles in the Hollywood films C.H.U.D., Diner, City Slickers and the first two Home Alone films, and as the narrator for the television series The Wonder Years.-Early life:Stern was born in Bethesda, Maryland to a...

 and Victor Mature

Victor Mature

Victor John Mature was an American stage, film and television actor.-Early life:Mature was born in Louisville, Kentucky to an Italian-speaking father from the town Pinzolo, in the Italian part of the former County of Tyrol , Marcello Gelindo Maturi, later Marcellus George Mature, a cutler,...

, who played Samson in the 1949 film

Samson and Delilah (1949 film)

Samson and Delilah is a 1949 film made by Paramount Pictures , produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr as the title characters...

, having a small cameo as the father of Antony Hamilton's Samson. Based on the novel Husband of Delilah by Eric Linkletter, Samson and Delilah originally aired on ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

.

Plot

Mostly the same as the original biblical story, but with notable differences such as, once again, the expanded role of Delilah (Bauer), the introduction of the garrison commander (Stern) who is friends with Samson (Hamilton), more focus upon Samson's relationship with his first wife, a different handling of the 30 garments bet, and, perhaps the most crucial alteration is to the climax. In the original story, maintained in the 1949 film and the 1996 TV remake, is that Samson only regains his strength after his hair has grown long again, thus allowing him to tear down the Philistine temple. Here, however, Samson is taken to the Philistine temple just after his hair has been cut short, and he prays to God

God

God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

 to restore his immense strength despite his short hair, and God complies, allowing Samson enough strength to tear down the stone pillars, thus destroying the temple.

Unlike the 1949 and 1996 adaptations, Delilah survives to mourn Samson alongside his followers.

Cast

• Antony Hamilton
  Antony Hamilton
  Antony Hamilton was an Australian actor, model, and dancer.-Early life:Hamilton was born in Liverpool, England, was adopted by an Australian RAF-hero and his wife soon after birth, and grew up on a sheep farm in Australia. He attended the Scotch College in Adelaide, where dance and ballet was a...
  
  .....Samson
• Belinda Bauer.....Delilah
• Angélica Aragón
  Angélica Aragón
  Angélica Aragón is a Mexican actress of telenovelas and such films as Dune, A Walk in the Clouds, Bella, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, Vivir un poco, Mirada de mujer, Novia que te vea, and the blockbuster film Sexo, pudor y lágrimas.-Early life:Aragón was born Angélica Espinoza Stransky in Mexico...
  
  .....Nija
• David Byrd.....Elon
• David S. Eisner.....Arin
• José Ferrer
  José Ferrer
  José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón , best known as José Ferrer, was a Puerto Rican actor, as well as a theater and film director...
  
  .....The High Priest
• Jennifer Holmes
  Jennifer Holmes (actress)
  Jennifer Holmes is an American television actress.Holmes is best known for her role as Leslie Vanderkellen, a fabulously rich, world-class skier who takes the job of hotel maid to find out what it is like to be normal, on the first season of Newhart...
  
  .....Varinia
• Stephen Macht
  Stephen Macht
  Stephen Robert Macht is an American television and film actor.-Early life:Macht was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was raised in Brooklyn Heights, NY, until his father's death. At age nine, he moved with his mother and older brother to live with his maternal grandfather, a haberdasher, in...
  
  .....Maluck
• Victor Mature
  Victor Mature
  Victor John Mature was an American stage, film and television actor.-Early life:Mature was born in Louisville, Kentucky to an Italian-speaking father from the town Pinzolo, in the Italian part of the former County of Tyrol , Marcello Gelindo Maturi, later Marcellus George Mature, a cutler,...
  
  .....Manoah
• Clive Revill
  Clive Revill
  Clive Selsby Revill is a New Zealand-born British character actor best known for his performances in musical theatre and on the London stage.-Early life and stage career:...
  
  .....Raul
• Rene Ruis.....The Temple Man
• Maria Schell
  Maria Schell
  Maria Margarethe Anna Schell was an Austrian/Swiss actress, who won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival in 1956 for Gervaise....
  
  .....Deborah
• Brandon Scott.....The Magician
• Daniel Stern
  Daniel Stern (actor)
  Daniel Jacob Stern is an American film and television actor. He is known for his roles in the Hollywood films C.H.U.D., Diner, City Slickers and the first two Home Alone films, and as the narrator for the television series The Wonder Years.-Early life:Stern was born in Bethesda, Maryland to a...
  
  .....Micah
• Max von Sydow
  Max von Sydow
  Max von Sydow is a Swedish actor. He has also held French citizenship since 2002. He has starred in many films and had supporting roles in dozens more...
  
  .....Sidka

Award nominations

Year	Award	Result	Category	Recipient
1984	Emmy Award Emmy Award An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...	Nominated	Outstanding Achievement in Hairstyling	Jan Van Uchelen
1985	BAFTA Award British Academy of Film and Television Arts The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...		Best Short Film BAFTA Award for Best Short Film This page lists the winners and nominees for the BAFTA Award for Best Short Film for each year. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts , is a British organisation that hosts annual awards shows for film, television, children's film and television, and interactive media...	Mark Peploe