Ted Neeley

Overview

Born
September 20, 1943 · Ranger, Texas, USA
Birth name
Theodore Joseph Neeley
Height
1.68 m

Mini Bio

Family

Spouse
Children

Trivia

March 9, 2004 Ted sang the soliloquy Why Must I die? from the Garden of Gethsemane scene in J C Superstar at the memorial service for Carl Anderson (Judas, JCS).
He met his wife on the set of "Jesus Christ Superstar"; she is one of the dancers in Simon Zealot scene
For Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), he did an unexpectedly thorough job of reenacting Jesus' bull-in-a-china-shop rampage through the Temple's "unclean" flea-market...so thorough indeed, that director Norman Jewison managed only two takes of this scene before running out of unbroken props. Fortunately, Jewison got everything right within the first two tries.
He almost missed out on being cast in Jesus Christ Superstar (1973). After inviting director Norman Jewison to see him in a matinee performance of the Who's "Tommy", he was injured during a show just prior to the one Jewison had bought a ticket to see. He recovered in time for the next show; immediately following this, he drove from Los Angeles to Jewison's hotel in Palm Springs...dressed up as "Jesus Christ." (Norman was leaving for Israel soon thereafter, to shoot the movie.) Not only did Jewison accept his explanation and apology, he gave him the title role in said film.
On the 2004 special edition DVD release of Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), Neeley joked with Norman Jewison that the tour bus seen in the opening and closing sequences was loaned to the production by Neeley and his rock band. He has since explained that this was only a joke and not an actual factoid at subsequent anniversary screenings of the film, and further elaborated on this in chats with fans on social media.

Quotes

[on filming 'Jesus Christ, Superstar'] Norman Jewison had us out there long before the shooting schedule, just so we could get acclimated to the climate, so we could get the sun on our bodies. We couldn't believe, when we saw the dailies, watching our hair become streaked from the sun, going for what we were - the Americans and Canadians who all came over there looking pristine - to becoming these desert people.
When we did the picture, it was right toward the end of the Vietnam War. Everything was going on at that time. I was in 'Hair' before 'Superstar', so for a good three to five years we were celebrating onstage what was going on in the streets around the world, all of that turmoil and tumult that was happening because of the war.