Chaplain - Chaplains in Media

Chaplains in Media

Father Francis Duffy, famed chaplain of the U.S. 69th Infantry Regiment in World War I was a central character portrayed by Pat O'Brien in the 1940 Warner Brothers Movie The Fighting 69th.

Father Barry was a waterfront priest played by Karl Malden, who was shamed into fomenting violence against the union/mob in the classic movie On the Waterfront, directed by Elia Kazan and starring Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger, and Eva Marie Saint.

Chaplains have appeared as characters in several works of fiction about historical and imagined militaries. Father Mulcahy, a character in the M*A*S*H novels, film, and TV series, is a well known fictional chaplain.

In addition, Chaplains have been featured in mass media channels, such as the popular comic strip Doonesbury, authored by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Garry Trudeau. The Rev. Scot Sloan is a character in Doonesbury inspired by real people: Stanford's Dean for Religious Life, Scotty McLennan, along with his mentor, former Yale Chaplain William Sloane Coffin.

The Chaplain is also a key figure in Albert Camus' novel L'Etranger ("The Stranger", sometimes called "The Outsider").

The profession of military chaplaincy is reflected in several major works of world literature, such as in the Herman Melville novella Billy Budd, Jaroslav Hasek's novel The Good Soldier Švejk, and Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22.

Jewish chaplains have been featured as main characters in books such as Herbert Tarr's The Conversion of Chaplain Cohen (which also includes an excellent portrayal of the U.S. Air Force Chaplain School experience), and Chaim Potok's The Book of Lights.

In the brutal dystopian future of Warhammer 40,000, Chaplains are Space Marine warrior priests. They are typically the most pious and zealous warriors in a Space Marine chapter and always fight at the forefront of an engagement.

Chaplains serve as combat soldiers in the Mobile Infantry from Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers.

The life of Dr. Lonnie Pepper, a fictional corporate chaplain, is detailed in a novel written by Mark Cress called The Third Awakening.

In the television series V, one of the main characters, Father Jack, is mentioned as having served as a military chaplain before the series.