Actor Dennis Haysbert, trim and 6-feet-4, with a quietly powerful demeanor and a deep, sexy voice that brings to mind a cross between Barry White and Isaac Hayes, is a powerhouse that’s just plain hard to miss, on-screen and off.
The popular actor as been working over 30 years as an actor, with roles on television and in movies such as Far From Heaven, Jarhead, Absolute Power, and the hit TV drama where he played the most powerful man in the free world on 24. Not to mention his countless Allstate insurance commercials where he asks the question, “Are you in good hands?”
Recently, Haysbert stepped into the role of the most powerful, all-knowing role of God (yes, God) on the hit series Lucifer.
Haysbert told The Christian Post, “I think people are going to see God in a different light because everyone sees God in their own religion. When you think about it, what is God’s religion? He’s not Christian, Buddhist, or Muslim; He’s God. He’s light and love; He made us all in His image. Does He have emotion, does He love, is He jealous, does He have pain? When He looks down on us right now, what does He feel about it? He’s given us free will.”
“Think about this or not, I’m not gonna put anything on it,” continued Haysbert. “I’m just saying it was very interesting to play the character. I hope God likes what I’ve done with it. I think it’s the first time that people will see God portrayed in a three-dimensional way.”
What is surprising is that, long before all of this, the odds were very much against Dennis Haysbert even staying alive, much less achieving stardom.
Dennis was born with a hole in his heart, a defect, he says, that caused the entire family to baby and protect him for many years.
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“I was never coddled,” Dennis says, “but always protected. [My family has said] that when I’d come into the room as a child, it would go silent because people could actually hear my heart working.”
Holes in the heart are simple congenital heart defects. Congenital heart defects are problems with the heart’s structure that are present at birth. These defects change the normal flow of blood through the heart.
The heart has two sides, separated by an inner wall called the septum. With each heartbeat, the right side of the heart receives oxygen-poor blood from the body and pumps it to the lungs. The left side of the heart receives oxygen-rich blood from the lungs and pumps it to the body.
The septum prevents mixing of blood between the two sides of the heart. However, some babies are born with holes in the upper or lower septum.
Haysbert’s heart healed by itself and, looking at the fit 67-year-old actor, it’s hard to imagine him as…