Who's Who on "The Mormons"

Who were all those talking heads on the PBS series "The Mormons"? To quote a famous Mormon, "Who are those guys?" Here's an alphabetical list of every person who appeared on the series (which was produced by Helen Whitney). The name links to an online bio or a faculty page where I could find one — the Wikipedia entries even give a pop-up mini-bio. I will update this post to add additional information over the next few days. If you have information on any of the less familiar persons, feel free to email me or add a comment.

Update: After adding the names from Part 2, I ended up with 68 names on the list. I decided to include three deceased historians whose photos were shown while their scholarly work was discussed (Fawn Brodie, Juanita Brooks, and Leonard Arrington) and to include the names of the rank-and-file Latter-day Saints who were shown in Part 2 as well as the scholars and authors.

Leonard Arrington (deceased)

historian, LDS Church Historian during the "Camelot years," and author of Adventures of a Church Historian.

Tal Bachman

a Canadian who served an LDS mission to Argentina, became a musician, then exited the LDS Church.

Will Bagley

author of Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows.

Sam Bainson - a member of the LDS Church from Ghana

Alex Baugh - professor of church history at BYU

Robert F. Bennett - United States Senator (R, Utah)

Harold Bloom

noted literary critic and author of The American Religion: The Emergence of the Post-Christian Nation, in which Bloom refers to Joseph Smith as "a religious genius."

Phil Bolinger

president of the Mountain Meadows Monument Foundation.

Fawn Brodie (deceased) - author of No Man Knows My History

Juanita Brooks (deceased) - author of The Mountain Meadows Massacre

Richard L. Bushman

emeritus professor of American history at Columbia and author of the definitive Joseph Smith biography, Rough Stone Rolling.

Jon Butler - historian of American religion at Yale

Alex Caldiero - Poet in Residence at UVSC

Ken Clark

former LDS institute director who has posted "Shooting the Messenger," his exit story, at the Exmormon Foundation site.

James Clayton - emeritus professor of political science at the U of U

Michael Coe

emeritus Yale archeologist and author of the 1973 Dialogue article "Mormons and Archeology: An Outside View."

James Dalrymple, Jr. - LDS missionary who served in Brazil

James Dalrymple, Sr. - LDS filmmaker; father of James Dalrymple, Jr.

Edwin Firmage, Jr.

Utah artist and author of the essay Historical Criticism and the Book of Mormon: A Personal Encounter," in American Apocrypha; not to be confused with his father Edwin Firmage, Sr., emeritus professor of law at the University of Utah and author of Zion in the Courts: A Legal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900.

Kathleen Flake

professor of American religious history at the Vanderbilt Divinity School and author of The Politics of American Religious Identity: The Seating of Senator Reed Smoot, Mormon Apostle.

Robin Lane Fox

historian of ancient history at Oxford

Judith Freeman

author of Red Water, a novel about three wives of John D. Lee, set against the events at Mountain Meadows.

Terryl Givens

professor of literature and religion at the University of Richmond; author of By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture That Launched a New World Religion and the forthcoming People of Paradox: A History of Mormon Culture.

Fiona Givens - LDS teacher

Sarah Barringer Gordon

law professor at the University of Pennsylvania and author of The Mormon Question: Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth-Century America.

Darius Gray - president of The Genesis Group

Roger Hammer

B. Carmon Hardy

emeritus professor of history at Cal State Fullerton; author of Solemn Covenant: The Mormon Polygamous Passage and the newly released Works of Abraham: A Documentary History of Mormon Polygamy.

Calvin Harper - LDS convert and missionary

Larry Hess

President Gordon B. Hinckley - President of the LDS Church

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland - of the LDS Quorum of the Twelve

Bryan Horne - an LDS student

Gail Houston - professor of Women's Studies at UNM

Elder Marlin K. Jensen - LDS Church Historian

Billy Johnson - an LDS pioneer in Ghana

Roman Kent - a Jewish Holocaust survivor

Edward Kimball

son of President Kimball and author of Lengthen Your Stride: The Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball

Glen Leonard

was the director of the LDS Museum of Church History and Art for 26 years; co-author of The Story of the Latter-day Saints.

James Madison - a resident of Louisiana

Truman Madsen

emeritus professor of philosophy at BYU and author of Joseph Smith, the Prophet.

Colleen McDannell - professor of religious studies at the U of U

Richard Mouw

president of the Fuller Theological Seminary and author of a controversial Foreward to The New Mormon Challenge.

William Morain

author of The Sword of Laban: Joseph Smith, Jr., and the Dissociated Mind.

Carl Mosser - co-editor of The New Mormon Challenge

Melissa Mower - LDS student and missionary

Jeffrey Nielsen - former philosophy instructor at BYU

Elder Dallin H. Oaks - of the LDS Quorum of the Twelve

Richard Ostling - co-author of Mormon America

David Pace - son of noted BYU religion professor George Pace.

Elder Boyd K. Packer - of the LDS Quorum of the Twelve

Grant Palmer

former CES employee and author of An Insider's View of Mormon Origins.

Randall Paul - president of the Foundation for Interreligious Diplomacy

Elbert Peck - former editor of Sunstone Magazine

Daniel Peterson - infamous professor of Arabic at BYU

Rick Phillips - professor of sociology at UNF

Anne Osborne Poelman - LDS neuroradiologist

D. Michael Quinn - until 1993, professor of history at BYU

Gregory Prince

co-author of David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism

Jana Richman

author of Riding in the Shadows of Saints: A Woman's Story of Motorcycling the Mormon Trail.

Trevor Southey

Utah artist and co-author of Trevor Southey: Reconciliation

Betty Stevenson - LDS convert

Kimber Tillemann-Dick - a young and engaged LDS woman

Charity Tillemann-Dick - a talented young LDS opera singer

Amber Tillemann-Dick - Kimber and Charity's mom

Margaret Toscano

professor of classics at the U of U and co-author of Strangers in Paradox: Explorations in Mormon Theology

Ken Verdoia

director of production at KUED, the PBS affiliate in Salt Lake City.

Simon Worrall

author of The Poet and the Murderer, a book about the Mark Hoffman forgeries and murders.

Comments

[Rob Gardner]

Gregory Prince - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Prince

Truman Madsen - http://trumanmadsen.com/bio.php

Terryl Givens - http://terryl.givens.googlepages.com/

Will Bagley - http://www.salamandersociety.com/interviews/willbagley/

Daniel Peterson - http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/viewauthor.php?authorID=1

[Justin]

Alex Baugh teaches religion at BYU.
Simon Worrall wrote a book on the Mark Hofmann affair.
Phil Bolinger is president of the Mountain Meadows Massacre Foundation.
http://216.92.17.12/MMM/mmmf.htm

[Bored in Vernal]

Alex Caldiero -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Caldiero
(Rasputin-looking poet who gave an over-the-top recitation of the Moroni story.)

[Matt B]

Fantastic links. Thanks, Dave.

Jana Richman: http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/catalog/results.pperl?authorid=36360

Robin Lane Fox is a professor at either Oxford or Cambridge; he specializes in classical religion. I'm not sure how Whitney managed to dig him up.

William Morain wrote _The Sword of Laban_, which is a Freudian psychoanalysis of Joseph Smith.

[David H. Sudwall]

Edwin Firmage, Jr.: a former member best known for "Zion in the Courts", a legal history of the Church. Recently retired law professor at U o f Utah
http://edfirmage.net/

http://www.law.utah.edu/faculty/displayProfile.asp?id=101&name=Firmage,Edwin

[Dave]

David, there's a Sr. and a Jr. Firmage; I want to get them straight before I post links. It was Jr. that had a brief spot on the show.

[Dave]

Okay, I fixed the dd and dt tags in my definitions list -- it looks much better now. There will be additional names added to the list (such as D. Michael Quinn) after Part 2 on Tuesday night.

[Justin]

I found a bio for Worrall here.

[Phouchg]

Ken Clark

http://exmormonfoundation.org/node/13

[David H. Sudwall]

Dave, sorry about that. I had Sr. (I believe) as a law professor and just assumed it was him. I missed the first hour last night but will watch the tape to see who it was.

I'd be surprised if it was his son as I think he is a photographer/artist. That's what you get when you assume.

[Dave]

David, it was the photographer/artist. That is one of the more interesting features of the series, I think: there has been a lot of comment from writers, poets, and artists, as well as the usual parade of historians and so-called intellectuals. And the liberal use of LDS art has been interesting, too.

[Ben H]

Randy Paul was the voice describing the appearance of Moroni to Joseph (at least the first part), and also spoke on John D. Lee. He is a devoted Mormon, a real estate developer, and the founder of the Foundation for Interreligious Diplomacy.

[Todd Wood]

Thanks for the links.

[pilgrimgirl]

Here's a link for author Judith Freeman:
http://mormonlit.lib.byu.edu/lit_author.php?a_id=99

Also, she wrote _Red Water_, not _Red Tide_.

[Dave]

Oops, mental slip on that title (Crimson Tide being one of my favorite movies).

[Justin]

There's a brief bio of Carmon Hardy here.

[Matt W.]

Dave, why is Leonard Arrington on the list? I don't believe he was alive during the filming of this...

[Matt W.]

doh! Just read the update, please disregard my stupid comments...

[Dave]

Okay, I just finished adding names and links for Part 2, which I thought had considerably more emotional impact than Part 1. I hope readers find the list useful and that those doing posts on some aspect of the series will use the list as a linked resource.

[David H. Sundwall]

Thanks for doing this. It is very helpful.

I'm not if this is but here's a link for the correct Ed Firmage Jr. It's mostly about his gallery but it looks like it has other material too.

http://www.firmageditions.com/

[Chad]

Why is Daniel Peterson "infamous"?

[unknown]

Glen Leonard is no longer Director of the Church Museum of History and Art.

[Dave]

Yeah, I had a hard time nailing down exactly what position Glen Leonard now holds. I think it's actually an Oman that's running the museum at present. Surprisingly, the Church Museum of History and Art has no "staff" or "directors" listing at their website (which is part of the LDS.org domain).

Chad, infamous is a contraction of "Internet" and "famous." Because Peterson is so active in supporting online communities, including visiting this weblog from time to time, he is therefore "infamous."

David, I decided not to link the commercial "name.com" sites. I didn't link Truman Madsen's .com site either.

[Marvel Daniels]

I enjoyed last night's PBS program on the Mormons. I learned a lot. I still believe to love truth is the highest calling. That is why questions about the historical truth of the Book of Mormon was of interest to me.

At least Smith had the strength of person to introduce a "story" of God that captured the imagination and hearts of many. The old testament of the Holy Bible is filled with these stories. However, the Christian faith has been crippled by the admonition that the Holy Bible is the word of God and any who take from or add to it is subject to eternal damnation. But here, Mr. Smith has accomplished this amazing feat.

It is even more amazing now that other ancient srolls and some original text of the Bible are being unearthed, translated and made available to true seekers of Christ. This new material has captured the hearts of many Christians.

In that vein, I had an idea concerning the inability to substantiate the Book of Mormon claim Jesus and other Isrealites came to the new world.

Well, the newly unearthed early Christian material indicate that Jesus was a Nazorean. His people had a culture separate from the Isrealites. The investigators on PBS were looking to unearth evidence of Jewish language and religion. However, according to the new material in Dead Sea Scrolls and other libraries, perhaps investigators should look for evidence of the story of the tree of life, the seven angels of the earthly mother and the seven angels of the heavenly father and or their corresponding symbols.

Just a thought.

[Justin]

I found a recent summary of Leonard's career at the MESG website here.

[Justin]

A few others:

Billy Johnson is a church pioneer in Ghana and serves as a patriarch there.

Carl Mosser teaches biblical studies at Eastern University, is co-editor of The New Mormon Challenge, and co-wrote a review of How Wide the Divide? for FARMS Review of Books.

Roger Hammer teaches exercise physiology at Central Michigan University.

[Matt B]

I'm not sure why Whitney ID'd Jim Clayton as a "political science professor;" he taught legal and economic history in the U's history department (where I took a class from him) and that very department is now raising money for an endowed chair in his name.

[RP]

Here's my all time favorite comment about the documentary:

That was THE MOST uninformed, distasteful, misguided bunch of JUNK I ever saw. What on earth was a professor of Islam doing talking about us? They needed to pump up the brightness setting on those paintings. And that picture made Jesus look like a Pagan devil-spirit. It gave me bad dreams, making me wake up at 2 a.m.

[Edited - note that the link is to a long list of reader comments posted at the Deseret News. The quoted comment is an actual reader comment.]

[Dave]

RP, I'd have to agree that long page of reader comments at the Deseret News is a little scary -- many Mormons seem to view anything that features a range of opinion on LDS history and doctrine as "anti-Mormon." And they knew this was PBS, not the cults shelf at the local Christian bookstore. LDS leaders (who seemed rather pleased with the series, based on the mildly positive commentary at LDS.org) better rethink the CES and Sunday School curriculum, which is obviously not doing much educating.

[ClairB]

Sam Bainson - was in our ward for a while, a native of Ghana. He would wear a white shirt, tie and a very colorful wrap to church. Nice touch!

- Clair