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Ben-Hur

1959

In ancient Judea, a Jewish aristocrat opposing Roman occupation of his homeland reunites with his childhood friend, now a Roman commander — setting in motion a saga of betrayal, adventure, tragedy, revenge, and faith.

Jorge Ben-Hur

Elizabeth Haffenden

Costume Design · Known for Ben-Hur

Elizabeth Haffenden (18 April 1906 – 29 May 1976) was a British costume designer who won two Academy Awards for the films Ben-Hur in 1959 and A Man for All Seasons in 1966 Oscars. She designed the costumes for most of the Gainsborough Melodramas of the 1940s.

William Wyler

Director · Known for Ben-Hur

William Wyler (July 1, 1902 – July 27, 1981) was a German-born film director, producer, and screenwriter. Notable works include Ben-Hur (1959), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), and Mrs. Miniver (1942), all which won Wyler Academy Awards for Best Director, and also won Best Picture. He earned his first Oscar nomination for directing Dodsworth in 1936, sparking a 20-year run of almost unbroken greatness. Film historian Ian Freer calls Wyler a "bona fide perfectionist," whose penchant for retakes and an attempt to hone every last nuance "became the stuff of legend." His ability to direct a string of classic literary adaptations into huge box office and critical successes made him one of Hollywood's most bankable moviemakers during the 1930s and 1940s.

Pilou Asbæk

Cast · Known for Lucy, Foundation, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

Johan Philip "Pilou" Asbæk (born 2 March 1982) is a Danish actor. He is best known for his roles as Euron Greyjoy on HBO's Game of Thrones, Pontius Pilate in Ben-Hur (2016), Bouchard in The Great Wall (2016), Batou in Ghost in the Shell (2017), Captain Wafner in Overlord (2018), Cyrus in Samaritan(2022), Gage in Uncharted (2022), and a troubled spin doctor Kasper Juul in the Danish TV political drama Borgen. He was among the recipients of the Shooting Stars Award at the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival. On 10 May he was co-host of the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenhagen, with Lise Rønne and Nikolaj Koppel. Some critics commented adversely on the obscure jokes shared by the presenters throughout the televised show.

Giovanni Casalnuovo

Costume Design · Known for The Equalizer 3

Giovanni Casalnuovo is an award-winning costumer designer known for Doom (2005), The Best Offer (2013) and Ben-Hur (2016). Nominated for 3 Primetime Emmys. 1 win & 5 nominations total.

Claude Heater

Cast · Known for Ben-Hur

Claude Heater (October 25, 1927 – May 28, 2020) was an American opera singer. He is also known for portraying the role of Jesus Christ (uncredited in the titles) in the 1959 classic film Ben-Hur in which he is primarily shown from the back.

Haya Harareet

Cast · Known for Ben-Hur

Haya Harareet (born Haya Neuberg; September 20, 1931 - February 3, 2021) was an Israeli actress and screenwriter best known for her role in Ben-Hur (1959), and was the last surviving credited cast member of the classic.

Sam Jaffe

Cast · Known for Ben-Hur

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.   Sam Jaffe (March 10, 1891 – March 24, 1984) was an American actor, teacher, musician and engineer. In 1951, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and appeared in other classic films such as Ben-Hur (1959) and The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). He may be best remembered for playing the title role in Gunga Din (1939), and the High Lama in Lost Horizon (1937). Description above from the Wikipedia article Sam Jaffe  licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Toby Kebbell

Cast · Known for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Kong: Skull Island, For All Mankind

Tobias Alistair Patrick Kebbel (born 9 July 1982) is an English actor. He is known for his roles in films such as Dead Man's Shoes (2004), Control (2007), RocknRolla (2008), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010), War Horse (2011), Wrath of the Titans (2012), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), Fantastic Four (2015), Warcraft (2016), A Monster Calls (2016), Ben-Hur (2016), and Gold (2016). He is also known for his work in the Black Mirror episode "The Entire History of You" (2011) and starred in the second film of the MonsterVerse film series, Kong: Skull Island (2017), and the Apple TV+ series Servant (2019–2023) and For All Mankind (2023–2024). Kebbell, the fourth of five children, was born in Pontefract, Yorkshire, but grew up in Nottinghamshire where he attended The Grove School (now the Newark Academy) in Balderton. He was brought up by his mother, Michelle (née Mathers), a cook and landscape gardener and his father, Robert Kebbell, an engineer from Zimbabwe. He was raised Catholic and attended a Catholic primary school. Kebbell trained in acting at the Central Junior Television Workshop in Nottingham along with Andrew Shim and Vicky McClure.

Jack Huston

Cast · Known for Treasure Island, Fargo, Boardwalk Empire

Jack Alexander Huston (born 7 December 1982) is an English actor and director. He is best known for his role as Richard Harrow in the HBO television drama series Boardwalk Empire. He also had a supporting role in the 2013 film American Hustle, portrayed the eponymous Ben-Hur in the 2016 historical drama, and appeared as one of the main characters in the fourth season of the FX anthology series Fargo (2020). In 2023, he starred in the supernatural television series Mayfair Witches. Description above from the Wikipedia article Jack Huston, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Cesare Danova

Cast · Known for Charlie's Angels

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Cesare Danova (March 1, 1926 - March 19, 1992), born Cesare Deitinger in Bergamo, Italy, was a television and screen actor. He adopted the stage name Danova when he turned to acting in Rome at the end of World War II. He migrated to the United States in the 1950s to make the film Don Giovanni (Don Juan) in 1955. He was contracted to MGM in 1956. Other appearances include The Man Who Understood Women. He tested for a part in Ben Hur, but his big break was the role of Apollodorus, Cleopatra's personal servant in the 1963 film, Cleopatra directed by Joseph Mankiewicz and starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Rex Harrison. While the original script called for a major role for Danova, who was to form a trio of Cleopatra's lovers alongside Harrison's Caesar and Burton's Marc Antony. Though a number of scenes featuring Taylor and Danova were shot, the script was revised and the role truncated as the Burton-Taylor affair made tabloid headlines. What remained was little more than a cameo. The following year he starred as Count Elmo Mancini in Viva Las Vegas as Elvis Presley's rival for both Ann Margaret's Rusty Martin and for the Las Vegas Grand Prix (predictably losing both to Elvis's Lucky Jackson). In 1967, Danova had another break with the TV series, Garrison's Gorillas, in which he played the role of Actor. Clearly inspired by the hit film, The Dirty Dozen and the hit TV series Mission: Impossible, the series had an ensemble cast but, unfortunately, only ran for 26 episodes. Two of his best roles were as the neighborhood mafia Don, Giovanni Cappa, in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973) and as the corrupt town mayor, Carmine DePasto, in National Lampoon's Animal House (1978). He also acted in three episodes of The Rifleman, and regularly appeared as a guest star on numerous television series, including Murder, She Wrote, Maude, Falcon Crest, and the revival of Mission: Impossible (1988–90). He died of a heart attack at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences headquarters in Los Angeles while attending a meeting of the Foreign Language Film committee. His mausoleum is in Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery. Danova was married twice and had two sons, Marco & Fabrizio, by his first wife, Pamela. He was an expert horseman, avid polo player, and an excellent archer. Description above from the Wikipedia article Cesare Danova, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

André Morell

Cast · Known for Ben-Hur

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia André Morell (20 August 1909 – 28 November 1978; sometimes credited as Andre Morell) was a British actor. He appeared frequently in theatre, film and on television from the 1930s to the 1970s. His best known screen roles were as Professor Bernard Quatermass in the BBC Television serial Quatermass and the Pit (1958–59), and as Doctor Watson in the Hammer Film Productions version of The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959). He also appeared in the Academy Award-winning films The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and Ben-Hur (1959), in several of Hammer's well-known horror films throughout the 1960s and in the acclaimed ITV historical drama The Caesars (1968). His obituary in The Times newspaper described him as possessing a "commanding presence with a rich, responsive voice... whether in the classical or modern theatre he was authoritative and dependable." Description above from the Wikipedia article André Morell, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia. ​

Laura Tremblay

Laura Tremblay is essentially a jill of all trades – singer, songwriter, actor, writer, director and producer. She has an array of film and television roles to her credit, including The Expanse (Syfy/Space Channel), Ben-Hur (2016; Paramount Pictures), Fugue (Indiecan Entertainment), The Cocksure Lads (Spiral Entertainment) and many more. Tremblay also had a leading role in the highly-acclaimed touring stage production of Evil Dead: The Musical, joined the cast of Legally Blonde: The Musical at Stage West Calgary in the spring of 2018, and originated the leading role of “Lori” in the brand new musical Jukebox Hero at The Ed Mirvish Theatre in Toronto, ON in 2019.

Stephen Boyd

Cast · Known for Ben-Hur

Stephen Boyd (born William Millar; July 4, 1931 – June 2, 1977) was a Northern Irish/American stage and screen actor. As a teenager he joined the Ulster Group Theatre where he learned the tasks of the theatre. In 1956 he toured North America performing "A Streetcar Named Desire" in the lead role as Stanley Kowalski. Boyd who appeared in around 60 feature films, most notably in the role of Messala in the 1959 film "Ben-Hur".

Paul Lynde

Cast · Known for I Dream of Jeannie

Paul Edward Lynde (June 13, 1926 – January 10, 1982) was an American comedian, actor, and game-show panelist. Lynde was well known for his roles as Uncle Arthur on Bewitched, as the befuddled father Harry MacAfee in Bye Bye Birdie, and as a regular "center square" panelist on the game show The Hollywood Squares from 1968 to 1981. He also voiced animated characters for five Hanna-Barbera productions. Lynde was one of six children and the middle of four boys. His father was a local police officer and the sheriff of the Mount Vernon Jail for two years. Lynde got his inspiration to become an actor at the age of four or five after his mother took him to see the original silent film Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925). After graduating from Northwestern University, Lynde relocated to New York City where his first break came from being a stand-up comedian at the Number One Fifth Avenue nightclub. Then came an appearance on a Broadway show, "New Faces of 1952".

Ayelet Zurer

Cast · Known for Daredevil: Born Again, Man of Steel, Marvel's Daredevil

Ayelet Zurer (born 28 June 1969) is an Israeli TV and film actress. She began her career on the Israeli teen drama Inyan Shel Zman and has starred in numerous Israeli TV and film roles. She received awards for Best Actress at the Israeli Academy Awards in 2003 and Best Actress by the Israeli Academy of Television in 2006 and 2013. Zurer has also appeared in numerous Hollywood films, such as Munich (2005), Vantage Point (2008), Angels & Demons (2009), Man of Steel (2013), and Ben-Hur (2016). She also portrayed Vanessa Marianna-Fisk in the Marvel Cinematic Universe television series Daredevil (2015–2018) and its revival series Daredevil: Born Again (2025–present).

Frank Thring

Cast · Known for Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Ben-Hur

Frank Thring (11 May 1926 – 29 December 1994) was an Australian character actor in radio, stage, television and film; as well as a theatre director. His early career started in London in theatre productions, before he starred in Hollywood film, where he became best known for roles in Ben-Hur in 1959 and King of Kings in 1961. He was the son of Australian film director, producer and exhibitor Francis William Thring III.

Maxwell Shaw

Maxwell Shaw (21 February 1929 – 21 August 1985 in London, England) was an actor, known for The Barber of Stamford Hill (1962), Once More, with Feeling! (1960) and BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950). He is best remembered for his television work, but he also appeared in many feature films of the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s. He appeared as Mark 'Frisky' Lee in Gideon's Way (episode "Big Fish, Little Fish") (1964). His Broadway credits include The Hostage.[8][9] He had a small role in Ben-Hur (1959). He was married to casting director Rose Tobias Shaw.

Finlay Currie

Cast · Known for Ben-Hur

Finlay Jefferson Currie (20 January 1878 – 9 May 1968) was a Scottish actor of stage, screen and television. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Currie's acting career began on the stage. He and his wife Maude Courtney (1884–1959) did a song and dance act in the US in the 1890s. He made his first film (The Old Man) in 1931. He appeared as a priest in the 1943 Ealing World War II movie Undercover. His most famous film role was as the convict Abel Magwitch in David Lean's Great Expectations (1946), based on the novel, 'Great Expectations' by Charles Dickens. He later began to appear in Hollywood film epics, including the 1951 Quo Vadis (as Saint Peter), the multi-Oscar winning 1959 Ben-Hur, as Balthazar, one of the Three Wise Men, and The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) as an aged, wise senator; He appeared in People Will Talk with Cary Grant; and he also portrayed Robert Taylor's embittered father in MGM's Technicolor 1952 version of Ivanhoe. In 1962, he starred in an episode of The DuPont Show of the Week (NBC) entitled The Ordeal of Dr. Shannon, an adaptation of A. J. Cronin's novel, Shannon's Way. Currie's last role was as Mr. Lundie, the minister, in the 1966 television adaptation of the musical Brigadoon. In one of his very last performances, Currie plays a dying mafioso boss in the two part "Vendetta For The Saint" (1968) starring Roger Moore. Later in life he became a much respected antiques dealer, specialising in coins and precious metals. He had been a long time collector of the works of Robert Burns. Description above from the Wikipedia article Finlay Currie, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Jack Hawkins

Cast · Known for Ben-Hur

John Edward Hawkins, CBE was an English actor who worked on stage and in film from the 1930s until the 1970s. One of the most popular British film stars of the 1950s, he was best known for his portrayal of military men in films like Angels One Five (1951), The Cruel Sea (1953), Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Ben Hur (1959) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962).

Robert Surtees

Cinematographer · Known for Ben-Hur, The Sting

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Robert L. Surtees, A.S.C. (August 9, 1906 – January 5, 1985) was an American cinematographer who won Academy Awards three times, for the films King Solomon's Mines, The Bad and the Beautiful and the 1959 version of Ben Hur. Robert L. Surtees began working in Hollywood as assistant cameraman to Gregg Toland, A.S.C. in the late 1920s, before moving to Germany for several years, eventually returning to Hollywood. He became one of the most accomplished cinematographers in motion pictures. His credits include Ben-Hur (1959), Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), The Graduate (1967), The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970), The Last Picture Show (1971), Summer of '42 (1971), The Sting (1973), A Star is Born (1976) and Same Time, Next Year (1978). His son Bruce was also a cinematographer.

Ralph E. Winters

Editor · Known for Ben-Hur

Ralph E. Winters (June 17, 1909 – February 26, 2004) was a Canadian-born film editor who became one of the leading figures of this field in the American industry. After beginning on a series of B movies in the early 1940s, including several in the Dr. Kildare series, his first major film was George Cukor's Victorian chiller Gaslight (1944). Winters won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for King Solomon's Mines (1950) (shared with Conrad A. Nervig) and Ben-Hur (1959) (shared with John D. Dunning). He received four additional nominations: Quo Vadis (1951), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), The Great Race (1965) and Kotch (1971). Winters' other films included On the Town (1949), High Society (1956), Jailhouse Rock (1957) and The Thomas Crown Affair (1968). Winters had a notable collaboration with director Blake Edwards. Over 20 years, they collaborated on 12 films together, including The Pink Panther (1963), The Party (1968), 10 (1979) and Victor/Victoria (1982). His last film was the pirate epic Cutthroat Island in 1995. Winters had been elected to membership in the American Cinema Editors, and in 1991, Winters received the organization's career achievement award. His memoir, Some Cutting Remarks: Seventy Years a Film Editor, was published in 2001.

Nazanin Boniadi

Cast · Known for Homeland, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Nazanin Boniadi was born in Tehran, Iran, at the height of the Iranian Revolution; her parents relocated to London shortly thereafter. She performed violin and ballet as a young girl. She attended a private high school and later moved to the United States where she earned a bachelor's degree, with honors, in biological sciences from the University of California, Irvine. At UCI, she won the Chang Pin-Chun Undergraduate Research Award for molecular research involving cancer treatment and heart transplant rejection. She was also Assistant Editor-in-Chief of MedTimes, UCI's undergraduate medical newspaper. Nazanin Boniadi is rapidly making her mark in both film and television. She co-starred as CIA analyst Fara Sherazi on seasons three and four of the Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning drama Homeland (2011), for which she shared a 2015 SAG Award nomination in the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series category. Boniadi appeared in the 2016 MGM-Paramount remake of Ben-Hur. Directed by Timur Bekmambetov, the film stars Ms. Boniadi in the female lead role of Esther opposite Jack Huston, Morgan Freeman and Toby Kebbell. She will next appear in a leading role opposite Armie Hammer and Dev Patel in Anthony Maras's Hotel Mumbai. Among her many television credits, Boniadi portrayed Nora, a relatively longstanding love interest to Neil Patrick Harris's Barney Stinson, in seasons six and seven of How I Met Your Mother (2005). She also appeared as the notorious Adnan Salif in season three of Shonda Rhimes' hit political drama Scandal (2012). She will next star alongside J.K. Simmons in the original Starz series Counterpart (2017), created by Justin Marks and Executive Produced by Morten Tyldum. On film, Boniadi appeared as Amira Ahmed in Jon Favreau's Iron Man (2008) and portrayed a young mother, Elaine, in Paul Haggis' The Next Three Days (2010). She also has several independent features to her credit. Born in Tehran at the height of the Iranian Revolution, Boniadi's parents relocated to London, England, shortly thereafter, where she was raised with an emphasis on education. While she was involved in theatre early in life, Boniadi later decided she wanted to become a physician. She moved to the United States at the age of 19 to attend the University of California, Irvine, where she received her Bachelor's Degree, with Honors (Dean's Academic Achievement and Service Award) in Biological Sciences, and won the "Chang Pin Chun" Undergraduate Research Award for her work in heart-transplant rejection and cancer research. Switching gears to pursue her first love, Boniadi then decided to study acting, which included training in Contemporary Drama at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London under the supervision of dramaturge Lloyd Trott. Boniadi is fluent in both English and Persian. She is a dedicated human rights activist. Boniadi served as a spokesperson for Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) 2009-2015, and continues to partner with the non-profit as an AIUSA Artist of Conscience.