ACTOR · BORN 1931 · DIED 1977

Stephen Boyd

Born

4 July 1931

Died

2 June 1977

Known for

Ben-Hur (1959), Fantastic Voyage (1966), The Celluloid Closet (1995), The Bible in the Beginning... (1966)

11 archived facts · 4 topics · 2 sources · Last reviewed Oct 2026

Stephen Boyd (4 July 1931 – 2 June 1977) was an actor best known for Ben-Hur, Fantastic Voyage and The Celluloid Closet.

11 Interesting Facts About Stephen Boyd

Interesting Facts (4)

1. #001

   Stephen Boyd died of a heart attack while playing golf, shortly after completing a guest role on Hawaii Five-O (1968).

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2. #002

   In his final interview in 1976, Boyd expressed regret at having concentrated so heavily on films and said he wished he had taken more roles on stage and television.

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3. #003

   In 1955, while working as an usher at the Leicester Square cinema in London, Boyd was discovered by Sir Michael Redgrave, who won him his first film role.

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4. #004

   In 1952, during the great influenza epidemic in London, Boyd nearly died.

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Characters & Cast (4)

5. #005

   Stephen Boyd was the first choice to play James Bond 007 in Dr. No (1962).

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6. #006

   Boyd was originally cast as Marc Antony in Cleopatra (1963). When the numerous delays in the production eventually led to his departure, Richard Burton took over the role.

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7. #007

   Like Peter Finch (they had been contracted to play Antony and Caesar respectively), Boyd left the cast of "Cleopatra" at an early stage of the production and at the same time turned down the role of Boaz in "The Story of Ruth," which irritated his bosses at Twentieth Century Fox somewhat further. Stuart Whitman took that role instead; the film was a fiasco. As a result, Boyd stayed off screen for more than eighteen months after his star-making performance in "Ben-Hur."

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8. #008

   Boyd was linked to the lead role in a film version of Mary Renault's ancient Crete novel "The King Must Die." The film was never made.

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Career & Awards (1)

9. #009

   Stephen Boyd blamed the major commercial failure of The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) for ruining his film career.

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Life & Family (2)

10. #010

    In 1995, Charlton Heston denied screenwriter Gore Vidal's claim that Ben-Hur (1959) had a homosexual subtext. Vidal claims he wrote the script with such an implication and conveyed the subtext to director William Wyler. Boyd, who played Ben-Hur's friend (and later chief enemy) Messala, was supposedly part of this subtext and played his scenes as if rejected by a homosexual lover. Heston was not told about this because they thought he would not like it. Heston stated that Vidal was removed from the project after writing one scene. Vidal responded by quoting from Heston's 1978 "The Actor's Life," in which Heston acknowledged that Vidal wrote most of the finished script.

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11. #011

    Stephen Boyd, best known for playing Messala in Ben-Hur, died of a heart attack on June 2, 1977, while playing golf in Los Angeles. He was 45 years old.

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