Ben-Hur

Charlton Heston (Actor) .. Judas Ben-Hur

Born: October 04, 1924
Died: April 05, 2008
Birthplace: Evanston, Illinois

Trivia: Steely jawed, hard bodied, terse in speech, Charlton Heston was an American man's man, an epic unto himself. While he played modern men, he was at his best when portraying larger-than-life figures from world history, preferably with his shirt off. He was born John Charles Carter on October 4, 1924 and originally trained in the classics in Northwestern University's drama program, gaining early experience playing the lead in a 1941 filmed school production of Peer Gynt. He also performed on the radio, and then went on to serve in the Air Force for three years during WWII. Afterwards, he went to work as a model in New York, where he met his wife, fellow model Lydia Clarke, to whom he remained married until his death. Later the two operated a theater in Asheville, North Carolina where Heston honed his acting skills. He made his Broadway debut in Katharine Cornell's 1947 production of Anthony and Cleopatra and subsequently went on to be a staple of the highly-regarded New York-based Studio One live television anthology where he played such classic characters as Heathcliff, Julius Caesar and Petruchio. The show made Heston a star. He made his Hollywood film debut in William Dieterle's film noir Dark City playing opposite Lizabeth Scott. Even though she was more established in Hollywood, it was Heston who received top billing. He went on to appear as a white man raised in Indian culture in The Savage (1952) and then as a snob who snubs a country girl in King Vidor's Ruby Gentry (1952). His big break came when Cecil B. DeMille cast him as the bitter circus manager Brad Braden in The Greatest Show on Earth (1952). In subsequent films, Heston began developing his persona of an unflinching hero with a piercing blue-eyed stare and unbending, self-righteous Middle American ethics. Heston's heroes could be violent and cruel, but only when absolutely necessary. He began a long stint of playing historical characters with his portrayal of Buffalo Bill in Pony Express and then Andrew Jackson in The President's Lady (both 1953). Heston's star burned at its brightest when DeMille cast him as the stern Moses in the lavish The Ten Commandments (1956). From there, Heston went on to headline numerous spectaculars which provided him the opportunity to play every one from John the Baptist to Michelangelo to El Cid to General "Chinese" Gordon. In 1959, Heston won an Academy Award for the title role in William Wyler's Ben Hur. By the mid-1960s, the reign of the epic film passed and Heston began appearing in westerns (Will Penny) and epic war dramas (Midway). He also did sci-fi films, the most famous of which were the campy satire Planet of the Apes (1968), The Omega Man (1970) and the cult favorite Soylent Green (1973). The '70s brought Heston into a new kind of epic, the disaster film, and he appeared in three, notably Airport 1975. From the late '80s though the '90s, Heston has returned to television, appearing in series, miniseries and made-for TV movies. He also appeared in such films as Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (1996) and 1998's Armageddon (as the narrator).Outside of his film work, Heston served six terms as the president of the Screen Actors Guild and also chaired the American Film Institute. Active in such charities as The Will Rogers Institute, he was awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 1977 Oscar ceremony. Known as a conservative Republican and proud member of the National Rifle Association, Heston worked closely with his long-time colleague and friend President Ronald Reagan as the leader of the president's task force on arts and the humanities. He made two of his final film appearances in the disastrous Warren Beatty-Diane Keaton sex farce Town and Country (2001) (in a parodistic role, as a shotgun wielding arsonist who burns Beatty's cabin to the ground) and as himself in Michael Moore's documentary Bowling For Columbine (2002) (in which he stormed out of an interview after Moore pummeled him with gun-related questions). Heston died in the spring of 2008 at age 84; although the cause of death was officially undisclosed, he had revealed several years prior that he was suffering from Alzheimer's Disease.

Jack Hawkins (Actor) .. Quintus Arrius

Born: September 14, 1910
Died: July 18, 1973
Birthplace: Wood Green, London, England

Trivia: Crusty, craggy British leading man Jack Hawkins began as a child actor, studying at the Italia Court School of Acting. After his first film, 1930's Birds of Prey, Hawkins languished for several years in secondary roles before achieving minor stardom by the end of the '30s. During the war, Hawkins was a colonel in ENSA, the British equivalent of the USO. He became a major movie "name" in the postwar era, often as coolly efficient military officers in such films as The Cruel Sea (1953), Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), The League of Gentlemen (1961), and Lawrence of Arabia (1962, as General Allenby). He was considered an Academy Award shoe-in for his portrayal of Quintus Arrius in 1959's Ben-Hur, but the "Best Supporting Actor Oscar" went to another actor in that blockbuster, Hugh Griffith. Around this same time, Hawkins was one of four rotating stars in the J. Arthur Rank-produced TV series The Four Just Men; the other three were Vittorio de Sica, Dan Dailey and Richard Conte. In 1966, Hawkins underwent an operation for cancer of the larynx. Though the operation cost him his voice, publicity releases indicated that Hawkins was training himself to talk again with an artificial device -- and also that he defiantly continued chain-smoking. Hawkins remained in films until his death, but his dialogue had to be dubbed by others. In his next-to-last film Theatre of Blood (1973), he was effectively cast in a substantial role that required no dialogue whatsoever -- something that the viewer realizes only in retrospect. Ironically, Hawkins' biography was titled Anything for a Quiet Life. Jack Hawkins was married twice, to actresses Jessica Tandy and Doreen Lawrence.

Stephen Boyd (Actor) .. Messala

Born: July 04, 1931
Died: June 02, 1977

Trivia: Irish-born Stephen Boyd was performing on stage since his preteen years. Migrating to Canada in the 1940s, Boyd acted in stock and on radio on both sides of the U.S./Canada border. After several lean years, Boyd got his movie break in the 1955 British comedy An Alligator Named Daisy. His powerful portrayal of the treacherous Messala in 1959's Ben-Hur proved to be Boyd's career peak. Few of his subsequent movie assignments came within shouting distance of Messala. Cast as Marc Antony in 1963's Cleopatra, Boyd was forced by prior commitments to defer the role to Richard Burton; and though top-billed in 1966's Fantastic Voyage, Boyd was compelled to play second fiddle to the film's remarkable special effects. In 1977, Stephen Boyd suffered a fatal heart attack while playing golf.

Haya Harareet (Actor) .. Esther

Born: January 01, 1931

Trivia: Israeli actress Haya Harareet first made a name for herself with her country's Cameri Theater. She made her film debut in the Israeli film Hill 24 Doesn't Answer (1955). Harareet's most famous role was that of Esther in the 1959 classic epic Ben Hur. She subsequently was relegated to minor films, most of which were shown in Europe. By 1964, Harareet's film career was over; she did, however, co-write the screenplay for Our Mother's House (1967).

Martha Scott (Actor) .. Miriam

Born: September 22, 1912
Died: May 28, 2003

Trivia: Direct from the University of Michigan, actress Martha Scott made her first professional appearance with the Globe Theatre troupe, performing abridged versions of Shakespeare at the 1933-34 Chicago World's Fair. Scott then worked extensively in stock and on radio before making her celebrated Broadway bow as Emily Webb in the original 1938 production of Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning Our Town. She repeated the role of Emily in the 1940 film version, earning an Oscar nomination despite the fact that the film's tacked-on happy ending rendered Scott's famous "back from the dead" monologue pointless. Scott's subsequent film assignments, notably Cheers for Miss Bishop (1941) and One Foot in Heaven (1941), found her portraying characters far older than herself with total credibility. Having previously played both the wife and the sister of Charlton Heston (nine years her junior) on stage and TV, Scott portrayed Heston's mother on the big screen in The Ten Commandments (1955) and Ben-Hur (1959). Her television resumé includes the 1954 anthology Modern Romance, which she hosted, and the roles of Mrs. Patricia Shepard and Margaret Millington in, respectively, Dallas and Secrets of Midland Heights. Her most intriguing TV assignment was the 1987 Murder She Wrote episode "Strangest of Bargains," wherein, with the help of extensive stock footage, Scott, Jeffrey Lynn and Harry Morgan reprised their roles from the 1949 film Strange Bargain. Dabbling in producing in the 1970s, Scott served as co-producer of the 1978 Broadway play First Monday in October, functioning in the same capacity when the play was turned into a film in 1981. Martha Scott was married for many years to musician Mel Powell.

Sam Jaffe (Actor)

Born: March 10, 1891
Died: March 24, 1984

Trivia: Nature obviously intended for Sam Jaffe to spend much of his screen career playing eccentric scientists and peppery little old men. As a child, Jaffe appeared in Yiddish stage productions with his mother, a prominent actress. He gave up the theater to study engineering at Columbia University, then served for several years as a mathematics teacher in the Bronx. He returned to acting in 1915 and never left, despite efforts by the more rabid communist-hunters of the 1950s to prevent the gently liberal-minded Jaffe from earning a living. Jaffe's now-familiar shock of wild, white hair was first put on view before the cameras in 1934's The Scarlet Empress, in which he played the insane Grand Duke Peter (several critics compared Jaffe's erratic behavior and bizarre appearance to Harpo Marx). Still only in his mid-40s, Jaffe went on to play the centuries-old High Lama in Capra's Lost Horizon (1937). In 1939, he essayed the title character in Gunga Din, though Hollywood protocol dictated that top billing go to Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Jaffe was Oscar-nominated for his performance as Doc, the "brains" in the 1950 crime film The Asphalt Jungle. His resemblance to Albert Einstein (minus the bushy moustache, of course) led to Jaffe being cast in Einsteinlike roles in Gentleman's Agreement (1947) and The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). Jaffe was the lifelong best friend of Edward G. Robinson, with whom he appeared in the made-for-TV film The Old Man Who Cried Wolf (1971). TV viewers with long memories will recall Sam Jaffe as snowy-haired father-figure Dr. Zorba on the 1960s TV series Ben Casey, in which Jaffe was co-starred with his second wife, Bettye Ackerman.

Cathy O'Donnell (Actor)

Born: July 06, 1925
Died: April 11, 1970

Trivia: Cathy O'Donnell was signed to a movie contract by Sam Goldwyn after a brief flurry of stage activity. Cathy's first film assignment would remain her best: in Goldwyn's The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), she sensitively essayed the very difficult role of Wilma Cameron, high school sweetheart of double amputee Harold Russell. She spent most of her Goldwyn contract on loan to other studios: one of her better films was RKO'sThey Live By Night (1947), a Bonnie and Clyde precursor starring fellow Goldwyn contractee Farley Granger. In her mid-30s, O'Donnell was still youthful-looking enough to portray Charlton Heston's leprosy-ridden younger sister in Ben-Hur (1959), the actress' next-to-last film. After eleven years' retirement, the 46-year-old Cathy O'Donnell died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Finlay Currie (Actor)

Born: January 20, 1878
Died: May 09, 1968

Trivia: Scottish actor Finlay Currie's pre-theatrical occupations included choirmaster and organist. He entered show business at the turn of the century as a musical performer, billed as "Harry Calvo, the double-voiced vocalist." For ten years, Currie toured Australia as principal comedian in Sir Benjamin Fuller's acting troupe. He returned to the London stage in 1930, where over the next three decades he would appear in such hits as The Last Mile and Death of a Salesman. In films from 1932, Currie's most memorable screen role was as the surly convict Magwitch in Great Expectations (1946). He spent much of the early 1950s in Hollywood, playing such forceful character roles as St. Peter in Quo Vadis (1951) and the mysterious Mr. Shunderson in People Will Talk (1951). Still in harness into the mid-1960s, Finlay Currie was at one juncture the oldest working actor in Great Britain.

Frank Thring (Actor)

Born: January 01, 1926
Died: December 24, 1994

Trivia: Forceful Australian stage actor Frank Thring averaged about one movie appearance per year after his 1958 debut in A Question of Adultery. Eminently suited for Biblical roles--especially those calling for a touch of weary condescension--Thring was seen as Pontius Pilate in Ben Hur (1959) and as Herod Antipas in The King of Kings. Later on, he brought a tattered dignity to the character of "The Collector" in Mel Gibson's Mad Max movies. Children of the sixties will remember Frank Thring as the hissable sometimes villain in the Australian TV series Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo (1969).

George Relph (Actor)

Born: January 01, 1887
Died: January 01, 1960

Marina Berti (Actor)

Born: January 01, 1925
Died: October 29, 2002

Trivia: Marina Berti was a popular bilingual Italian starlet whose English skills enabled her to appear in numerous stateside films, including Ben-Hur (1959) and Cleopatra (1963). Her popularity soared in the 1940s and '50s, though she would remain active onscreen through the early '90s. Born in London in 1924, Berti made her uncredited film debut in 1941's La Fuggitiva. Although she would eventually appear in nearly 100 films, her popularity never took off in the U.S. Marina Berti died October 29, 2002, in Rome following an extended illness. She was 78.

Hugh Griffith (Actor)

Born: May 30, 1912
Died: May 14, 1980

Trivia: A burly, exuberant British character star, Hugh Griffith worked as a bank clerk before debuting onstage in 1939; he appeared in one film in 1940, but his film career didn't begin in earnest until the late '40s. He played forceful character roles in dozens of plays and films in both the U.S. and Britain. For his portrayal of Sheik Ilderim in Ben-Hur (1959) Griffith won a "Best Supporting Actor" Oscar; he was nominated for the same award for his portrayal of lusty Squire Western in Tom Jones (1963), perhaps his best known performance. Hugh Griffith was last onscreen in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978).

Terence Longdon (Actor)

Born: May 14, 1922
Died: April 23, 2011

Adi Berber (Actor)

Born: January 01, 1915

Claude Heater (Actor)

Born: October 25, 1927

Jose Greci (Actor)

Born: January 10, 1941

Richard Hale (Actor)

Born: January 01, 1893
Died: May 18, 1981

Trivia: A onetime opera singer, wizened, glowering American character actor Richard Hale spent most of his screen time playing small-town sourpusses. Many of his movie appearances were small and unbilled: he enjoyed larger assignments as outlaw patriarch Basserman in Preston Sturges' The Beautiful Blonde of Bashful Bend (1949), the Soothsayer in Julius Caesar (1953), and the father of the retarded Boo Radley (Robert Duvall) in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). He also showed up with regularity on television, often cast as a taciturn farmer or hard-hearted banker on the many western series of the 1950s and 1960s. One of Hale's showier parts was in the Oscar-winning All The King's Men, as the father of the girl killed in an auto accident caused by the drunken son (John Derek) of demagogic Willie Stark (Broderick Crawford), his character name: Richard Hale.

Dino Fazio (Actor)

Stella Vitelleschi (Actor)

Laurence Payne (Actor)

Born: June 05, 1919
Died: February 23, 2009

Trivia: Serious-looking British character actor, former lead, onscreen from 1945.

John Horsley (Actor)

Born: January 01, 1920

Trivia: British character actor John Horsley launched his film career in 1948. Horsley started out by playing a plethora of policemen, then specialized in portraying doctors, barristers and business executives. His characters were nearly always bespectacled, all the better for his trademarked baleful stares. One of his smallest parts was in one of his biggest films: 1959's Ben-Hur. PBS devotees will recognize John Horsley as Doc Morrisey in the British sitcom The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin (1975).

Richard Coleman (Actor)

Born: January 20, 1930
Died: December 16, 2008

Duncan Lamont (Actor)

Born: January 01, 1918

Trivia: Though born in Portugal, Duncan Lamont was a bone-bred Scotsman; and though a Scotsman, he effectively curbed his burr to appear in British films. After considerable stage experience, Lamont inaugurated his movie career during World War II. His resumé includes such popular United Kingdom efforts as The Man in the White Suit (1954) as well as such internationally produced films as Ben Hur (1959), in which he was featured in the role of Marius. Lovers of swashbucklers have reserved a special place in their hearts for Duncan Lamont's portrayal of Count William De la Marck, "The Wild Boar of Ardennes", in 1955's Quentin Durward.

Ralph Truman (Actor)

Born: May 07, 1900
Died: October 01, 1977

Trivia: British actor Ralph Truman may seldom have played a leading role in films, but on radio he was a 14-carat star. On the air since 1925 (he was one of the first), Truman once estimated that he'd appeared in 5000 broadcasts. The actor's film career commenced with City of Song in 1930, followed by a string of cheap "quota quickies" and a few worthwhile films like Mr. Cohen Takes a Walk (1936), Under the Red Robe (1937), Dinner at the Ritz (1938) and The Saint in London (1941). The '40s found Truman cast as Mountjoy in Laurence Olivier's filmization of Henry V (1945) and in such equally prestigious productions as Oliver Twist (1948) and Christopher Columbus (1949). American audiences were treated to Truman in the wildly extroverted role of pirate George Merry in Treasure Island (1950); he'd beem deliberately cast in that role by director Robert Stevenson so that his hammy costar Robert Newton (as Long John Silver) would look "downright underplayed" in comparison. Though hardly as well served as he'd been on radio, Ralph Truman stayed with films until retiring in 1970; his last appearance was in Lady Caroline Lamb (released in 1971).

Reginald Lal Singh (Actor)

David Davies (Actor)

Born: April 03, 1906

Dervis Ward (Actor)

Born: December 05, 1923

Mino Doro (Actor)

Born: May 06, 1903

Robert Brown (Actor)

Born: November 12, 1918

Trivia: Beefy British character actor Robert Brown should not be confused with the actor of the same name who starred in TV's Here Come the Brides (1968-1969), nor with film editor Robert N. "Toby" Brown. In films from 1955's Helen of Troy, Brown specialized in roughneck costume roles, such as the Chief of Rowers in Ben-Hur (1959) and Talbot in Billy Budd (1962). In the 1957 Roger Moore TV series Ivanhoe, Brown was appropriately cast as Gurth. After playing Admiral Hargreaves in the 1977 James Bond entry The Spy Who Loved Me, Robert Brown succeeded Bernard Lee as Bond's immediate superior "M", essaying the role for the first time in Octopussy (1983) and for the last time in A View to a Kill (1989).

John Glenn (Actor)

Maxwell Shaw (Actor)

Born: January 01, 1928
Died: January 01, 1985

Trivia: British actor Maxwell Shaw is best remembered for his television work, but he also appeared in a few feature films of the '60s and early '70s.

Emilio Carrer (Actor)

Tutte Lemkow (Actor)

Born: January 01, 1918
Died: November 10, 1991

Trivia: Norwegian dancer/choreographer Tutte Lemkow entered the British film industry as a bit player in the early 1950s. Lemkow went on to stage the dance sequences for such otherwise nonmusical efforts as The Captain's Paradise (1953) and Bonjour Tristesse (1958). Most of his screen appearances were confined to eccentric character roles in films like Ben-Hur (1959), The Wrong Box (1967), Theatre of Blood (1973) and Red Sonja (1985). Tutte Lemkow also essayed the non-speaking title role in the 1970 movie version of Fiddler on the Roof.

Howard Lang (Actor)

Born: March 20, 1911
Died: December 12, 1989
Birthplace: London

Ferdy Mayne (Actor)

Born: March 11, 1916

John Le Mesurier (Actor)

Born: April 05, 1912
Died: November 15, 1983
Birthplace: Bedford

Trivia: Ubiquitous British actor John LeMesurier wasn't in every English comedy made between 1946 and 1979, though it sure seemed so. Nearly always appearing in one-scene cameos, LeMesurier's stock in trade was confusion mixed with foreboding; as such, he was perfect for such roles as worried businessmen, neurotic military officers and flummoxed fathers. From 1966 through 1977, LeMesurier starred in the internationally popular British sitcom, Dad's Army, which spawned a theatrical-feature version in 1971. An incorrigible prankster, John LeMesurier couldn't remain serious even when dealing with his own death; on that grim occasion, his self-written obituary appeared in the Times, noting that Mr. LeMesurier had "conked out."

Stevenson Lang (Actor)

Aldo Mozele (Actor)

Thomas O'Leary (Actor)

Noel Sheldon (Actor)

Hector Ross (Actor)

Born: February 11, 1914

Bill Kuehl (Actor)

Aldo Silvani (Actor)

Born: January 21, 1891

Diego Pozzetto (Actor)

Michael Cosmo (Actor)

Aldo Pial (Actor)

Remington Olmstead (Actor)

Victor De La Fosse (Actor)

Enzo Fiermonte (Actor)

Born: July 17, 1908

Hugh Billingsley (Actor)

Tiberio Mitri (Actor)

Born: July 12, 1926

Pietro Tordi (Actor)

Born: July 12, 1906

Jerry Brown (Actor)

Born: February 13, 1915

Otello Capanna (Actor)

Luigi Marra (Actor)

Cliff Lyons (Actor)

Born: July 04, 1901
Died: January 06, 1974

Trivia: A legendary stuntman/stunt coordinator, Cliff Lyons was as handsome as any of the stars he doubled and had indeed starred in his own series of silent Westerns under the name of Tex Lyons. Having begun his professional career performing with minor rodeos, Lyonsdrifted to Hollywood in the early '20s, where he found work as a stuntman in such films as Ben-Hur (1925) and Beau Geste (1927). In between these major releases, the newcomer did yeoman duty for Poverty Row entrepreneur Bud Barsky, who produced eight Westerns in Sequoia National Park starring, alternately, Lyons and Al Hoxie. Lyons would do a second series of eight equally low-budget jobs for producer Morris R. Schlank, filmed at Kernville, CA, and released 1928-1930. This time, he would alternate with another cowboy star, Cheyenne Bill. Commented Lyons: "We would go on location and make two pictures at a time -- one of Cheyenne Bill's and one of mine -- and also play the villain in each other's." Sound put an end to Lyons' starring career and he spent the next four decades or so as a riding double for the likes of Johnny Mack Brown, Buck Jones, Ken Maynard, and even Tom Mix (in the 1935 serial The Miracle Rider). In his later years he became closely associated with good friends John Wayne and John Ford, for whom he also did some second-unit directing. Although not as remembered today as Yakima Canutt, Lyons was a major force in the burgeoning stunt business and many of his innovations are still used by modern practitioners of the craft. He was married from 1938 to 1955 to B-Western heroine Beth Marion, with whom he had two sons.

Edward J. Auregul (Actor)

Joe Yrigoyen (Actor)

Born: August 28, 1910
Died: January 11, 1998

Trivia: Along with his brother Bill, Joe Yrigoyen began his screen career performing stunts for pennies at Nat Levine's ramshackle Mascot Pictures, the early sound era's busiest provider of serial thrills. The Yrigoyen brothers stayed with the company when it was incorporated into Republic Pictures, doubling for the action studio's cowboy and serial stars, and most of their villains too. Joe Yrigoyen, who also worked tirelessly on such television shows as Gunsmoke, Bonanza, and Davy Crockett, retired in the late '70s. In 1985, he was awarded the prestigious Golden Boot Award, presented to him by old friend Roy Rogers.

Alfredo Danesi (Actor)

Raimondo Van Riel (Actor)

Born: January 22, 1881

Michael Dugan (Actor)

André Morell (Actor) .. Sextus

Born: August 20, 1909
Died: November 28, 1978

Trivia: A versatile, cerebral character actor of British stage, screen, and TV, he worked in amateur theater for four years before making his professional stage debut in 1934; his first London appearance came in 1936. In 1938 he both joined the Old Vic company and debuted onscreen. His acting career did not, however, begin to bear much fruit until after he returned from service in World War Two (with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers). He was very busy onscreen throughout most of the '50s, playing leads in several horror films. He starred on the BBC-TV show Quartermass and the Pit. He served as President of British Actors Equity in 1973-74. He was married to actress Joan Greenwood.

Joe Canutt (Actor)

Trivia: Joe Canutt is the son of famed movie stunt man Yakima Canutt, and like his father is also a stunt man of merit. He is also a second unit director and a bit actor. Young Canutt also works as a stunt coordinator.

Les Ballets Africains (Actor) .. Dancers at Roman Banquet

Karl Tunberg (Actor)

Born: January 01, 1911

Trivia: An American screenwriter (usually in collaboration), Tunberg has also produced some of his films. He began by supplying the plots for musicals featuring such stars as the Ritz Brothers, Betty Grable, Sonja Henie, Glenn Miller's orchestra, Deanna Durbin, Dorothy Lamour, and Shirley Temple (for whom he wrote a comedy called Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm which has nothing to do with the classic story of that title and which would have made a fine Temple vehicle.) Tunberg was also adept at costumers: Kitty (1945, in which Paulette Goddard rises from social outcast to society belle in 18th-century England), The Scarlet Coat (1955, about Benedict Arnold), Libel (1959), Taras Bulba (1962), and Beau Brummel (1954). In later years, Tunberg wrote some weak comedies for Doris Day, Jackie Gleason, and Deborah Kerr. He has also shown a serious side; Scandal at Scourie (1953) involves a community's prejudice when Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon, playing a Protestant couple, wish to adopt a Catholic child; The Seventh Dawn (1964) is a war story with William Holden; and Night into Morning (1951) is downright grim, in which Ray Milland loses his family in a fire and turns to drinking. Tunberg's best effort by far is Ben Hur (1959). His worst screenplay is probably Harlow (the Carol Lynley version, 1965) but considering the source material (Irving Shulman's "biography"), it could have been a lot worse.

Emile Carrer (Actor) .. Rower No. 28

Ferdinand "Ferdy" Mayne (Actor) .. Captain of Rescue Ship

Born: March 11, 1916
Died: January 30, 1998

Trivia: Aristocratic German character actor Ferdy Mayne was from his teen years onward a resident of England, where he studied at RADA and Old Vic. Mayne made his professional theatrical bow in 1936, and was first seen on a London stage in 1943. At first billed as "Ferdi Mayne" for his radio and film appearances, he alternated between "Ferdy" and "Ferdinand" in his later works. Of his many film roles, Mayne is best-known for his portrayal of class-conscious vampire Count Von Krolock in Roman Polanski's The Fearless Vampire Killers (in 1975, he went on tour in a theatrical revival of Dracula). He was also seen as Hungarian producer Alexander Korda in A Man Called Intrepid (1979) and as kidnapped scientist Dr. Laprone in Revenge of the Pink Panther.

Carmen Hohenlohe (Actor) .. Guest at Banquet

Franco Fantasia (Actor) .. Roman Soldier Who Brings Crown to Gratus

Born: March 05, 1924

Fortunato Arena (Actor) .. Soldier

Bruno Arie (Actor) .. Roman Officer

Emma Baron (Actor) .. Jewish Woman

Born: October 19, 1904

Ady Berber (Actor) .. Malluch

Lando Buzzanca (Actor) .. Jewish Slave in the Desert

Born: August 24, 1935

Antonio Corevi (Actor) .. Senator

Liana del Balzo (Actor) .. Guest at Banquet

Giuliano Gemma (Actor) .. Roman Officer with Messala

8:00 pm - 12:35 am, Tuesday, April 7 on WNYW Movies! (5.2)