Why didn't Stephen Boyd get an Oscar nomination for "Ben-Hur"?

To punish him for being one of the grrrls.

He didn't get enough votes.

Next question!

Because he was gay? Well, someone has to say it. Found the following link that some might find interesting.

He was deeply in the closet and was married a couple of times. He was well-liked in the industry .. I doubt his homosexuality had any bearing on whey he didn't win an academy award ..

I wonder if John Gielgug gave him more than witty stories.

I have no idea why someone isn't nominated. I'll let you know how it feels when I experience it.

[quote]I wonder if John Gielgug

R5 It's Gielgud, you wretched little shit.

M you were left out for The Hours, the other 2 got in. You had to make do with supporting for Adaptation instead. Didn't that sting?

And you were favoured to go up for Marvin's Room but your hat loving "sister" Diane got it instead.

Also, they thought you'd get I n for The River Wild (it being a weak year) and yet you didn't.

Forgetting all these, are we?

I generously pulled my ads for Marvin's Room so my dear friend Diane could get in.

The Hours eh I still was nominated that year and lesbian movies are always so tricky. I didn't take it personally.

River Wild? That was just canoeing. That is one I do for the check not the nomination.

But thinks for remembering me CZJ. Your mind seems pretty sharp now even after all that time in the loony bin.

R3 I wouldn't give much credence to whatever that ill-educated woman says.

R4 No credible gossip has surfaced about his private life.

R5 Did you mean to say Sir Michael Redgrave? No credible gossip has surfaced.

I suspect that Hollywood experts realised that Boyd's heart-rending death scene was due to Wyler's artistry than Boyd himself.

Charlton was afraid "Messala" was in love with him, so he put the kibosh on Boyd's nomination.

Stephen Boyd was so beautiful and well-proportioned that he made an odd match with the lanky big-nosed Heston.

The other Britishers who auditioned for Messala were nuggety Anthony Quayle and bushy-browed George Baker.

This clip has Baker as 'Ben-Hur'— and he's charmingly shirtless after the four minute mark.

George Baker was a tall guy.

He later went on to play Tiberius in "I, Claudius".

He was very hot back in the day.

R12, it's also interesting to see a young William Russell in that screen test.

He went on to play the first male companion on "Doctor Who" in the 1960's.

He's also the father of actor Alfred Enoch ("How to Get Away with Murder").

[quote]Why didn't Stephen Boyd get an Oscar nomination for "Ben-Hur"?

Because there was nothing remarkable about his performance (it was just the standard issue 'cold-blooded Roman asshole' template), and I am guessing he was probably just seen as the poor man's Richard Burton. Oh, and he just wasn't that good an actor. The Academy made the right call. He became a complete and total joke years later as Frankie Fane in The Oscar. Even Tony Bennett out-acted him, and not even starring in Fantastic Voyage could save his career.

It sounds as if r16 was there.

He wouldn't put out for Cecil B. DeMille.

If Liz Taylor hadn't gotten sick and Cleopatra hadn't been postponed, Stephen Boyd would have continued playing her Marc Antony and the course of history would have been radically altered.

Wow he was really hot

R19, she'd still be married to Eddie Fisher, cuz Steve wouldn't have done any home wrecking!

I recall enjoying Stephen Boyd in the bio-pic Imperial Venus about Pauline Bonaparte, Napoleon's sister. The movie received luke-warm reviews though.

r22 It would have been better as "Imperial Penis," in which men vied to pull his bone apart.

Liz loved her gay boys and would have had such a good time with him in "Cleopatra."

He was in two of my faves:

The Best of Everything

Fall of the Roman Empire

[quote]Because there was nothing remarkable about his performance

Then why did he win the Golden Globe for it?

And why give the Oscar to Hugh Griffith instead?

Because Hugh put out to Chuck, of course.

R22 The 1962 publicity about him appearing "nude" in 'Imperial Venus' are just ludicrous. Twenty minutes were 'censored' because it was an over-long, meandering movie.

Stephen Boyd's tragedy was that he was gorgeous for 12 years and then his face just crumpled into unpleasantness and then he died.

[quote]Then why did he win the Golden Globe for it? And why give the Oscar to Hugh Griffith instead?

If you're asking why the Oscar didn't follow the GG's lead and picked Hugh Griffith "over" Boyd, it's that the Academy usually prefers to give the Oscar to an actor who is cast against type over one who isn't. It considers that actors who are cast against type "worked harder", since they have to go the extra mile to be convincing. In Griffith's case, he was a Welshman playing a completely different ethnicity (Arab).

There's some truth to that, R29, although I think most people remember the performance of the vengeful Messala over that of the relatively minor role of the Sheik.

His competition was pretty tough:

Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot (he should have won)

Paul Muni in The Last Angry Man (huge comeback after many years off-screen)

James Stewart in Anatomy of a Murder (Jimmy playing against type in highly sexual material)

Laurence Harvey in Room at the Top (room for only one UK nominee)

Charlton Heston in Ben-Hur (obviously, the studio didn't want him up against his co-star)

[quote]Charlton Heston in Ben-Hur (obviously, the studio didn't want him up against his co-star)

Charlton Heston was in the Lead Actor category, not Supporting.

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That Heston won is a disgrace, with that competition.

[quote] Then why did he win the Golden Globe for it?

A Golden Globe? Why, that is all the proof necessary of a genuinely great performance!!!

Bill Miller (AKA Stephen Boyd) was a minor talent but very decorative.

His hair was naturally crinkly — as though he had been given a Marcel Wave.

Was he the poor man's Rod Taylor, or vice versa?

Rod Taylor was far more rugged and working class. Boyd actually comes off as quite genteel with the possible exception of his Messala portrayal.

Rod was rugged. Bill (aka Stephen) had a skinny chest and often played weak, amoral failures.

Wasn't he "discovered" by Michael Redgrave?

^ Yes that's the story— that they met in a theatre queue in London.

Plenty of grubby anecdotes have emerged about Michael's bankruptcy, drinking and tormented private life. But no credible gossip has surfaced about the younger man.