Stephen Boyd

On his passing, Stephen Boyd was interred in Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, California. At the peak of his career, he was known as "the King of Photoplay" before that title went to Clark Gable, with whom it remains today. He died of a heart attack while playing golf. Mayer (of the then-fledgling Metro Goldwyn Mayer film studio). His career declined in the 70s and he appeared in several European potboilers before making a comeback in Michael Apted's British gangster thriller The Squeeze (1977). His role as Messala in Ben-Hur in 1925 might have launched his career even further but for being blacklisted by Louis B. His non-epic roles included the musical Billy Rose's Jumbo (1962) opposite Doris Day, the Hollywood melodrama The Oscar (1966), the sci-fi special effects extravaganza Fantastic Voyage (1966), the spy thriller Assignment K (1969) and the international Western Shalako (1969), shot in Spain. He was actually married four times.

Boyd also appeared in John Huston's Biblical epic The Bible...in the Beginning (1966) and was top-billed in another costumed epic Genghis Khan (1965), filmed in Yugoslavia. He appeared in the French-produced Napoleonic epic Imperial Venus (1962), playing opposite Gina Lollobrigida. His popularity waned when it was revealed that he was married. Mankiewicz and the role of Mark Antony went to Richard Burton). Three days after his divorce with Josephine was final, Bushman and Bayne were married. He was originally chosen to play Mark Antony opposite Elizabeth Taylor in 20th Century-Fox's epic production of Cleopatra under the direction of Rouben Mamoulian, but eventually withdrew from the problem-plagued production when he commmitted to star in The Fall of the Roman Empire (Cleopatra was later directed by Joseph L. In 1918, he was the subject of a huge scandal as his affair with longtime costar Beverly Bayne became a national scandal. His role as Messala in Ben-Hur (1959) propelled him to international fame and he was thereafter fated to play roles wearing breastplates and Roman togas, as in Samuel Bronston's The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), in which he co-starred with Sophia Loren. By the launch of his film career, the couple had five children.

He went to Hollywood and appeared as second leads in a variety of films. In 1902, he married seamstress Josephine Fladume. Boyd began in British films, but it was his role in a 1957 French film Les bijoutiers du clair de lune (English title: Heaven Fell That Night) opposite Brigitte Bardot that got him noticed. He appeared in nearly 200 feature film roles - more than 175 films before 1920, 17 in his film debut year of 1911 alone. Stephen Boyd (July 4, 1931 - June 2, 1977) - was an Irish actor, born in Glengormley in Northern Ireland, who starred in over fifty films. He was performing at Bronco Billy Anderson’s Essanay Studio in Chicago, Illinois, where he was first noticed for his muscular, sculpted frame. He died in Pacific Palisades, California from a fall. Bushman, like many of his contemporaries, broke into film from stage.

He was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Francis Xavier Bushman (January 10, 1883 – August 23, 1966) was the first major male movie star, first starting in 1911 in the silent film His Friend's Wife.