William Millar, better known as Stephen Boyd (4 July 1931 – 2 June 1977), was a Northern Ireland-born actor.
After doing some radio in Northern Ireland and theatre in England (where he was noticed by Michael Redgrave), he moved to the USA in the mid-1950s, and gained fame in the last years of The Golden Age of Hollywood, notably by winning the coveted role of Messala in the 1959 William Wyler epic Ben-Hur. By the early 1970s, he moved on from Hollywood and focused entirely on European productions.
He died of a brutal heart attack on June 2, 1977 at the age of 45.
Selected filmography:
- The Man Who Never Was (1956) as Patrick O'Reilly
- The Bravados (1958) as Bill Zachary
- The Night Heaven Fell (1958) as Lambert
- Ben-Hur (1959) as Messala note
- The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) as Livius
- Genghis Khan (1965) as Jamuga
- The Oscar (1966) as Frank Fane
- Fantastic Voyage (1966) as Grant
- The Bible (1966) as Nimrod
- Shalako (1968) as Bosky Fulton
- Hannie Caulder (1971) as The Preacher
- The Devil has Seven Faces (1972) as Dave Barton
- Hawaii Five-O (1977) as Daniel Costigan
