Acting for Two: In addition to his on-screen role as Balthazar, Finlay Currie provides the off-screen narration.
Acting in the Dark: According to co-screenwriter Gore Vidal, he and Director William Wyler told Stephen Boyd, the actor portraying Messala, to play him as if he and Judah had been lovers as youths and that his vindictiveness is therefore motivated by a sexual and romantic rejection as much as a political one. They did not, however, tell Charlton Heston, who found out years later and was not pleased. This did add an interesting dynamic to the scenes between Judah and Messala, since Heston's uncomfortable reactions to some of Boyd's behavior came off as reluctance towards his former lover.
Died During Production: While the film was in production, producer Sam Zimbalist suffered a fatal heart attack in November 1958. Wyler and Joseph Judson "J.J." Cohn consequently assumed Zimbalist's position at MGM's request.
Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: The galley slave escaping with a bloodied stump where his hand used to be in the naval battle scene. William Wyler noticed the man had only one hand, had it splashed with fake blood, and reshot the scene with him. Wyler made similar use of an extra who was missing a foot.
Dyeing for Your Art: Wyler had Stephen Boyd wear brown contact lenses to differentiate with the blue-eyed Charlton Heston. The contacts caused him pain and some of his scenes were rescheduled so he could rest his eyes. Boyd had also grown a beard for the role, only to shave it off after learning young Roman tribunes didn't wear beards.
The effort and exhaustion of the Slave Galley was quite real; the oars were fitted with spring mechanisms to create resistance. Heston said the rowing was "very good exercise".
William Wyler and Gore Vidal came up with the idea that Messala and Ben-Hur had been past lovers to provide motivation for their rivalry. Wyler told Vidal (after confirming Have You Told Anyone Else?) to tell Stephen Boyd to deliberately dial up the Homo Erotic Subtext between Mesalla and Ben Hur, while ensuring that Charlton Heston be kept in the dark. Years later, when Vidal revealed this, Heston repeatedly spoke out against it, even saying that Vidal had little involvement, which the writer promptly debunked. Muddling this, Wyler claimed not remember having any such conversation with Vidal and stated he used Christopher Fry's script for that scene.
Sam Zimbalist and William Wyler were dissatisfied with Karl Tunberg's script. So, Zimbalist hired S. N. Behrman and then playwright Maxwell Anderson to help rewrite the drafts.
During the early stages of production, Zimbalist and MGM decided to make the film widescreen. Despite Wyler's initial objections, he and cinematographer Robert L. Surtees helped to overcome these issues.
According to Charlton Heston, Christopher Fry was Wyler's first choice as screenwriter, but Zimbalist requested Wyler to hire Vidal to rewrite the script. Fry would eventually return to rewrite most of the film's dialogue.
Extremely Lengthy Creation: MGM began development of a film adaptation in 1952. However, it wasn't until 1957 that production would finally take place.
Fake Nationality: Practically everybody. The film featured non-Jewish Americans primarily playing the Jewish people and British actors playing the Romans. Sheikh Ilderim was played by Welsh actor Hugh Griffith. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Follow the Leader: Joseph Vogel was inspired by Paramount's then-recent success story with The Ten Commandments to the point where he would announce that MGM would produce the film to save the studio. Charlton Heston and Martha Scott were also recycled in similar roles as the leading man and his mother.
Network to the Rescue: During the Fall of the Studio System, MGM president Joseph Vogel, inspired by the success of Paramount's The Ten Commandments, announced that MGM would produce the film in a desperate gamble to save his studio. It ultimately worked in Vogel's favor.
No Animals Were Harmed: All the horses who were in the race were fine, thanks to trainer/stunt artist Yakima Canutt. He worked closely with all of them, teaching them to run as a unit (as Ben-Hur is shown discussing with Ilderim's four) and to tolerate crashes. They were allowed to run around the track only eight times a day due to Rome's extreme heat. There were about 2,500 horses in the film altogether. All of them had personal caretakers, vets, cleanup crews and trainers.
On-Set Injury: Charlton Heston's stunt double sustained a gash on his chin after being flipped out of his chariot during the race. Many people on that set also got sunburns.
The Other Marty: Marie Ney was originally cast as Miriam, only to be dismissed from the production two days later because she was unable to cry on cue. Martha Scott subsequently replaced her.
Playing Against Type: Claude Heater was an opera singer, and therefore used to performing loudly in front of an audience. For his portrayal of Jesus, however, he is completely silent and his face is never seen.
Posthumous Credit: Despite his fatal heart attack, Sam Zimbalist was still given a credit as producer.
The stunt coordinator was the legendary veteran stuntman/director Yakima Canutt; his son Joe was one of the stunt charioteers standing in for Heston. Joe is the one you see driving — and nearly flipped right out of the chariot — as the horses jump some wreckage in their path. Glenn Randallnote best known as Trigger's trainer, who worked closely with all the horses, taught the four Andalusians of Ben-Hur's chariot to jump over the wreckage over a period of weeks, so they were okay doing it. But Joe's terrifying flip was unplanned, and Wyler kept it in, putting in a shot of Heston climbing back into place. Joe was unharmed (aside from a cut on his chin).
During the post-race celebration, the guy who picks up Messala's helmet and runs off with it did so spontaneously. The extras had been told to do whatever they wanted.
William Wyler took a liking to the sound made by a piece of debris when Heston kicked it during the scene of Ben-Hur returning to his house after escaping and did several more takes trying to recapture it. When he told Heston what he wanted, Heston wondered why he hadn't just asked him to kick the thing again.
Troubled Production: As with the 1925 film preceding it, the 1959 film had a lot of behind-the-scenes problems. MGM first developed the film in 1952, but it suspended production in 1956 after original director Sidney Franklin resigned; the Fall of the Studio System didn't help matters either. Then, in 1957, MGM president Joseph Vogel announced that the studio would finally begin production on the 1959 film in an effort to save it. That year, director William Wyler joined the project after producer Sam Zimbalist offered him to spend up to $10 million on the film and showed him the storyboards for the chariot race. While the initial budget was $7 million, it eventually increased to $15,000,000 by the summer of 1958, making it the largest budget of any film produced at the time. Wyler also had initial reservations with Zimbalist's decision to make the film widescreen. MGM planned to start filming in Libya on March 1, 1958, but the government canceled the production's film permit for religious reasons 11 days later. Even after principal photography began on May 15, 1958, numerous script rewrites were made and filming was often delayed. The intensity of the filming schedule was so great that a doctor was brought in to give a vitamin B complex injection to anyone who requested it. By November 1958, production was slowing down and Sam Zimbalist died of a heart attack that month. To speed the process up, Wyler often kept principal actors on standby to shoot pick-up scenes if the first unit slowed down. During post-production, the film's editing was complicated by the 70mm footage being printed; since there was no editing equipment at the time, the footage was thus reduced to 35mm and then cut. Fortunately, Vogel's gambit to save MGM from going bankrupt worked when the film was released.
Sergio Leone was an uncredited second-unit director. In later years he claimed that he directed the chariot race scenes, but that is an apparently self-serving exaggeration (Leone had a reputation for stretching the truth).
While William Wyler and J.J. Cohn replaced Sam Zimbalist as the film's producers, they weren't credited for their work.
Both Remington Olmsted (the decurion who denies water to Ben-Hur) and Claude Heater (Jesus) were uncredited.
Despite Wyler heavily campaigning to get Christopher Fry credited for his extensive screenplay work, the latter went uncredited. Charlton Heston made a point to thank him in his Oscar acceptance speech alongside Wyler and Zimbalist, prompting the Writers Guild of America to accuse him of trying to undermine their arbitration process.
Sidney Franklin was considered to direct it, but he fell ill and resigned in 1956. One year later, Sam Zimbalist hired William Wyler to direct the film.
Douglas was offered the role of Messala, but he didn't want to play a "second-rate baddie". Naturally, he wanted to play the lead, but that ship had sailed, so he made Spartacus instead. Nielsen and Robert Ryan were also considered, and Wyler initially wanted Heston to play the role.
The movie was originally going to be filmed in Libya, but the local government cancelled the film's permit over religious reasons about a week before filming began.
Also, several countries such as France, Mexico, Spain and the United Kingdom were considered as possible locations for shooting the film.
At one point, Sam Zimbalist considered William Walton to write the film's score, but eventually had Miklós Rózsa compose and conduct it instead.
Wyler was so impressed with David Lean's work on The Bridge on the River Kwai that he asked Lean to direct the famous chariot race sequence. Lean would have received full screen credit for the job—"Chariot Race directed by David Lean." He declined the offer, knowing that Wyler was a truly talented director and could certainly pull it off himself.
Word of Gay: According to Gore Vidal's interview in The Celluloid Closet, Ben-Hur and Messala were former lovers and Messala betrayed Ben-Hur because their relationship ended. According to Vidal, he and William Wyler discussed this with Stephen Boyd (Messala) ahead of shooting, but this information was hidden from Charlton Heston because it was felt that he could not handle it. (Considering how Heston reacted when he finally discovered this years later... they were absolutely right.) It should be noted, however, that Vidal did not begin openly making this claim until after the only other two people who would have been able to confirm or refute it, Wyler and Boyd, were already dead.
Remington Olmsted (the decurion who denies water to Ben-Hur) owned a restaurant in Rome in the Trastevere district on the West bank of the Tiber river. The film's Jesus actor, opera singer Claude Heater, had a villa nearby and ate there a few times before either he or Olmsted were cast for their roles in Ben-Hur.
. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.