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William Millar (4 July 1931 – 2 June 1977), better known by his stage name Stephen Boyd, was an actor from Northern Ireland. He emerged as a leading man during the late 1950s with his role as the villainous Messala in Ben-Hur (1959), a role that earned him the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture. He received his second Golden Globe nomination for the musical Billy Rose's Jumbo (1962).
Boyd also appeared, sometimes as a hero and sometimes as a malefactor, in the major big-screen productions The Man Who Never Was (1956), The Night Heaven Fell (1958), The Bravados (1958), The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), Genghis Khan (1965), Fantastic Voyage (1966), (also 1966) and Shalako (1968).
At the age of 14, Boyd quit school to work and earn money to help support his family. He eventually joined the Ulster Group Theatre, where he learned the behind-the-scenes tasks of the theatre. He became well known in Belfast for his contributions as a gravel-voiced policeman on the Ulster Radio programme "The McCooeys", the story of a Belfast family written by Joseph Tomelty. The Journal News – White Plains New York, 9 July 1969
Boyd eventually worked his way up to character parts and then starring roles. By nineteen he had toured Canada with summer stock companies. In 1950, he made a coast-to-coast tour of America with the Clare Tree Major Company, Stephen Boyd, The Man Who Never Wants to Pour Another Coffee by John Neal performing A Streetcar Named Desire Daily News, New York 5 May 1963 in the lead role as Stanley Kowalski. Boyd later recalled this as "the best performance I ever gave in my life". Movieland magazine interview December 1962
By the time he was 20, Boyd had a wide range of theatre experience, but he longed for the big stage. Movie Screen Stephen Boyd Interview, June 1960 In 1952, he moved to London and worked in a cafeteria and busked outside a cinema in Leicester Square to get money as he was literally close to starvation. Boyd caught his first break as a doorman at the Odeon Theatre.
The Leicester Square Cinema across the street recruited him to usher attendees during the British Academy Awards in the early 1950s. During the awards ceremony, he was noticed by actor Sir Michael Redgrave, who used his connections to introduce Boyd to the director of the Windsor Repertory Group. At this point, Boyd's stage career in the UK began to flourish with performances in "The Deep Blue Sea" and "Barnett's Folly". Movieland magazine, December 1962
Shortly thereafter, he signed a ten-year contract with 20th Century Fox studios,Hedda Hopper, Los Angeles Times, 29 May 1956 which began prepping him for Hollywood, but it was a while until Boyd actually set foot on a Hollywood back-lot. Boyd's next stop was Portugal, where he acted in A Hill in Korea, which also featured future stars Michael Caine and Robert Shaw.Michael Caine, What's it all About?, page 114-115 In June 1956, Boyd was cast in the shipwreck drama Abandon Ship! for Columbia Studios starring Tyrone Power. This was filmed in the summer of 1956 in London, where the British Navy built a huge 35,000-gallon water tank for the movie. St. Louis Dispatch 14 July 1956
In November 1956, for Twentieth Century Fox, Boyd travelled to the British West Indies as part of a large ensemble cast in Darryl Zanuck's racially provocative film Island in the Sun starring Dorothy Dandridge, based on the Alec Waugh novel. The Corpus Christi Caller, 27 November 1956 Boyd portrayed a young English aristocrat who becomes the lover of Joan Collins. Boyd was loaned out to the J. Arthur Rank production of Seven Thunders (Beast of Marseilles), a World War II romance set in Nazi-occupied Marseille. The Los Angeles Times, 23 March 1957 This movie was filmed on location in Marseille and at Pinewood Studios in London in the spring of 1957 and featured Boyd in his most prominent starring film role yet.
Around the same time, French actress Brigitte Bardot was given the opportunity to cast her own leading man in her next movie after her success in Roger Vadim's And God Created Woman, and she chose Boyd. From August to October 1957, Philadelphia Inquirer 29 August 195' Bardot, Boyd, and Alida Valli filmed the lusty romance The Night Heaven Fell, directed by Roger Vadim in Paris and in the region of Málaga, Spain, specifically the small, whitewashed town of Mijas. Ottawa Citizen 15 February 1958 Being in the Bardot spotlight added much to Boyd's film credit, in addition to bringing him notice in Hollywood. The Salt Lake Tribune, 24 June 1958, "Ireland's Boyd- A Man Apart — And all Because of Bardot"
Boyd finally arrived in Hollywood in January 1958 to take on his first true Hollywood role as the leader of a quartet of renegade outlaws in the Twentieth Century Fox western The Bravados, which starred Gregory Peck and Joan Collins. Even though this was a Hollywood production, the actual filming took place in Morelia, Mexico. Lee Belser, Lubbock Evening Journal, 28 February 1958
Years after the movie was released, interim Ben-Hur screenwriter and novelist Gore Vidal revealed that Boyd had portrayed his character Messala in Ben-Hur with an underlying homosexual energy, as instructed to by Vidal when he greets Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) in the opening sequence. In Vidal's autobiography Palimpsest: A Memoir Palimpsest: A Memoir, Gore Vidal, pages 303 to 307, Published 1996, . he described his discussion first with Wyler concerning Messala's underlying motivation, namely that Messala and Judah Ben-Hur had previously been lovers. This was based on an idea by Vidal to enhance the tension between the two main antagonists. Wyler specifically told Vidal, "You talk to Boyd. But don't you say a word to Chuck or he'll fall apart." Palimpsest: A Memoir, by Gore Vidal, Page 306 In Palimpsest, Vidal said, "Over the next few years, whenever we met William, we quarreled amiably over what I had put in the scene and what Steven Boyd is clearly playing." Vidal later came into conflict with Heston about his version of the Messala/Ben-Hur relationship and the implications surrounding Ben-Hur.
After the filming of Ben-Hur was completed Boyd returned to Hollywood in early 1959 to star with Susan Hayward in the Canadian-based drama Woman Obsessed. Some advertisements for this movie labelled Boyd as "The Young New Clark Gable". He was then part of another ensemble cast in the adaptation of Rona Jaffe's novel The Best of Everything, filmed in May and June 1959 at Fox Studios in Hollywood and on location in New York City.
Ben-Hur was released in November 1959. His portrayal of Messala brought was praised by critics. Press columnist Erskine Johnson wrote, "A brass hat and the armor of a Roman warrior in Ben-Hur does for Stephen Boyd what a tight dress does for Marilyn Monroe." The Odessa American, 19 December 1959, "Actor Stephen Boyd Really Packs Wallop" Ruth Waterbury, in her Boyd feature in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, described Boyd's character as "the dangerously masculine and quite magnificent Messala." Modern Screen magazine in 1960 stated that Boyd's ruthless Messala had "lost the chariot race but captured the sympathy and sex appeal of Ben-Hur." Modern Screen, Stephen Boyd "Introducing the Sensational Star of Ben Hur and Best of Everything", October–December 1960
In early 1960, Boyd won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for his performance in Ben-Hur."https://goldenglobes.com/person/stephen-boyd/" In January 1960, Boyd made a guest appearance alongside the silent-era Ben-Hur stars Ramon Novarro and Francis X. Bushman on Hedda Hopper's television programme Hedda Hopper's Hollywood. "Hedda Hopper's Show on Sunday" Ocala Star Banner, 8 January 1960 In February 1960, he starred in the Playhouse 90 television performance called The Sound of Trumpets with Dolores Hart, which garnered good reviews. He also appeared as a singing guest on The Dinah Shore Chevy Show on 13 March 1960 where he performed two Irish folk songs with Shore, "The Leprechaun Song" and "Molly Malone", and an Irish step dance. Arizona Republic, 13 March 1960
Boyd's next choice was The Big Gamble, which featured Juliette Gréco. It was filmed on the Ivory Coast of West Africa, Dublin, and southern France in the spring and summer of 1961. The crew slept in tents in the jungle that were guarded by natives on parole for cannibalism.
Boyd was originally chosen to play Mark Antony opposite Elizabeth Taylor in 20th Century Fox's production of Cleopatra (1963) under the direction of Rouben Mamoulian. He began film work in September 1960 but eventually withdrew after Elizabeth Taylor's severe illness postponed the film for months. The Los Angeles Times, 13 April 1961, Thu, Page 86 Chicago Daily Tribune 11 May 1961
After several months without active work, Boyd got his first post- Cleopatra role. The Bridgeport Post, 11 July 1961, "Stephen Boyd Ends Big Wait" The film was The Inspector, re-titled Lisa for the American release. It was based on the novel by Jan de Hartog and co-starred actress Dolores Hart. The film was made in Amsterdam, London and Wales during the summer of 1961. On 9 January 1962, Boyd was featured in a television film from General Electric Theater called The Wall Between, co-starring Ronald Reagan and Gloria Talbott. The Daily Herald, Provo Utah, 8 January 1962
Boyd flew to Rome in the summer of 1962 to act with Gina Lollobrigida in Imperial Venus, a romantic epic about the many loves of Pauline Bonaparte, the sister of Napoleon. This film was the first film to be banned by the Motion Picture Association of America for male nudity. Boyd appeared in a humorous bedroom scene, naked with only his lower half covered by a bed-sheet. Ottawa Citizen, 10 July 1964, "Nude Movie Scenes…How about Lassie?" The suggestion of nudity was too much for the censors and the movie was never released in the United States. Boyd returned to the States briefly after finishing Imperial Venus, where he appeared for the second time on The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, which aired on 11 November 1962. For this program Boyd was a last-minute replacement for actor James Garner and joined Shore and entertainer Dean Martin for a few musical numbers. Argus Leader (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), 10 November 1962 The Times Herald (Port Huron, Michigan), 10 November 1962
Boyd arrived in Spain in early 1963 to begin work on Samuel Bronston's production of The Fall of the Roman Empire, directed by Anthony Mann. This was filmed during a severely cold winter in Europe and the production in the Sierra de Guadarrama of Spain encountered several challenges with the snow. Boyd's co-star was another Italian legend, Sophia Loren. Boyd also had the opportunity to ride another chariot in this film. Although the movie did well internationally when it was released in April 1964, it was a box office failure in the United States and signalled the end of Roman epics in the 1960s. More appreciated with the passing of time, The Fall of the Roman Empire was also recognised by critics as being a major inspiration for Ridley Scott's Academy Award-winning movie Gladiator."The Fall of the Roman Empire" Film And History by Martin M Winkler, 2009
Boyd flew back to Hollywood in the summer to star in a Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre episode with Louis Jourdan called War of Nerves, which aired on 3 January 1964. He then returned to Europe to film the suspenseful The Third Secret starring Pamela Franklin, Richard Attenborough, Jack Hawkins and Diane Cilento.
On 23 December 1963, Boyd became a naturalised US citizen during a ceremony at the Federal Building in Los Angeles, California. Los Angeles Times, 25 December 1963
Boyd was originally cast as the lead in Anthony Mann's World War II drama The Unknown Battle, which was set to film in early 1964 with co-stars Elke Sommer and Anthony Perkins in Norway. The Progress Index, 24 February 1964 After several weeks of waiting, studio funding for the project fell through. Asbury Park Press, 2 July 1964 Boyd sued Mann for $500,000 for a breach of contract, missed time and other lost film opportunities. Philadelphia Inquirer, 25 April 1964 The project was completed by Mann a year later and released as Heroes of Telemark with Kirk Douglas replacing Boyd as the lead.
In 1964, Boyd continued to make films in Europe, travelling to Yugoslavia to star as the villain Jamuga in the epic Genghis Khan. Boyd was the top billed and therefore the top paid star in the epic, and this apparently caused friction with up-and-coming star Omar Sharif. Miami News 25 June 1965, "More Dramatics than Spectacle in Genghis Khan" After completing Genghis Khan, Boyd trekked to Cairo, Egypt for a brief appearance as the regal King Nimrod at The Tower of Babel in Dino de Laurentiis's production of , directed by John Huston. Chicago Tribune, 29 December 1964, "Steve Boyd Is Back After Stint Abroad"
Boyd returned to the United States to start work on the Twentieth Century Fox science fiction adventure Fantastic Voyage. This was filmed in the early part of 1965. In the summer of 1965, Boyd joined German star Elke Sommer and music legend Tony Bennett to film the Hollywood drama The Oscar, based on the eponymous Richard Sale novel. The movie was a popular success, but maligned by film critics. The Daily Times News, Burlington North Carolina, 1 August 1966, "Movie Argument Continues" Boyd made a 10-day visit to Iran in December 1965 to film his scenes for the United Nations film project Terence Young's The Poppy Is Also a Flower,Hedda Hopper, Chicago Tribune, 31 December 1965 written by James Bond creator Ian Fleming.
In 1966, Joseph Levine hired Boyd for his film project, The Caper of the Golden Bulls, based on a William McGivern novel. This movie was partly filmed on location in Spain in the summer of 1966.
Boyd starred in the spy thriller Assignment K with Camilla Sparv, which was filmed in Germany, Austria and London during February and March 1967. Los Angeles Times, 10 January 1967 Boyd grew a full beard Arizona Republic 12 June 1967) for his next role as the iconic Irish playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw in the Off-Broadway play called The Bashful Genius written by Harold Callen. This was Boyd's first return to the stage since the mid-1950s, and the experience for Boyd was immensely rewarding on a personal level. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 30 July 1967 He received excellent reviews for his nuanced performance of the multi-faceted Shaw. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 1 August 1967 The play had a very brief run during the summer of 1967 in Denver, Philadelphia and Falmouth, Massachusetts. News Journal Wilmington, Delaware, 9 September 1967 North Adams Transcript Massachusetts, 25 August 1967
In early 1968, Boyd was cast as the villain opposite Sean Connery and Brigitte Bardot in the western adventure Shalako, based on the Louis L'Amour novel. Abilene Reporter-News Abilene, Texas Sun, 26 May 1968 Shalako was filmed in the early part of 1968 in Almería, Spain. After returning to the United States, Boyd took the role of the cruel slave master Nathan MacKay in the Southern drama Slaves, also starring Ossie Davis and singer Dionne Warwick. The film was loosely based on the Harriet Beecher Stowe novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. It was filmed during the summer of 1968 near Shreveport, Louisiana. The film was released during the volatile civil rights era and in May 1969 Boyd attended the premiere alongside Dionne Warwick in Baltimore
It was around this time that Boyd began his interest in L. Ron Hubbard's Church of Scientology, which made him one of the first Hollywood stars to be involved in it. Scientology Auditor Magazine
A letter from film producer Euan Lloyd (who produced such films as Shalako, The Man Called Noon and The Wild Geese), states that "Stephen Boyd was one of the nicest, kindest people I have met in my lifetime, rare in this profession."Cushnan, Joe Stephen Boyd: From Belfast To Hollywood
Although Boyd spent most of his adult life travelling abroad for film work, he made his permanent home in southern California. At one point in the 1960s, he had three homes there — one above the Sunset Strip, one in Tarzana and another in Palm Springs, where he enjoyed his favorite pastime, golf.
He had a friendship with Brigitte Bardot with whom he starred in two movies. Photoplay Film, September 1968, "Boyd and Bardot- the Truth Behind Those Rumors" It even caused Brigitte's husband at the time, Gunter Sachs, to ask for a divorce. The Milwaukee Journal, 8 March 1968
Boyd also had a close relationship with actress Dolores Hart who describes what was her only romance with a co-star in her autobiography The Ear of the Heart.Hart, Dolores. The Ear of the Heart, 2013 Boyd eventually rejected her advances, but they remained close friends even after she turned to the cloistered life of a nun in 1963. He visited her in 1966 at the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Connecticut and remained in communication with her until the early 1970s. "Stephen Boyd to Visit Dolores Hart, now Nun" Milwaukee Sentinel, 7 February 1966
Boyd had an affair that seems to have been with Marisa Mell.http://marisa-mell.blogspot.com/2008/09/marta-or-dopo-di-che-uccide-il-maschio.htm They met while filming the movie Marta in 1970. During the second film they made together, The Great Swindle, the two became lovers.Mell, Marisa. Coverlove, 1990Schneider, Andre. Die Feuerblume: Über Marisa Mell und ihre Filme, 2013 In early 1972, after Boyd broke off the affair, Mell said: "We both believe in reincarnation, and we realized we've already been lovers in three different lifetimes, and in each one I made him suffer terribly." The Akron Beacon Journal, 16 June 1972 Mell remembered Boyd many years later in her autobiography Cover Love from 1990, dedicating a chapter to their affair.
Boyd's last marriage took place in 1974 to Elizabeth Mills, Detroit Free Press 9 June 1977 'Just a few of the late Stephen Boyd's closest friends knew that three years ago in London he married Elizabeth Mills, whom he had been going with for many years' a secretary at the British Arts Council, whom he had known since 1953. Mills followed Boyd to the United States in the late 1950s and was his personal assistant, friend and confidante for many years before marrying him in the mid-1970s. Stephen Boyd infosite; accessed 28 June 2014.
He was cremated and his ashes were interred in Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, California. Mills was interred with him at the time of her death in 2007. He is also remembered on his parents' grave in the Clandeboye Cemetery, Bangor, Northern Ireland.
/ref> Boyd had always expressed an interest in esoteric religions. "Stephen Boyd; Loner Who Is Never Alone" Ocala Star Banner, 6 September 1966 In an interview in August 1969 with the Detroit Free Press, Boyd explained that Scientology had helped him through the filming of Slaves, and that to him Scientology was "a process used to make you capable of learning. Scientology is nothing. It means only what you want it to. It is not a church you go to pray, but a church that you go to learn. It is no good unless you apply it. It is the application." Detroit Free Press, 1 August 1969, "Screen Star Stephen Boyd, Since that Chariot Race" Boyd apparently had been elevated to a Scientology Status of OT 6, a position above that of Clear. Boyd starred in and narrated a Scientology recruiting movie titled Freedom in 1970."Snapping America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change" by Flo Conway, page 145 '... it turned out to be a Scientology meeting. We heard a lecture and saw the introductory film, which was narrated by Stephen Boyd, the film star. It started out in a planetarium and he was standing there as if Scientology had found the stars or something.
1970s
During the 1970s, the demand for Boyd in Hollywood diminished, so he focused his attention on European films and several television pilots and shows."Stephen Boyd Likes U.S. Best" Associated Press, 1 March 1973 Bob Thomas interview with Stephen Boyd He made three films in Spain with director José Antonio Nieves Conde, including Marta in 1970, The Great Swindle in 1971, and Casa Manchada in 1975. He worked with cult director Romain Gary in the drug thriller Kill! in 1971. He also made several Westerns, including Hannie Caulder with Raquel Welch in 1971, The Man Called Noon in 1973, Those Dirty Dogs in 1973, and in 1976. Boyd continued to travel to a wide variety of locations to work, including Australia for The Hands of Cormac Joyce in 1972, South Africa for Control Factor and The Manipulator in 1972–1973, Jamaica for the scuba diving adventure The Treasure of Jamaica Reef in 1972, Florida for the television pilot Key West in 1973, and Hawaii in his last acting stint as a guest star on the popular television show Hawaii Five-O in 1977. The episode Up the Rebels was the premiere episode of Hawaii Five-Os tenth season, and it aired after Boyd's death on 15 September 1977. His most critically acclaimed role during the 1970s was as a colourful Irish gangster in the UK crime thriller The Squeeze in 1977.
Personal life
Boyd was first married in 1958 to Italian-born MCA executive Mariella Di Sarzana during the filming of Ben-Hur. They separated after just three weeks. Concerning his short-lived marriage to Sarzana, Boyd explained: "It was my fault. I'm an Irish so-and-so when I'm working. I hadn't been married a week when we both knew we had made a mistake. She is a nice girl but we were just not meant for each other. I suppose I wasn't ready for marriage. Maybe I was still too much of an adolescent." Screen Album, August–October 1960, page 46. They officially divorced in early 1959. The Free Lance-Star 20 December 1958, "The Divorce Set"
Death
Boyd died of a massive heart attack on 2 June 1977 at the age of 45 while playing golf with his wife, Elizabeth Mills, at the Porter Valley Country Club in Northridge, California. Detroit Free Press 9 June 1977. He was in talks to play the role of the Regimental Sergeant Major in Euan Lloyd's The Wild Geese before his death.Euan Lloyd interview, Cinema Retro #1
Legacy
On 4 July 2018, the Ulster History Circle, a voluntary organisation which erects plaques across the province of Ulster to celebrate people of achievement, commemorated Stephen Boyd with a blue plaque close to his birthplace at 'Moygara', Shore Road, Whitehouse (Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland).
Filmography
External links
Categories: 1931 Births, 1977 Deaths, 20th Century Studios Contract Players, 20th-century Male Actors From Northern Ireland, Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe Winners, Burials At Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery, British Actors, Irish People Of Scottish Descent, Irish People Of Canadian Descent, Ulster Scots, Presbyterians From Northern Ireland, Male Western Film Actors, Male Film Actors From Northern Ireland, Naturalized Citizens Of The United States, Emigrants From Northern Ireland To The United States, People Educated At Ballyclare High School, People From Glengormley, Male Actors From County Antrim
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