- Ramon Novarro, Ben-Hur, 1926. As the final merger giving birth to MGM took place, shooting of the silent epic in Italy was a mess, way beyond the $2.8m budget. Metro boss, Louis B Mayer, and his production chief, Irving Thalberg, called a halt, sacked the team, including the star George Walsh, and tested “Jewish-looking actors who could handle horses,” plus Gibson and Buck Jones from the cowboy division and Ben Lyon, Antonio Moreno. The Mexican-born Novarro who won Culver City’s first chariot race race with Henry Hathaway and William Wyler (director of the 1959 re-make) among the assistant directors taking charge of sections of the crowd – half faked with hanging miniatures. Hoot went on to make 200 or more Z-Westerns as The Singing’/Ramblin’/Hurricane/Montana and Concentratin’ Kid.
Birth year: 1892Death year: 1962Other name: Casting Calls: 1