That Time Gore Vidal Made Ben-Hur a Gay Movie

As a script doctor for the 1959 film Ben-Hur, Gore Vidal felt politics was an insufficient reason to explain a central plot point, the acrimonious falling out between dear boyhood friends Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) and Messala (Stephen Boyd). So Vidal created a back story, a teenage love affair between the two, one that Messala was keen to rekindle and Ben-Hur was not.

The film’s director, William Wyler approved the story and Boyd used the homosexual history to inform his acting, but it was agreed that Heston would not be told about any of it.

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