Charlton Heston Never Knew Ben-Hur and Messala Were Gay

The epic Ben-Hur won 11 Academy Awards and remains a classic over 60 years later. However, the film held a big mystery to its star, Charlton Heston who played Judah Ben-Hur. Screenwriter Gore Vidal admits he added a LGBTQ subplot to the biblical film and never told Heston about it. 

Vidal explains in the 1995 documentary The Celluloid Closet, which is now part of the Sony Pictures Classics 30th Anniversary 4K UHD Collection. It turns out Judah Ben-Hur had a lover the actor never knew about. 

‘Ben-Hur’ needed more conflict to sustain a 3-hour epic 

Judah Ben-Hur has an epic journey from slavery to his triumphant return, and he encounters Jesus Christ along the way. Messala (Stephen Boyd) is the Roman who betrays Ben-Hur. Vidal realized he needed more subtext to their relationship. 

“Ben-Hur and Messala, one Jewish, one Roman, had known each other in their youth,” Vidal said. “They disagree over politics and now they hate each other for the next three hours. That isn’t much to put a whole three hour movie on, even something as gorgeously junky as Ben-Hur.”

Gore Vidal pitched making Ben-Hur and Messala gay

Vidal proposed his idea to Ben-Hur director William Wyler. 

“I said, ‘Look, let me try something. Let’s say these two guys when they were 15, 16 when they last saw each other, they had been lovers. And now they’re meeting again and the Roman wants to start it up, Messala, played by Steven Boyd, wants to start it up again with Ben-Hur played by Charlton Heston. Heaven knows why but he does. Anyway, He’s Roman.’”

Wyler wasn’t quite sold just yet.

“Willie stared at me, face gray,” Vidal said. “I said, ‘Well, I’ll never use the word. There’ll be nothing overt. But it’ll be perfectly clear that Messala is in love with Ben-Hur.’ Willie said, ‘Gore, this is Ben-Hur, a tale of the Christ I think is the subtitle’ rather vaguely looking around. Willie finally said, ‘Well, it’s certainly better than what we’ve got. We’ll try it.’”

They never told Charlton Heston the truth about ‘Ben-Hur’

Wyler’s one concession to Vidal was that Heston never be told about the subtext.

“He said, ‘You talk to anybody about this?’” Vidal said. “And I said no. He said, ‘You talk to Boyd, Messala. Don’t say anything to Heston because Chuck will fall apart. I’ll take care of him.’ So Heston thinks he’s doing Francis X. Bushman in a silent version, his head is constantly on high. Steven Boyd is acting to pieces. There are looks that he gives him that are just so clear.”