Stephen boyd children

Stephen Boyd

Stephen Boyd had roles in over 60 films and television dramas throughout his relatively short life.

Without doubt his most famous of these was the leading one of the ruthless and brutally ambitious Messala in Ben-Hur, one of the most successful and famous films ever made. 

He was born William Millar (Boyd was his mother’s maiden name)  in Whitehouse, County Antrim and moved to Glengormley at a very early age. He became interested in acting quite young, starting with a local amateur group at nearby Carnmoney, then joined a professional company, the Group Theatre in Belfast.

He also did some radio work. He moved to London, where at first he failed to get much acting work, which he attributed in part to his accent; as solution to this he adopted a Canadian accent (he had in fact spent some time there and his father was Canadian), but for some time nevertheless made ends meet by amongst other