32nd Academy Awards 32nd Academy Awards The 32nd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, was held on April 4, 1960 and took place at the RKO Pantages Theatre to honor the best films of 1959. The epic drama "Ben-Hur" won 11 Oscars, breaking the record of nine set the year before by "Gigi". "Ben-Hur" remained the most honored motion picture in Academy Award history until "Titanic" equaled the feat in 1997, followed by "" in 2003. "Ben-Hur" was the third film to win both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, a feat not repeated until "Mystic River"
Ben-Hur (1959 film) sequence. One claims that a stuntman died during filming, which Nosher Powell claims in his autobiography, and another states that a red Ferrari can be seen during the chariot race. The book "Movie Mistakes" claims this is a myth. Heston, in a DVD commentary track for the film, mentions that a third urban legend claims that he wore a wristwatch during the chariot race, but points out that he wore leather bracers up to the elbow. A massive $14.7 million marketing effort helped promote "Ben-Hur." MGM established a special "Ben-Hur Research Department" which surveyed more than 2,000 high schools in