Judah Ben-Hur Actor. Marlon Brando, Burt Lancaster and Rock Hudson turned down the role before Heston accepted it. In this version Ben-Hur becomes a Christian at the Crucifixion of Christ; whereas in the book Ben-Hur becomes a Christian earlier. Ben-Hur is given a more somewhat bitter personality; Balthazar, one of the three wise men having witnessed the birth of Christ begs him to listen to the teachings of Jesus but Judah rebuffs him saying that he has business with Rome. Blaming Rome for destroying the once good Messala (prior to his corruption) and what has happened to his family Judah refuses to
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ the left, he caught Messala’s wheel with the iron-shod point of his axle, and crushed it". By the time of "Ben-Hur"'s publication in 1880, Wallace had already published his first novel, "The Fair God; or, The Last of the 'Tzins" (1873), and "Commodus: An Historical Play" (1876) that was never produced. He went on to publish several more novels and biographies, including "The Prince of India; or, Why Constantinople Fell" (1893), a biography of President Benjamin Harrison in 1888, and "The Wooing of Malkatoon" (1898), but "Ben-Hur" remained his most significant work and best-known novel. "Humanities" editor Amy Lifson named