Peter Finch for Best Actor for "No Love for Johnnie" (1961), although like "Oscar Wilde", the film lost money. He was originally chosen to play Julius Caesar in "Cleopatra" (1963) and filmed scenes in London, but when the film was postponed he withdrew; the role was recast with Rex Harrison. Finch made a series of unsuccessful Hollywood films: "The Sins of Rachel Cade" (1961), an attempt to repeat the success of "The Nun's Story", with Angie Dickinson; then two for director Robert Stevens at MGM: "I Thank a Fool" (1962) and "In the Cool of the Day" (1963). Finch restored his critical
Cleopatra BC Battle of Pharsalus in Greece against his rival Julius Caesar in Caesar's Civil War, the Roman statesman Pompey fled to Egypt, a Roman client state. Ptolemy XIII had Pompey killed while Caesar occupied Alexandria in pursuit of Pompey. As consul of the Roman Republic, Caesar attempted to reconcile Ptolemy XIII with Cleopatra. However, Ptolemy XIII's chief adviser, Potheinos, viewed Caesar's terms as favoring Cleopatra, and so his forces, which eventually fell under the control of Cleopatra's younger sister, Arsinoe IV, besieged both Caesar and Cleopatra at the palace. The siege was lifted by reinforcements in early 47 BC. Ptolemy