Ben-Hur (1959 film) the box office), generating approximately $74.7 million in box office sales. Outside of North America, it earned $32.5 million in rentals (about $72.2 million at the box office) for a worldwide total of $66.1 million in rental earnings, roughly equivalent to $146.9 million in box office receipts. It was the fastest-grossing film as well as the highest-grossing film of 1959, in the process becoming the second-highest-grossing film of all-time (at that time) behind "Gone with the Wind". "Ben-Hur" saved MGM from financial disaster, making a profit of $20,409,000 on its initial release, and another $10.1 million in profits when re-released
Ramon Novarro murder of Novarro. In a 1998 interview, Paul Ferguson finally assumed the blame for Novarro’s death. Ramón Novarro is buried in Calvary Cemetery, East Los Angeles, California. Ramón Novarro's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is at 6350 Hollywood Boulevard. Novarro's murder served as the basis for the short story by Charles Bukowski called "The Murder of Ramon Vasquez", as well as for the song "Tango," by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, recorded by Peggy Lee on her "Mirrors" album. Novarro's murder is among the many epochal events recalled in Joan Didion's meditative 'California zeitgeist' essay "The White Album".