Ramon Novarro as a rival to Rudolph Valentino, and Ingram suggested he change his name to "Novarro." From 1923, he began to play more prominent roles. His role in "Scaramouche" (1923) brought him his first major success. In 1925, Novarro achieved his greatest success in "Ben-Hur." His revealing costumes caused a sensation. He was elevated into the Hollywood elite. As did many stars, Novarro engaged Sylvia of Hollywood as a therapist (although in her tell-all book, Sylvia erroneously claimed that Novarro slept in a coffin). With Valentino's death in 1926, Novarro became the screen's leading Latin actor, though ranked behind his MGM
Ben-Hur (2016 film) the book, the 1925 silent film and the more famous 1959 film of same name. The rights to the latter film were sold to Ted Turner in the 1980s. MGM had just emerged from bankruptcy due to the global success of the twenty-third "James Bond" film, "Skyfall", and "", which both went to gross over $1 billion at the box office worldwide, including above $300 million in the United States and Canada, while Paramount were doing well at the time with the biblical tale "Noah". John Ridley ("12 Years a Slave") was hired to revise the script, with Sean Daniel,