Ben-Hur (1959 film) New York City on November 18, 1959. Present at the premiere were William Wyler, Charlton Heston, Stephen Boyd, Haya Harareet, Martha Scott, Ramon Novarro (who played Judah Ben-Hur in the 1925 silent film version), Spyros Skouras (president of the 20th Century Fox), Barney Balaban (president of Paramount Pictures), Jack L. Warner (president of Warner Bros.), Leonard Goldenson (president of the American Broadcasting Company), Moss Hart (playwright), Robert Kintner (an ABC Television executive), Sidney Kingsley (playwright), and Adolph Zukor (founder of Paramount Pictures). During its initial release the film earned $33.6 million in North American theater rentals (the distributor's share of
Eddy Novarro Leo Castelli, who familiarized him with the Pop art scene. He soon came into contact with Pop art artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. Novarro's friends and clients included heads of state, presidents, actors as well as artists. In the course of several decades he made portraits of Ava Gardner, Elizabeth Taylor, King Hussein of Jordan, Evita Peron and his good friend the Dalai Lama. Eddy Novarro Eddy Novarro (c. 1925–2003) was a photographer, a collector and a cosmopolitan. He dedicated his work to the great artists of the 20th century. Important painters and sculptors such