Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925 film) his body. Gertrude Olmstead was cast as Esther. While on location in Italy, Walsh was fired and replaced by Ramon Novarro. The role of Esther went to May McAvoy. Shooting began in Rome, Italy in October 1923 under the direction of Charles Brabin who was replaced shortly after filming began. Additional recastings (including Ramon Novarro as Ben-Hur) and a change of director caused the production's budget to skyrocket. After two years of difficulties and accidents, the production was eventually moved back to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Culver City, California and production resumed in the spring of 1925. B. Reeves Eason and Christy
Eddy Novarro Romanian descent and was born in Bucharest 1925. After emigrating to Brazil via Italy in 1946, he settled in Rio de Janeiro. In 1958, Novarro accepted an invitation from the architect Sergio Wladimir Bernardes to travel to the EXPO in Brussels and document the Brazilian pavilion in a photo series. it was there that he met René Magritte, who introduced him to the Paris surrealist circle. From the seventies onward, Novarro lived part of the time in Germany, because he considered Europe "the center of art". On a visit to New York City in February 1978, Novarro met gallery owner