Ben-Hur (1959)


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Ciavazzaro
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Ben-Hur (1959)

Post by Ciavazzaro » 17/12/2022, 1:05

And for the Ruspoli i found some photos here:
https://geneall.net/it/family-album/107 ... 33&start=1

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ChristofferSlotte
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Ben-Hur (1959)

Post by ChristofferSlotte » 17/12/2022, 8:10

The info about the nobles come from several newspapers from 1958 on the web but this info sometimes differ. I haven't been able to find any Raimondo Ruspoli on the web, but there were 2 brothers called Emanuele (Emanuele Costantino R., born 1900) and Edmondo (1995-1975). Actually I seem to recall that one newspaper listed the names of the extras in BH as Emanuele and Edmondo.

2 additional names from 1 or 2 of the newspapers:
marquesa Lina Lodigiani (there was a generica by that name, wasn't there?)
lord Philip Brompton

Audrey Hepburn and Sam Zimbalist are mentioned above. Were they really actual extras in the movie? Zimbalist was the producer and Hepburn just one of many visitors from Hollywood.

By the way, this book identifies the place where the Sermon on the Mount was filmed. It was a small river and a bridge where many other epics were filmed, too:
https://www.amazon.it/Terre-Cinema-Mont ... 113&sr=1-1

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Post by PeplumParadise » 17/12/2022, 10:35

Ciavazzaro wrote:
17/12/2022, 0:55
One name in the list was familiar to me, infact i checked and Otello Polini is in the list of 1930's early 1950's generici
on Imdb he have some movie credits, so i think we could identify him, he looks like he worked since 1937 so he could be another very prolific one.

On imdb for him we have:
1937
Scipione L'africano
Il signor Max uncredited
Il feroce Saladino

1938
Napoli D'altri tempi
Sotto la croce del sud
Giuseppe Verdi
L'orologio a cucù
Ettore Fieramosca

1939
Castelli in Aria

If we identify him trough these movies (i think some can be found) then we can maybe identify him in Ben-Hur too and hopefully opening a topic for him too since the big gasp since the last credited role 1939 and Ben-Hur 1959 he must have done more roles before that.
With no specific roles to look for and no images to use as a guide, I'm not very optimistic that he can be found. I checked the credits for Scipione L'africano, Giuseppe Verdi and Ettore Fieramosca, but Polini is not credited in any of those, so whatever roles he plays must be fairly small. Unfortunately none of these films are yet available in HD, so there's not much point in creating topics for them or going through them trying to match up fuzzy images of small part actors in the hope that we can then match them with someone in a film from 20 years later. The only film from that list that I do have in HD is Il signor Max , which might be worth creating a topic for at some point, but in that one even most of the credited actors are unfamiliar names (to me), so it would be a fairly impossible job trying to identify an unfamiliar actor in an uncredited unidentified small role.

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Post by PeplumParadise » 17/12/2022, 10:51

ChristofferSlotte wrote:
17/12/2022, 8:10

Audrey Hepburn and Sam Zimbalist are mentioned above. Were they really actual extras in the movie? Zimbalist was the producer and Hepburn just one of many visitors from Hollywood.
I'm sure that if Audrey Hepburn did actually appear identifiably in the film that she would have already been identified by someone and the film would appear in her online filmographies

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Ben-Hur (1959)

Post by FatmanDan » 20/05/2023, 1:21

Is that Maculani in 137/8 on the left side?

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Post by PeplumParadise » 20/05/2023, 10:17

FatmanDan wrote:
20/05/2023, 1:21
Is that Maculani in 137/8 on the left side?
Hmmm, possibly, I see what you mean though he seems rather different, not helped that he's only seen rushing past in movement making faces so you never get a "normal" shot of his face.

I do think it could be the supposedly-appearing Stefanelli on the left in 136 though

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Post by van den bremt rudy » 20/05/2023, 13:07

Now that you said it, i believe seeing his face now, that this is Stefanelli on the left, also as i see his face in my latest entry of New York chiama superdrago (1966).

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Post by Johan Melle » 21/05/2023, 15:24

PeplumParadise wrote:
20/05/2023, 10:17
I do think it could be the supposedly-appearing Stefanelli on the left in 136 though
Studying the picture, this actually seems like Gino Marturano to me, but hard to really be sure from a blurry picture in movement.

Anyway, the 'Uncredited actors from other sources' list has Hugh Billingsley as Mario. He is surely the same guy as Michael Billingsley a.k.a. Hugh Michael Billingsley. We discussed him in the War and Peace topic and some pictures of him were posted. I'm thinking he might be the man on the left in 22, but not sure...

Isn't that Pino Mattei in 52 and 53? And possibly also Bill Kiehl on the left in 52, but again not sure.

And the proposed Giorgio Ubaldi in 128 looks like it could really be him - at least in that picture, but I don't know other than from his recent topic.

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Post by PeplumParadise » 21/05/2023, 16:01

Another couple of possible ID's

This party guest in 171 could maybe be Valeria Gramignan, known from her credited role in Erode il grande. Probably not clear enough to say for sure, facially similar, but maybe the hairline is a bit different.
uk171a.jpg
GRAMIGNANI-side.jpg

and could this bongo player in 172 maybe be a second role for Alfred Thomas? It certainly wouldn't be his first bongo-playing role
uk172a-side.jpg

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Post by PeplumParadise » 21/05/2023, 16:34

Johan Melle wrote:
21/05/2023, 15:24
PeplumParadise wrote:
20/05/2023, 10:17
I do think it could be the supposedly-appearing Stefanelli on the left in 136 though
Studying the picture, this actually seems like Gino Marturano to me, but hard to really be sure from a blurry picture in movement.

Anyway, the 'Uncredited actors from other sources' list has Hugh Billingsley as Mario. He is surely the same guy as Michael Billingsley a.k.a. Hugh Michael Billingsley. We discussed him in the War and Peace topic and some pictures of him were posted. I'm thinking he might be the man on the left in 22, but not sure...

Isn't that Pino Mattei in 52 and 53? And possibly also Bill Kiehl on the left in 52, but again not sure.

And the proposed Giorgio Ubaldi in 128 looks like it could really be him - at least in that picture, but I don't know other than from his recent topic.
Can't say on Billingsley at all based on the images in the War and Peace topic.

I agree on Mattei, more obviously him in 53, so I will add that role, ditto the second role for Ubaldi now we know him a little better.

I don't know Bill Kiehl at all, anybody else know him?.

As for the possible Stefanelli/Martuano, here's some more images, but looking at these I don't really think he is either of them. Facially it doesn't seem at all like Martuano to me and I don't see the familiar lump/scar Stefanelli has above his left eyebrow.
Ben.Hur.1959.1080p.BluRay.H264.AAC-RARBG2-side-down.jpg

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