Ben-Hur Trivia
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47 free Ben-Hur trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Ben-Hur is the story that keeps getting told: Lew Wallace's 1880 novel outsold Uncle Tom's Cabin and was blessed by a pope, the 1899 stage version ran real horses on treadmills, the 1925 silent was the costliest film of its era, and William Wyler's 1959 remake won a record eleven Academy Awards that no film has ever beaten. Then there was 2016, which most people would rather forget. This quiz covers all of it, with the emphasis where searchers want it: the 1959 film. Who turned down the lead before Charlton Heston, why the MGM lion did not roar, how the nine-minute chariot race was shot, which stuntman nearly died in it, what Gore Vidal claimed about Messala, and how the sea battle was faked in a Culver City tank. There are also questions on the plot, the cast, Miklos Rozsa's score and the novel's author, a Union general who wrote it while governor of New Mexico Territory. Every answer is checked against a reference source and each question links to where the fact was confirmed.
30 of 47 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Ben-Hur's eleven Oscars went unmatched until which film equaled them nearly four decades later?
Titanic
Titanic matched the eleven wins in 1998, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King followed in 2004 by winning every category it was up for, which Ben-Hur had not.
Q 02Who wrote the 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ?
Lew Wallace
Lew Wallace, a Civil War general, wrote most of it under a beech tree at his Indiana home; by his own account he began indifferent to religion and finished the book a convinced believer.
Q 03Which best-selling novel did Ben-Hur surpass to become the top-selling American novel of the 19th century?
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) had held the record until Ben-Hur overtook it around 1900, a slow-burn success: the novel was no immediate hit and took about two years to gain momentum.
Q 04Which Roman emperor appears in the 1959 Ben-Hur, ruling at the time of the story?
Tiberius
Tiberius, played by George Relph, honours the fleet's victory in Rome and then hands Judah over as a slave to the commander whose life he saved.
Q 05Which office was the author of Ben-Hur holding when it was published?
Governor of New Mexico Territory
The author was Governor of New Mexico Territory from 1878 to 1881, finishing the novel in Santa Fe while contending with the Lincoln County War and Billy the Kid.
Q 06A train-ride debate with which famous agnostic spurred the author of Ben-Hur to write about Christ?
Robert Ingersoll
Robert Ingersoll spent the journey questioning the evidence for God; the author, ashamed at how little he knew of his own religion, resolved to study it, and the research became the novel.
Q 07How did the 1899 Broadway stage version of Ben-Hur pull off the chariot race?
Live horses on treadmills
Live horses on treadmills galloped flat out toward the audience while a painted backdrop rolled past behind them; the show toured for 21 years and was seen by some 20 million people.
Q 08Who played the title role in the 1925 silent film Ben-Hur?
Ramon Novarro
Ramon Novarro, 25 and only three years into starring roles, took over the lead from George Walsh during the troubled shoot in Italy; Francis X. Bushman played Messala.
Q 09Which scenes of the 1925 Ben-Hur were shot in two-color Technicolor?
The sequences involving Jesus
The sequences involving Jesus were shot in two-color Technicolor; today's prints have that color back thanks to footage found in the Czech film archive in the 1980s.
Q 10Which was the only one of its twelve Oscar nominations that Ben-Hur failed to win?
Best Screenplay
Best Screenplay went to Room at the Top instead; observers blamed the public row over who really wrote Ben-Hur, after the Writers Guild gave Karl Tunberg sole credit.
Q 11Which 1956 Paramount hit inspired MGM to revive its long-stalled Ben-Hur remake?
The Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments, DeMille's 1956 Paramount epic, proved biblical spectacle could sell, so MGM, weakened by losing its theater chains, greenlit its own Ben-Hur remake.
Q 12Why is the MGM lion silent at the start of the 1959 Ben-Hur?
A roar would spoil the nativity scene
A roar would spoil the nativity scene, Wyler argued, so he got MGM's permission to open with a still, silent Leo ahead of the film's prologue in Bethlehem.
Q 13Which star turned down the role of Ben-Hur saying he did not have the legs to wear a tunic?
Paul Newman
Q 21In the 1959 Ben-Hur, what gives Messala's chariot an unfair advantage in the race?
Blades on its wheels
Blades on its wheels let Messala wreck one rival chariot after another, yet when he turns them on Judah the attack backfires and it is Messala who ends the race broken on the track.
Q 22Which future spaghetti Western director worked as an uncredited assistant on the 1959 Ben-Hur?
Sergio Leone
Sergio Leone's exact job on the Rome shoot is disputed, from second-unit assistant to production aide; that same year he got his break finishing The Last Days of Pompeii for its ailing director.
Q 23Heston's stunt double was accidentally flung over his chariot mid-race; what became of the shot?
Paul Newman, unhappy with his earlier costume epic The Silver Chalice, flatly refused; Kirk Douglas wanted the part, lost it to Heston and went on to make Spartacus instead.
Q 14Which Welsh actor won Best Supporting Actor for playing Sheik Ilderim?
Hugh Griffith
Hugh Griffith won the Oscar as Sheik Ilderim, the Arab horse-breeder who persuades Judah to drive his white team in the hope of humbling a Roman in the arena.
Q 15Which Northern Irish actor played Messala in the 1959 Ben-Hur, winning a Golden Globe?
Stephen Boyd
Stephen Boyd, born near Belfast, wore brown contact lenses as Messala because the director wanted his eyes to contrast with Heston's; he won the 1960 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor.
Q 16Which character, Judah's love interest, did Israeli newcomer Haya Harareet play in the 1959 Ben-Hur?
Esther
Esther was Haya Harareet's first American film role; the screenwriters greatly expanded the part from the novel so that the story had a love interest from start to finish.
Q 17Which writer claimed to have given Ben-Hur's Judah–Messala reunion a homoerotic subtext?
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal made the claim in the documentary The Celluloid Closet; Heston angrily denied it, and after a bitter credit dispute Karl Tunberg alone was named as screenwriter.
Q 18In the 1959 Ben-Hur, what accident lets Messala send Judah to the galleys?
Roof tiles fall near the governor
Roof tiles fall near the governor as his procession passes the house of Hur: Tirzah had leaned on them, the horse threw its rider, and Messala, knowing it was an accident, punished the family anyway.
Q 19In the 1959 Ben-Hur, which Roman consul does Judah save from drowning, who then adopts him?
Quintus Arrius
Quintus Arrius, played by Jack Hawkins, is pulled from the sea when his flagship sinks; back in Rome he makes Judah a champion charioteer and then his adopted son and heir.
Q 20In which Rome studio complex was Ben-Hur (1959) chiefly shot?
Cinecittà
Cinecittà, on the outskirts of Rome, hosted principal photography from May 1958; its 18-acre chariot arena was among the largest film sets ever built.
It stayed in the film
It stayed in the film: Joe Canutt, son of stunt chief Yakima Canutt, got away with a cut chin, and a close-up of Heston scrambling back aboard was added so the accident became part of the race.
Q 24Sheik Ilderim names his four white chariot horses in Ben-Hur after what?
Stars
Stars: Rigel, Antares and Aldebaran among them. In the novel the sheik explains that desert Arabs depend on the stars at night, so they borrow their names in gratitude and give them in love.
Q 25Which Roman governor, played by Frank Thring, crowns Judah after the chariot race?
Pontius Pilate
Pontius Pilate, an old friend of Judah's adoptive father, crowns him victor and later passes on an offer of Roman citizenship, which Judah hands back along with the family ring.
Q 26What does Jesus give Judah during the forced march to the galleys in the 1959 Ben-Hur?
A drink of water
A drink of water, given in Nazareth while a Roman guard stands back; years later Judah recognises the same man carrying his cross and tries to return the favour.
Q 27Who composed Ben-Hur's 1959 score, then the longest ever written for a film?
Miklós Rózsa
Miklós Rózsa researched ancient Greek and Roman music for it, then conducted the 100-piece MGM Symphony Orchestra himself across twelve recording sessions; it won him his third Oscar.
Q 28How does the 1959 Ben-Hur present Jesus?
Face never shown
Face never shown: Claude Heater, an opera singer, is filmed only from behind or at a distance and is never heard, even during the Sermon on the Mount.
Q 29What happened to producer Sam Zimbalist during filming in November 1958?
He died of a heart attack
He died of a heart attack: Sam Zimbalist collapsed on the Rome set on November 4, 1958 and was dead within hours, so the Best Picture Oscar his film won went to him posthumously.
Q 30Where did Ben-Hur premiere on November 18, 1959?
Loew's State Theatre, New York
Loew's State Theatre, New York, stood on Times Square and bore the name of the cinema chain that had founded MGM; a court-ordered split parted chain and studio that same year.