Facts about Charlton Heston Biblical Epics
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Four years of pre-production work preceded The Ten Commandments 1956 filming, with DeMille's team studying ancient Egyptian architecture and conducting extensive historical research to authenticate biblical details.
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A single set piece in Ben-Hur required 8,000 extras to fill the stands of a replica Jerusalem arena built on a 1,000-acre backlot in Italy.
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Stephen Boyd, Heston's rival in the 1959 Ben-Hur chariot race, was a Northern Irish actor who performed most of his own stunts during the eleven-minute sequence.
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Twentieth Century Fox spent approximately $8.5 million to produce The Ten Commandments in 1956, equivalent to roughly $90 million in 2024 dollars.
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Over 1,500 horses were trained and used throughout production of Ben-Hur to perform the iconic chariot race sequence that took three months to film.
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Charlton Heston's 1965 film The Greatest Story Ever Told featured a cameo appearance by director John Ford as a cavalry officer, though Heston played Jesus Christ throughout the 225-minute biblical epic.
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In The Ten Commandments, Charlton Heston's famous line 'Let my people go' was spoken 13 times throughout the film's 220-minute runtime.
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During filming of The Ten Commandments in 1955, Charlton Heston's chariot scene required him to perform dangerous stunts while learning to drive actual horses pulling a weighted vehicle at full speed.
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Ben-Hur, released in 1959 and starring Charlton Heston, won 11 Academy Awards, tying the record held by Titanic until Avatar: The Way of Water surpassed it in 2022.
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The 1956 film The Ten Commandments required 5,000 extras and took 146 days to shoot, making it one of the most expensive productions of its era.