Ben Hur Explained

Fascinating synopsis of General Lew Wallace and how he went about writing "Ben Hur"
http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2009-11/BenHur.html. I had a surface understanding of him, but this paints the picture of a damn interesting guy.

Heston was an outstanding movie star, the kind they don't make any longer. Even into his later years, he could steal scenes in anything he appeared. Catch him in the television remake of "Treasure Island" sometime--he's fantastic to watch. I think I read somewhere that he considered his role in "Will Penney" to be his finest and he's excellent in it as an aging cowboy with a relentless sense of right and wrong. I wonder how "Animal House" would have turned out had Heston been cast as Dean Wormer instead of John Vernon. To have heard Heston utter those same lines would have been something.