About Stephen Boyd
William Millar, better known by his stage name Stephen Boyd, was an actor from Northern Ireland. He emerged as a leading man during the late 1950s with his role as the villainous Messala in Ben-Hur (1959), a role that earned him the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture. He received his second Golden Globe nomination for the musical Billy Rose's Jumbo (1962). Boyd caught his first break as a doorman at the Odeon Theatre. Boyd's first role that brought him acclaim was as a pro-Nazi Irish spy in the movie The Man Who Never Was, based on the book by Ewen Montagu. Around the same time, French actress Brigitte Bardot was given the opportunity to cast her own leading man in her next movie after her success in Roger Vadim's And God Created Woman, and she chose Boyd.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.