Actor Stephen Boyd was a Hollywood megastar of the 1950s and 60s who started out from very humble beginnings in Northern Ireland. He was brought up in Glengormley on the edge of north Belfast, and started his acting career in Belfast’s Group Theatre and on the radio as part of the Radio Ulster drama The McCooeys. Following some theatre work in England, he began finding his way in cinema in films such as The Man Who Never Was and was hand-picked by Bridget Bardot to star alongside her in The Night Heaven Fell, before getting his break in the US.

It is unquestionably in the role of Messala in Ben-Hur which he is best remembered - and for which he won a Golden Globe for Supporting Actor. He was then originally cast as Marc Antony in Cleopatra before filming was disrupted and the role then went to Richard Burton. However, roles in other major box office successes followed such as The Fall of the Roman Empire, The Bible: In the Beginning, Genghis Khan and Fantastic Voyage and he was nominated for another Golden Globe in Jumbo.

This interview for UTV saw the actor back in Belfast and happy to talk of his early career and his hopes for a reunion with some of his old local cast members.