64 years ago, he won the prize: eight years later, he was killed in his own home

Please note that this article is about tragic events: violence, blood and torture, followed by death.

Star of the 1925 blockbuster Ben-Hur, Ramón Novarro was a leading actor of the silent film era and won a Golden Globe for his career in 1960. It was during this last decade, when he was playing guest roles in western series like Bonanza or Mysteries of the West, that Novarro tragically lost his life at his home.

Novarro was homosexual, an attraction that always clashed with his Catholic culture and haunted him throughout his life. In the last years of his life, the actor paid a fine to an agency that regularly provided him with prostitutes to sleep with him, until October 30, 1968.

That day two brothers, Paul and Tom Ferguson (ages 22 and 17) came to Novaro to offer their services. In fact, they break into his house and try to take $5,000 from him, which they believe is hidden in the house. Novarro is tortured by two criminals (“22 Wounds on the Body” According to the report Ferguson trial), who leave with what they found – 20 unfortunate dollars in the star’s wallet. He remained lying down and the actor was left to his own devices “That’s how you drown your own blood”.

The Fergusons were convicted of the crime and sentenced to life in prison. Paul will be paroled after 9 years in prison, and Tom will be released pending a retrial, but will again be convicted of a sex crime. As for Novaro, the secret of his homosexuality, which he managed to keep his whole life, was revealed to the general public during the trial of his attackers.

Less than a year later, Hollywood would be shocked again by another brutal murder that generated much more publicity, that of Sharon Tate by members of Charles Manson’s gang.

Who was Ramon Novaro?

The actor began his career in 1916 with the role of a starving peasant in Cecil B. After a role in DeMille’s Joan of Arc and several cameos and extras, she began to climb the credit ladder with Mr. Barnes of New York (1922) and rose to prominence thanks to the films of director Rex Ingram, who cast her in roles including Mirage of Happiness and Scaramouche. .

He owes his first leading role to Fred Niblo, who chose to play a Spanish matador in Guerrita (1924). In the same year, he directed L’Arabe (in which he is a Bedouin) and Red Lily (in which he is French). And if he’s called mostly for exotic roles in the eyes of Americans, then that’s a blessing for Novarro, who plays Ben-Hur in the version made by Ten Hands, and where only Fred Niblo is officially credited.

This film made him an undisputed star and became the most important Latin silent film star after Rudolph Valentino’s death in 1926. In the following years, he was mostly in adventure and romantic films. With the advent of talkies, he continued to play various nationalities (French, Egyptian, Native American, Russian) for MGM, but his contract was not renewed in 1935.

His career took a hit, and between the end of the decade and the end of the next decade, Novarro appeared in only five feature films. He made a comeback in Don Siegel’s It Begins in Vera Cruz and John Huston’s The Rebels (1949), and the following year, he shrugged alongside Cary Grant and José Ferrer in Richard Brooks’ Cases of Conscience.

Her last feature film would be The Devil in Pink Tights, a 1960 George Cukor film with Sophia Loren and Anthony Quinn. That same year, he won a Golden Globe for his silent career. In the 1960s, he appeared again in episodes of Western series such as Bonanza, Rawhide, and Mysteries of the West.