Frank Thring(1926-1994)

Cold-eyed Australian character actor known particularly for his biblical villains Pontius Pilate in Ben-Hur (1959) and King Herod in Il re dei re (1961). Also played Herod in an acclaimed 1950s stage production of "Salome".

I didn't like school, and it didn't like me. When I first auditioned for the school play at age twelve, I was asked to imagine that I was on a crowded tram like the ones in San Francisco. The headmaster was not impressed with my work, characterizing it as terrible and inserting that I'd never be an actor. My rebuttal was that I'd never been on a tram because I was always driven to school in the family Rolls-Royce.