Question: What actor in "The Godfather" was once up for a part in the remake of Ben-Hur?

Context articles: Salvatore Tessio
Ben-Hur (1959 film)
Vito Corleone
Barry Malkin
Marlon Brando
The Godfather Saga
Production of Ben-Hur (1959 film)
John Cazale
The Godfather's Revenge
Loew's State Theatre (New York City)

Salvatore "Sal" Tessio is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's 1969 novel "The Godfather", as well as two of the films based on it: "The Godfather" and "The Godfather Part II" (1974).
 His given name was created for the films; in the novel he is referred to only as "Tessio".
 In the film "The Godfather", Tessio was portrayed by Abe Vigoda.
 In "The Godfather Part II", John Aprea portrayed the younger Tessio, while Vigoda reprised the role in a flashback, set in late 1941, at the end of the film.
Ben-Hur is a 1959 American epic historical drama film, directed by William Wyler, produced by Sam Zimbalist for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and starring Charlton Heston as the title character.
 A remake of the 1925 silent film with the same name, "Ben-Hur" was adapted from Lew Wallace's 1880 novel "".
 The screenplay is credited to Karl Tunberg, but includes contributions from Maxwell Anderson, S. N. Behrman, Gore Vidal, and Christopher Fry.
Vito Corleone is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's novel "The Godfather" and in the first two of Francis Ford Coppola's three Godfather films, in which he was portrayed by Marlon Brando in "The Godfather" and then, as a young man, by Robert De Niro in "The Godfather Part II".
 He is an orphaned Sicilian immigrant who builds a mafia empire.
 Upon his death, Michael, his youngest son, succeeds him as the mafia don of the Corleone crime family.
Barry M. Malkin (born October 26, 1938) is an American film editor with about 30 film credits.
 He is noted for his extended collaboration with director Francis Ford Coppola, having edited most of Coppola's films from 1969-1997.
 In particular, Malkin worked with Coppola on four of the component and compilation films of the "Godfather Trilogy", although he was not involved in the original 1972 film.
 Roger Ebert has written of "The Godfather Part II", which Malkin edited, "... why is it a "great movie"?
 Because it must be seen as a piece with the unqualified greatness of "The Godfather."
 The two can hardly be considered apart ("Part III" is another matter).
 When the characters in a film take on a virtual reality for us, when a character in another film made 30 years later can say "The Godfather" contains all the lessons in life you need to know, when an audience understands why that statement could be made, a film has become a cultural bedrock."
Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor, film director and political activist.
 He is widely credited with bringing realism to film acting.
 He helped to popularize the Stanislavski system of acting, studying with Stella Adler in the 1940s.
 Brando is widely known for his Academy Award-winning performances as Terry Malloy in "On the Waterfront" (1954) and Vito Corleone in "The Godfather" (1972), as well as his performances in "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951), "Viva Zapata!
" (1952), "Julius Caesar" (1953), "The Wild One" (1953), "Guys and Dolls" (1955), "Sayonara" (1957), "Last Tango in Paris" (1972), and "Apocalypse Now" (1979).
 Brando was also an activist for many causes, notably the Civil Rights Movement and various Native American movements.
The Godfather Saga is a TV miniseries that combines "The Godfather" and "The Godfather Part II" into one film.
 It originally aired on NBC over four consecutive nights (one three-hour segment and three two-hour segments) in November 1977.
 "The Godfather Saga" is also known as The Godfather: The Complete Novel for Television, The Godfather: A Novel for Television, The Godfather Novella, and The Godfather Epic (on HBO).
 The television version was the basis for a shorter, 1981 video release known as The Godfather 1902–1959: The Complete Epic.
 Following the release of "The Godfather Part III" in 1990, a third unified version was released to video in 1992 entitled The Godfather Trilogy: 1901–1980.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) originally announced a remake of the 1925 silent film "Ben-Hur" in December 1952, ostensibly as a way to spend its Italian assets.
 Stewart Granger and Robert Taylor were reported to be in the running for the lead.
 Nine months later, MGM announced it would make the film in CinemaScope, with shooting beginning in 1954.
 In November 1953, MGM announced it had assigned producer Sam Zimbalist to the picture and hired screenwriter Karl Tunberg to write it.
 Zimbalist was chosen because he had produced MGM's Best Picture-nominated Christians-and-lions epic "Quo Vadis" in 1951.
 The studio then announced in July 1954 that production would start in March 1955 with 42 speaking parts and 97 sets.
 MGM said Sidney Franklin would direct, that the script by Tunberg was finished, that shooting would occur in Rome and in Spain, and that Marlon Brando was up for the lead.
 In September 1955, Zimbalist, who continued to claim that Tunberg's script was complete, announced that a $7 million, six-to-seven month production would begin in April 1956 in either Israel or Egypt in MGM's new 65mm widescreen process.
 MGM, however, suspended production in early 1956.
John Holland Cazale ( ; ] ; August 12, 1935 – March 13, 1978) was an American actor.
 He appeared in five films over a period of six years, all of which were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture: "The Godfather", "The Conversation", "The Godfather Part II", "Dog Day Afternoon", and "The Deer Hunter."
 He appeared in archival footage in "The Godfather Part III", also nominated for Best Picture, making him the only actor to have this multi-film distinction.
 From his start as a theater actor, he became one of Hollywood's premier character actors, starting with his role as the doomed, weak-minded Fredo Corleone opposite longtime friend Al Pacino in Francis Ford Coppola's film "The Godfather" and its 1974 sequel.
 Cazale chose to continue acting despite being diagnosed with lung cancer.
 He died in New York City on March 13, 1978, shortly after completing his role in "The Deer Hunter".
The Godfather's Revenge, a 2006 novel written by author Mark Winegardner, is the sequel to "The Godfather", "The Sicilian", and "The Godfather Returns".
 The story takes place from 1963–1964, and picks up the story from where "The Godfather Returns" left off.
 The novel deals with Michael Corleone's guilt over the events of "The Godfather Part II", particularly his ordering the death of his brother, Fredo.
 Subplots include Nick Geraci's plans for revenge against the Corleones, Tom Hagen's being implicated in a murder, and organized crime's battle with a presidential family (the Sheas, who are analogous to the Kennedy family).
Loew's State Theatre was a theatre in New York City, located at 1540 Broadway.
 Designed by Thomas Lamb in the Adams style, it opened on August 9, 1921, and featured both vaudeville and films.
 The theatre held a number of very notable world premieres including "The Three Musketeers" (1948), "Some Like It Hot" (1959), "Ben-Hur" (1959), "Becket" (1964), and "The Godfather" (1972).
 It closed on February 19, 1987, and it is now the site of the Bertelsmann Building.