Benito "Ben" Lucini is a fictional character from the Australian television soap opera Home and Away, played by Julian McMahon. The character made his first screen appearance on 27 February 1990. McMahon wanted to appear in another prime-time soap opera having previously appeared in The Power, The Passion and had to audition for the role of Ben four times. Ben was introduced as a new love interest of established character Carly Morris (Sharyn Hodgson). The show's producer, Andrew Howie had already planned their wedding before Ben had debuted on-screen. Ben is portrayed as a soldier and characterised as an honest and easy-going man. Ben is an Italian character and writers explored his backstory through his friendship with Dave Porter (John Adam). Producers made Ben and Carly's relationship one of the show's centric stories and focused on their pursuit of happiness as they married and moved into their first home. Ben made his final appearance during the episode broadcast on 1 May 1991. His departure story featured Ben rejoining the army and Carly moving to Perth to live closer to him. Casting McMahon had to audition four times before the producers agreed that he was suitable for the role of Ben. After he received the role, McMahon had a couple of days to relocate from Melbourne to Sydney and get into character. In December 1989, McMahon's casting and the character details were announced via David Brown from TV Week. Brown revealed that McMahon had begun filming that month and his debut episodes would air in February 1990. The show's producer Andrew Howie revealed that McMahon was "thrilled with the role" and was "keen to establish himself in a primetime show." Howie opined that McMahon had been "extremely green" and unexperienced in his first acting role in the soap opera The Power, The Passion; but was sure that McMahon would develop better skills on his show. Development Characterisation and introduction McMahon told Barry Divola from Stars of Oz that Ben is characterised as a "lovely guy, he's very honest, very open." In the 1992 Home and Away Annual, Kesta Desmond and David Nicholls described Ben as being "relaxed" and "easy-going" for a twenty-one-year-old male. Ben is an Italian character and comes from a large family. Ben's lifelong friend was Dave Porter (John Adam) and he helped Ben through school as he suffered racist taunts because of his ethnicity. He used to have