100 Years of Movie Posters: Charlton Heston

Monday 22 July 2013

Charlton Heston

Born in Wilmette, Illinois, Charlton Heston (1923-2008), was an American actor and a political activist.

As a Hollywood star he appeared in 100 films over the course of 60 years. He is best known for his roles in The Ten Commandments (1956); Ben-Hur, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor (1959); El Cid (1961); and Planet of the Apes (1968). His most memorable scenes were as Moses parting the Red Sea in The Ten Commandments and winning a spectacular chariot duel in Ben-Hur. The starring roles gave the actor a grave, authoritative persona and embodied responsibility, individualism and masculinity; he rejected scripts that did not emphasize those virtues. His media image as a spokesman for Judeo-Christian moral values enabled his political voice.

Heston became an icon portraying Moses in the hugely successful film The Ten Commandments (1956), reportedly being chosen by director Cecil B. DeMille because he thought the muscular, 6 ft 3 in, square-jawed Heston bore an uncanny resemblance to Michelangelo's statue of Moses. In 1958, Heston played a Mexican police officer, Ramon Miguel Vargas, in Orson Welles's widely acclaimed film noir Touch of Evil.

After Marlon Brando, Burt Lancaster and Rock Hudson turned down the title role in Ben-Hur (1959), Heston accepted the role, winning the Academy Award for Best Actor, one of the unprecedented eleven Oscars the film earned. After Moses and Ben-Hur, Heston became more identified with Biblical epics than any other actor.

After being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, Heston retired both from acting and being the NRA president in 2003. He died on April 5, 2008, at his home in Beverly Hills, California, with Lydia, his wife of 64 years, by his side. He was also survived by his son, Fraser Clarke Heston, and daughter, Holly Ann Heston. (Wikipedia)