Actor, born in Evanston, Illinois, USA. He made his film debut in an amateur production of Peer Gynt (1941) and, after air force war service and further theatre experience, his Broadway debut in Antony and Cleopatra (1947). In Hollywood from 1950, he portrayed historic or heroic roles in such epics as The Ten Commandments (1956), Ben Hur (1959, Oscar) and El Cid (1961). He displayed his potential as a character actor in Touch of Evil (1958), The War Lord (1965), and Will Penny (1967). Frequently returning to the stage, he also directs for film and television, including Antony and Cleopatra (1972, film), and A Man for All Seasons (1988, television). Later film appearances include The Awakening (1980), True Lies (1994), and Any Given Sunday (1999). He has played a prominent role in US arts, theatre, and film organizations, and served as president of the US National Rifle Association (19982003). He received the inaugural Charlton Heston Prize in 2003, awarded by the American Film Institute to honour acting talent.
| Charlton Heston | |
|---|---|
| Born |
October 4, 1924 St. Helen, Michigan |
Charlton Heston (born John Carter on October 4, 1924 in St. Helen, Michigan) is an Academy Award-winning American film actor noted for heroic roles and his long involvement in political issues.
Biography
Early career
Heston was born John Charles Carter in St. Helen, Michigan to Lila Charlton and Russell Whitford Carter. Heston (his new surname) attended New Trier High School. Several years later the same team produced Julius Caesar, in which Heston played Mark Antony.
In 1944, Heston left college and enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps. In 1948, they went back to New York where Heston was offered a supporting role in the Broadway play Antony and Cleopatra, starring the legendary Katherine Cornell, for which he earned acclaim. But the muscular, 6 ft 3 in, square jawed Heston became an icon by portraying Moses in The Ten Commandments, a part he was chosen for reportedly because director Cecil B.
Heston also starred in a number of science fiction films and disaster films between 1968 and 1974, some of which, like Planet of the Apes, The Omega Man, Soylent Green, and Earthquake, were hugely successful at the time of their release and have since become cult classics.
Heston fought at times for his artistic choices. In 1958, he maneuvered Universal International into allowing Orson Welles to direct him in Touch of Evil, and in 1965 he fought the studio in support of Sam Peckinpah, when an attempt was made to interfere with his direction of Major Dundee, despite the fact that Peckinpah was so temperamental that at one point the normally even-keeled Heston found himself threatening the diminutive director with his cavalry sabre when he felt that Peckinpah was mistreating his cast. Heston was also president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1966 to 1971.
Starting with 1973's The Three Musketeers, Heston began playing an increasing number of supporting roles and cameos. Heston had cameos in the films Tombstone and True Lies. Heston received great reviews for his 1992 series on the A&E cable network, "Charlton Heston Presents The Bible", which has achieved great success on video and DVD.
In 2001, Heston made a cameo appearance in Tim Burton's remake of Planet of the Apes.
Off screen
Heston was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1998, and it went into remission the next year following a course of radiation treatment. In April 2006, various news sources reported that Heston's illness is at an advanced stage and his family are worried he may not survive the year.
Political beliefs
In his earlier years, Heston was a Democrat, campaigning for Presidential candidates Adlai Stevenson in 1956 and John F. Kennedy, Heston appeared on The Joey Bishop Show and, along with fellow actors Gregory Peck, Kirk Douglas and James Stewart, called for gun controls to be introduced by Congress. In 1969 Heston was asked by some Democrats to run for the California State Senate, a move that would have likely had bipartisan support in the state.
In the 1980s, however, Heston began to support more conservative and libertarian positions on such issues as affirmative action and gun rights. (In announcing his resignation in 2003, he would again raise a rifle over his head, this time repeating only the famous five words of his 2000 speech.)
Heston has been harshly criticized by advocates of gun control. Michael Moore interviewed Heston in his home in the 2002 documentary film Bowling for Columbine asking questions of him regarding an NRA meeting being held in Denver, Colorado in April 1999, shortly after the Columbine high school massacre in nearby Littleton and the very publicized shooting and death of 6-year-old Kayla Rolland in her first grade classroom near Flint, Michigan, Moore's home town. Showing Heston walking away and ignoring Moore's pleas, this scene in the movie is famous for Michael Moore presenting it in a way that implies that Charlton Heston, and indeed, the NRA are racist. Many pro-NRA groups have stated that Moore took advantage of Heston in his state of mind. Outspoken liberal Democrat actor George Clooney was quoted as saying that Heston deserved Alzheimers and all negative criticism for his involvement with the NRA; Heston responded by saying that Clooney, nephew of Rosemary Clooney, lacked "class", and said he felt sorry for Clooney, as Clooney had as much of a chance of developing Alzheimers as anyone else.
In 1996 Charlton Heston attended the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual gathering of conservative movement organizations.
According to his autobiography In the Arena, Heston also recognised the right of freedom of speech exercised by others, a right accepted by nearly all Americans. In an address to students at Harvard Law School entitled Winning the Cultural War, Heston expressed his disdain for political correctness and its chilling effect on free speech, stating "If Americans believed in political correctness, we'd still be King George's boys - subjects bound to the British crown."
Heston is also an opponent of abortion and gave the introduction to a pro-life documentary by Bernard Nathanson called "Eclipse of Reason" which focuses on late-term abortions.
Heston perceives no contradiction between his remembered civil rights activism in the 1960s and his current lobbying for gun ownership rights, insisting that he is promoting "freedom in the truest sense."
Agamemnon Films
Charlton Heston is the chairman and co-founder of Agamemnon Films.
Trivia
In Greece, his name is written as "Charlton Easton" because "Heston" has scatological connotations in Greek (χέσ'τον = "shit him"). Heston's most frequently played roles on stage include the title role in Macbeth, Sir Thomas More in A Man For All Seasons, and Marc Antony in both Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra. Many years later, Lancaster charged that if Heston became typecast in heroic roles it was his own fault, because "he accepted the limitation". However, Lancaster later took on the role of Moses in a TV version of Moses' life, after Heston had played the part in the 1956 film version. Heston's height as a young man was 6'3", although in later years he was somewhat shorter at 6'1". Of all his films, Heston frequently cited Will Penny as his personal favorite. He was a close friend of Patrick O'Brian, and O'Brian imagined Jack Aubrey, the protagonist of his Aubrey-Maturin series, being played by Heston. Spotswoode's voice in the film "Team America: World Police" is a mock of Heston.Books
Heston has written several books, including autobiographies and religious books:
The Actor's Life (ISBN 0-671-83016-3) In the Arena: An Autobiography (ISBN 1-57297-267-X) Beijing Diary (ISBN 0-671-68706-9) To Be a Man: Letters to My Grandson (ISBN 0-7432-1311-4) Charlton Heston Presents the Bible (ISBN 1-57719-270-2) Charlton Heston's Hollywood: 50 Years in American Film with Jean-Pierre Isbouts (ISBN 1-57719-357-1)Filmography
Bowling for Columbine (2002) Papa Rua Alguem 5555 (2002) The Order (2001) Town & Country (2001) Planet of the Apes (2001) Any Given Sunday (1999) Gideon (1999) Armageddon (1998) Hercules (1997) (special appearance) Hamlet (1996) Alaska (1996) In the Mouth of Madness (1995) True Lies (1994) Tombstone (1993) Wayne's World 2 (1993) Symphony for the Spire (1992) Crash Landing: The Rescue of Flight 232 (1991) Solar Crisis (1990) The Little Kidnappers (1990) (TV) Call from Space (1989) (voice) Treasure Island (1989) A Man for All Seasons (1988) Christmas Night with the Two Ronnies (1987) (TV) Proud 1987) (TV) The Colbys (1985) TV Series (1985-1987) (TV) Nairobi Affair (1984) (TV) Chiefs (1983) (mini) TV Series Mother Lode (1982) The Awakening (1980) The Mountain Men (1980) Gray Lady Down (1978) Crossed Swords (1978) Midway (1976) Two Minute Warning (1976) The Last Hard Men (1976) The Four Musketeers (1974) Earthquake (1974) Airport 1975 (1974) The Three Musketeers (1973) Soylent Green (1973) Antony and Cleopatra (1973) Call of the Wild (1972) Skyjacked (1972) The London Brige Special (1972) The Omega Man (1971) Julius Caesar (1970) The Hawaiians (1970) Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) Number One (1969) Will Penny (1968) Planet of the Apes (1968) Counterpoint (1968) Maugli (1967) Khartoum (1966) The War Lord (1965) The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965) Major Dundee (1965) The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) 55 Days at Peking (1963) Diamond Head (1963) The Pigeon That Took Rome (1962) El Cid (1961) Ben-Hur (1959) The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959) The Buccaneer (1958) The Big Country (1958) Touch of Evil (1958) Three Violent People (1957) The Ten Commandments (1956) Lucy Gallant (1955) The Private War of Major Benson (1955) The Far Horizons (1955) The Secret of the Incas (1954) The Naked Jungle (1954) Bad for Each Other (1953) Arrowhead (1953) Pony Express (1953) The President's Lady (1953) Ruby Gentry (1952) The Savage (1952) The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) Dark City (1950) Peer Gynt (1941)|
Preceded by: David Niven for Separate Tables |
Academy Award for Best Actor 1959 for Ben-Hur |
Succeeded by: Burt Lancaster for Elmer Gantry |
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