John Charles Carter
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Film credits
12
Books
9
Awards
Charlton Heston won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1959 for his role as Judah Ben-Hur in Ben-Hur. He also portrayed Moses in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments in 1956. Over a 60-year career, he appeared in 100 films, including Planet of the Apes and Touch of Evil. Heston was a political activist who served as president of the National Rifle Association from 1998 to 2003.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Charlton Heston — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Charlton Heston by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Charlton Heston — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
His mother Lila Charlton and father Russell Whitford Carter ran a sawmill in Wilmette, Illinois, where John Charles Carter was born on October 4, 1923. He was of English and Scottish ancestry. He attended Northwestern University, studying acting and meeting his future wife, Lydia Clarke. His feature film debut came in a 16mm production of Peer Gynt in 1941, based on the Henrik Ibsen play.
Playing Marc Antony in Julius Caesar in 1950 launched Heston’s career. He gained wide recognition as circus manager Brad Braden in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth in 1952. In 1956, he starred as Moses in The Ten Commandments. His role as the wronged Jewish prince in Ben-Hur in 1959 earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor. He continued starring in historical epics such as El Cid in 1961 and The Agony and the Ecstasy in 1965. In 1968, he starred as astronaut George Taylor in Planet of the Apes, a role that brought him a new generation of fans. He later appeared in disaster films like Airport 1975 and Earthquake in 1974.
He married Lydia Clarke in March 1944. They had one son, Fraser Clarke Heston, and later adopted a daughter, Holly Heston Rochell. He was a lifelong non-smoker but held a pipe in early publicity photos. He was a civil rights activist in the 1960s, marching with Martin Luther King Jr. at the 1963 March on Washington. He later became a conservative Republican and served as president of the National Rifle Association from 1998 to 2003. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2002 and died of pneumonia and complications from Alzheimer’s on April 5, 2008, in Beverly Hills.
Heston’s career spanned 60 years and 100 films. His performances in Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments influenced historical cinema. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002 and the Kennedy Center Honors. He was an outspoken conservative, serving as NRA president from 1998 to 2003. He remains a symbol of classic Hollywood.
Browse the complete filmography of Charlton Heston — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
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Every award, honor, and recognition received by Charlton Heston — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
Charlton Heston's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
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A wall of memorable lines from Charlton Heston — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
If You Need a Ceiling Painted, a Chariot Race Run, a City Besieged, or the Red Sea Parted, You Think of Me.
You Can Take My Rifle … When You Pry It from My Cold Dead Hands!
Affirmative Action Is a Stain on the American Soul.
Political Correctness Is Tyranny with Manners.
The Internet Is for Lonely People. People Should Live.
I’ve Played Cardinals and Cowboys, Kings and Quarterbacks, Presidents and Painters, Cops and Con Men.
People Have Been Asking Me for Thirty Five Years If I Was Losing Jobs Because of My Conservative Politics. I’ve Never Felt That Was the Case.
Here’s My Credo. There Are No Good Guns, There Are No Bad Guns. a Gun in the Hands of a Bad Man Is a Bad Thing. Any Gun in the Hands of a Good Man Is No Threat to Anyone, Except Bad People.
I Don’t Know the Man Never Met Him, Never Even Spoken to Him. but I Feel Sorry for George Clooney One Day He May Get Alzheimer’s Disease. I Served My Country in World War II. I Survived That I Guess I Can Survive Some Bad Words from This Fellow.
There’s a Special Excitement in Playing a Man Who Made a Hole in History Large Enough to Be Remembered Centuries After He Died.
If You Can’t Make a Career Out of Two De Milles, You’ll Never Do It.
The Minute You Feel You Have Given a Faultless Performance Is the Time to Get Out.
I Have Played Three Presidents, Three Saints and Two Geniuses. If That Doesn’t Create an Ego Problem, Nothing Does.
I’ve Been Killed Often, on Film, the Stage, and the Television Tube. Studios Insist the Audience Doesn’t Like This. It’s Been My Experience That It Makes Them Unhappy, but That’s Not the Same Thing. in Any Event, They Often Attend Those Undertakings Where I Come to a Violent End Even More Enthusiastically Than They Do Those Where I Survive. There May Be a Message for Me Somewhere There.
I Can’t Remember a Time When I Didn’t Want to Be an Actor.
It’s Hard Living up to Moses.
It Is Essential That Gun Owners Unite in an Active, Growing Force Capable of Flexing Great Muscle as the Next Millennium Commences.
The Great Roles Are Always Shakespearean.
Most People in the Film Community Don’t Really Understand What Being Politically Active Means. They Think It Is Just Doing Interviews. I’m Content That the Hollywood Left Thinks Being a Political Activist Means Riding Air Force One and Hanging Out with the President.
It Is Not Widely Known That One of the Finest Gun Collections on the West Coast Is Steven Spielberg’s. He Shoots, but Very Privately.
The Big Studio Era Is from the Coming of Sound Until 1950, Until I Came in … I Came in at a Crux in Film, Which Was the End of the Studio Era and the Rise of Filmmaking.
You Can Spend a Lifetime, And, If You’re Honest with Yourself, Never Once Was Your Work Perfect.
It’s Been Quite a Ride. I Loved Every Minute of It.
People Don’t Perceive Me as a Shy Man. but I Am. I Am Thought of Mostly in Terms of the Parts I Play. I Am Seen as a Forbidding Authority Figure. I Only Wish I Were as Indomitable as Everyone Thinks.
Mainstream America Is Depending on You Counting on You to Draw Your Sword and Fight for Them. These People Have Precious Little Time or Resources to Battle Misguided Cinderella Attitudes, the Fringe Propaganda of the Homosexual Coalition, the Feminists Who Preach That It’s a Divine Duty for Women to Hate Men, Blacks Who Raise a Militant Fist with One Hand, While They Seek Preference with the Other.
People in the Film Community Think Being Politically Active Means Getting on Air Force One and Going to Dinner at the White House. I’ve Scorned a Few Liberals in This Town, and I Get a Kick Out of That.
In the Beginning an Actor Impresses Us with His Looks, Later His Voice Enchants Us. Over the Years, His Performances Enthrall Us. but in the End, It Is Simply What He Is.
In Hollywood There Are More Gun Owners in the Closet Than Homosexuals.
Somewhere in the Busy Pipeline of Public Funding Is Sure to Be a Demand from a Disabled Lesbian on Welfare That the Metropolitan Opera Stage Her Rap Version of Carmen as Translated into Ebonics.
Once the 1964 Civil Rights Act Passed, I Had Other Agendas.
I Didn’t Change. the Democratic Party Slid to the Left from Right Under Me.
Little-known facts about Charlton Heston — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
A flat tire on the Santa Monica freeway caused him to miss the start of his presentation at the 44th Annual Academy Awards in 1972. Clint Eastwood stood in, but Heston arrived before Eastwood finished the speech, drawing laughter.
When Heston asked director James Cameron why he wanted him to play Spencer Trilby in True Lies in 1994, Cameron replied he needed someone who could plausibly intimidate Arnold Schwarzenegger.
He said that Planet of the Apes in 1968 was the most physically demanding film he had ever done.
Meeting Toshirô Mifune around 1960, Heston was extremely taken with the Japanese star and claimed that if Mifune spoke English he could be the greatest star in the world. The two exchanged Christmas cards until Mifune’s death.
Although he and Kirk Douglas differed greatly on politics, they were very close friends. After the film Bowling for Columbine, Douglas said he would never forgive Michael Moore for the way he treated Heston.
He was chosen to portray Moses in The Ten Commandments in 1956 by Cecil B. DeMille because he bore an uncanny resemblance to Michelangelo’s statue of Moses.
Along with Tony Curtis, Heston admitted to voting for Russell Crowe to win the Best Actor Oscar, saying he hoped Crowe would get it because he was very good.
He volunteered his time and effort to the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, marching with Martin Luther King Jr. on multiple occasions, including the 1963 March on Washington. He also narrated the original uncut version of King: A Filmed Record… Montgomery to Memphis in 1969.
He participated in the March on Washington for Civil Rights on 28 August 1963, along with Burt Lancaster, Marlon Brando, Sidney Poitier, Bob Dylan, and Harry Belafonte.
He turned down the role of General Joseph W. Stilwell in Steven Spielberg’s comedy 1941 in 1979 because he felt the film insulted World War II veterans.
While starring in a play in 1960, Laurence Olivier told Heston he had the potential to become the greatest American actor of the century. When the play received unfavorable notices, Olivier advised Heston to learn to forget good notices as well.
His funeral on 12 April 2008 was attended by 250 people, including former First Lady Nancy Reagan, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Olivia de Havilland, Keith Carradine, Pat Boone, Tom Selleck, Oliver Stone, and Rob Reiner.
Initially turned down the role of Steve Leech in The Big Country in 1958 because he thought the role was not huge enough after his success with The Ten Commandments, but his agent convinced him to take it to work with Gregory Peck and William Wyler, leading to his Oscar-winning role in Ben-Hur.
He had a fondness for drawing and sketching, often sketching cast and crew during films. His sketches were later published in the book Charlton Heston’s Hollywood: 50 Years in American Film.
Sick with the flu during filming of Planet of the Apes in 1968, the producers decided to have him act through his illness, feeling the hoarse sound of his voice added to the character. Heston recounted feeling like hell during the scene where his character was separated from Nova.
He broke his nose in high school playing football, later commenting that this gave him the profile of an Eagle, which was to his advantage as an actor.
A frail-looking Heston was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, at the White House by George W. Bush.
He professed great respect and admiration for the late actor Gregory Peck, despite their opposing political ideals.
Very popular in Japan, where even his less successful films were generally well received, because his screen persona embodied qualities admired in Samurai warriors.
The actors he admired the most were Gary Cooper, Henry Fonda, Clark Gable, Cary Grant, and James Stewart.
After their son was born, they decided to adopt their next child to ensure it would be a girl, believing one son and one daughter made the perfect family.
He wore a hairpiece in every movie from Skyjacked in 1972 onwards.
Heston’s Hollywood mansion is filled with career memorabilia, including a figure of a Roman with whip and chariot, brass ring knockers from Ben-Hur, and paintings of him in signature roles. He and his wife lived in the same house for over forty years.
His professional name combined his mother’s maiden name Charlton and his stepfather’s last name Heston.
He was the original choice to star in Alexander the Great in 1956 but declined to play Moses in The Ten Commandments; the role went to Richard Burton.
He requested cremation in his will, explaining that after a lifetime of performing and wearing makeup, he did not want his body presented after death.
Though often portrayed as ultra-conservative, Heston wrote in his autobiography that he opposed McCarthy witch hunts, was against the Vietnam War, and thought President Richard Nixon was bad for America.
Despite being a lifelong non-smoker, he held a pipe in some early publicity photos because both Clark Gable and Cary Grant smoked pipes.
Unlike many contemporaries, he continued acting on stage, appearing in Long Day’s Journey Into Night opposite Deborah Kerr, Macbeth opposite Vanessa Redgrave, and The Caine Mutiny. His final stage role was opposite his wife in Love Letters in London in 1999.
After his starring role in the original Planet of the Apes, he made an uncredited cameo in the 2001 remake as General Thade’s dying father.
Originally a Democrat who campaigned for Adlai Stevenson and John F. Kennedy, he gradually switched to conservative Republican during the 1960s.
He was asked by some Democrats to run for the California State Senate in 1969 but declined to continue acting.
On 18 June 1968, he appeared on The Joey Bishop Show and, along with Gregory Peck, James Stewart, and Kirk Douglas, called for gun controls after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Thirty years later, he was elected NRA president and campaigned against gun control.
During the Waco standoff in 1993, the FBI hired him to provide the voice of God in an attempt to reason with David Koresh, but the plan was never used.
A World War II U.S. Army veteran, he visited troops during the Vietnam War in 1967. At one camp, he was initiated into the GIs on-base club by receiving a kiss on the ear.
He cited actor Gary Cooper as a childhood role model and starred opposite Cooper in The Wreck of the Mary Deare in 1959, praising Cooper for performing his own stunts despite poor health.
He stated that he saw no contradiction between his civil rights activism in the 1960s and his advocacy for gun ownership in the 1990s, insisting he was promoting freedom in the truest sense.
He accepted the role in Ben-Hur after Burt Lancaster turned it down.
His wife called him Charlie, but everyone else called him Chuck.
He campaigned for Republican presidential candidates Ronald Reagan in 1984, George H.W. Bush in 1988, and George W. Bush in 2000, as well as Republican candidate for governor of Virginia George Allen in 1993.
He cited not doing a Hispanic accent for his role as Miguel Vargas in Touch of Evil as one of the biggest mistakes he ever made as an actor.
He researched Cardinal Richelieu for The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers, and insisted on including a modified quote: I have no enemies, only enemies of France.
He attended the second inauguration of Ronald Reagan along with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Ray Charles on 20 January 1985.
While studying acting, he made ends meet by posing as a model at the Art Students League in New York before heading to Hollywood.
Heston was popular in Greece, where his name was written as Charlton Easton because Heston had scatological connotations in Greek.
Ironically, he was a vocal supporter of the Gun Control Act of 1968, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
He was president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1966 to 1971.
Laurence Olivier was so impressed by Heston’s stage skills that he commented Heston had a future on the stage.
He turned down an offer to co-star with Marilyn Monroe in Let’s Make Love in 1960 to be directed by Laurence Olivier in a play.
He was unable to use his real name John Charles Carter as an actor because it too closely resembled the hero of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel A Princess of Mars.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Charlton Heston.
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