Oscar Profile #370: Charlton Heston

Born October 4, 1923 in No Man’s Land, now part of Wilmette, a wealthy suburb of Chicago, Illinois, John Charles Carter became Charlton Heston after his parents’ divorce, his mother’s remarriage and adoption by his stepfather. Charlton was his mother’s maiden name, Heston was her new husband’s surname.

The highly imaginative child became interested in acting while in high school and made his film debut in the title role a 16mm silent version of Peer Gynt in 1941 when he was 17. Attending Northwestern University on a drama scholarship, he married fellow student Lydia Clarke in March,1944 and joined the U.S. Army Air Forces in which he served for two years as a radio operator. After the war he was active in theatre, including Broadway and early live TV. His portrayal of Marc Antony in a 1950 film version of Julius Caesar directed by his Peer Gynt director, David Bradley made Hollywood sit up and take notice.

Heston’s first official Hollywood film was 1950’s Dark City in which he starred opposite Lizabeth Scott and Viveca Lindfors, but it was Cecil B. DeMille’s 1952 film, The Greatest Show on Earth that established him as a major star. He had numerous successes during the next few years including Ruby Gentry opposite Jennifer Jones, The President’s Lady as Andrew Jackson opposite Susan Hayward, The Naked Jungle opposite Eleanor Parker and Lucy Gallant opposite Jane Wyman. Then came superstardom as Moses in DeMille’s 1956 epic, The Ten Commandments.

Now in top demand, he rounded out the 1950s in Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil, William Wyler’s The Big Country, DeMille’s The Buccaneer once again as Andrew Jackson, and Wyler’s Ben-Hur for which he won his Oscar.

The 1960s saw Heston still in demand in such films as El Cid, 55 Days at Peking, Major Dundee, The Agony and the Ecstasy, The War Lord, Khartoum, Will Penny and Planet of the Apes. The 1970s saw a winding down of the quality material he was offered, but he still managed to appear in an occasional top-drawer entertainment such as Soylent Green and Midway. By the 1980s, his most frequent appearances were on TV, most notably in The Colbys, the 1983-1985 spinoff from Dynasty and the 1988 adaptation of A Man for All Seasons, which he also directed.

By the 1990s, Heston’s appearances were reduced to small parts and cameos, some of them in prestige productions, the most notable being Kenneth Branagh’s 1996 film of Hamlet in which he was the Player King.

Heston was very active liberal Democrat from 1955-1971. He was a highly visible proponent of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and served as President of the Screen Actors Guild from 1965-1971.
Asked to run as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate in 1969, Heston declined, and reportedly voted for Richard Nixon for President in 1972, changing his party affiliation to Republican. He won the Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 1977 awards for his many charitable works.

Heston became interested in gun rights in the 1980s and in 1997 was elected First Vice President of the National Rifle Association. He was elected President in 1998, a position he held until he retired due to his Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 2003.

Charlton Heston died on April 5, 2008 at the age of 84.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1956), directed by Cecil B. DeMille

DeMille’s last film as director and his next to last as producer proved to be his most successful film of all time. Heston’s career defining portrayal of Moses earned him a Golden Globe nomination, but it was co-star Yul Bryner as Rameses that took home the National Board of Review award for this along with his equally memorable roles in the same year’s The King and I and Anastasia and the Oscar for The King and I. The two actors dominate the impressive pageantry and a supporting cast that includes Anne Baxter, Edward G. Robinson, Vincent Price, Yvonne de Carlo, John Derek, Martha Scott and Nina Foch.

BEN-HUR (1959), directed by William Wyler

Winner of 11 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Director and Actor, Heston in the title role, this biblical epic to outshine all others was ironically released the same year as DeMille, who dominated the genre, passed away. A remake of Fred Niblo’s 1925 version of Lew Wallace’s 1880 novel, the film also provided strong roles for Jack Hawkins as his benefactor, Golden Globe winner Stephen Boyd as his childhood friend turned mortal enemy, Oscar winner Hugh Griffith as the provider of Heston’s chariot’s stallions and Martha Scott, Heston’s mother in The Ten Commandments, as his mother here.

THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY (1965), directed by Carol Reed

Heston had one of his best post-Ben-Hur roles as Michelangelo in this much anticipated film version of Irving Stone’s best-seller. The emphasis here, however, is on Pope Julius II, the warrior pope who commissioned him to paint the Sistine Chapel. Superbly played by Golden Globe nominee Rex Harrison, Julius led the armies against the interference of the French in the papacy and proved just as vehement a patron of the arts as he was a defender of his country and his church. The fiery exchanges of the two actors dominate a superb cast that also includes Harry Andrews, Diane Cilento and Thomas Milian.

PLANET OF THE APES (1968), directed by Franklin J. Schaffner

This brilliant science-fiction film from the novel by Pierre Boule (The Bridge on the River Kwai), spawned four sequels and a renewal of the franchise in the 21st Century. Heston, in one of his best non-historic roles, stars as an astronaut who crash-lands his spaceship on a planet in which humans are slaves and apes are the intelligent rulers. Heston dominates the film despite the brilliant acting of Kim Hunter, Roddy McDowall and Maurice Evans as the principal talking apes. Nominated for Oscars for Costume Design and Score, the film won a then Special Oscar for its outstanding makeup.

SOYLENT GREEN (1973), directed by Richard Fleischer

Another brilliant science-fiction film, which like Planet of the Apes, has a shock ending that even people who haven’t seen the film know. Heston plays a detective investigating the murder of a big company CEO in a dog-eat-dog future world in which real food has been replaced by a manufactured substance called Soylent. Heston’s investigation leads to the discovery of the secret ingredient in Soylent’s new green product. Edward G. Robinson, in his last film, is Heston’s elderly roommate, a former professor. Robinson died nine days after completing the film, the knowledge of which adds to an already poignant last scene.