Actor Charlton Heston died 5 April 2008 of undisclosed causes. In 2002, he announced that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Born John Charles Carter on 4 October 1923 in Evanston, Illinois, he won his only Academy Award in 1960 for Ben-Hur. He also received a special Saturn Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films in 1975.
He will be known for his big roles in big movies, including Ben-Hur and Moses in Cecil B. De Mille’s epic The Ten Commandments (1956), though his boomingly deep voice also brought him much voice-over work. His genre film roles include: Planet of the Apes (2001, he had an uncredited cameo); Armageddon (1998), Hercules (1997), The Dark Mist (1996), In the Mouth of Madness (1995), True Lies (1994), Solar Crisis (1990), Call from Space (1989), The Awakening (1980), Soylent Green (1973), The Omega Man (1971), Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), and Planet of the Apes (1968). On television, he had apperances in: The Outer Limits (2000), SeaQuest DSV (1994), and Shirley Temple’s Storybook (“Beauty and the Beast”, 1958).
Outside of his more than 100 film and television appearances, he was an activist for causes he believed in, marching for civil rights and serving as the president of the National Rifle Association from 1998 to 2003. He was president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1966 to 1971. He received one of the annual Kennedy Center honors in 1997, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003.
Heston attended Northwestern University on a scholarship, already convinced his career path lay with acting. There he met Lydia Clarke, another drama student, and the two married in 1944, just before he enlisted in the Army Air Force. His first big role was on Broadway, in Guthrie McClintick’s production of Antony and Cleopatra. His film debut came in 1950 in the thriller Dark City. His first film for De Mille was 1952’s The Greatest Show on Earth.
He also wrote several books, including: The Actor’s Life (1978); Beijing Diary (1990); In the Arena: An Autobiography (1995); and To Be a Man: Letters to My Grandson (1997).
Heston is survived by his wife, his children Fraser Clarke Heston and Holly Heston Rochell, and his grandchildren.