With features chiseled in stone, who else but Charlton Heston could you picture as Michelangelo, as Ben-Hur, as Moses? Heston's movie career took off with The Greatest Show on Earth and reached light speed with Ben-Hur. Although he has played a pantheon of larger-than-life roles, he usually prefers to talk about the day-to-day daily grind of the movie business, and especially credits the writers and directors he has worked for much of his success. Though aging gracefully, the venerated Heston has lately been more interested in promoting right-wing political issues than acting.
The Buccaneer (1958): $250,000
Touch of Evil (1958): 7.5% of the gross
Julius Caesar (1950): $50/week

Went to British Columbia to promote guns, arguing it is man's "God-given right" to own guns. Alumnus of New Trier Township High School East, Winnetka, Illinois, where tennis was among his extracurricular activities. Other New Trier graduates include Ralph Bellamy, Rock Hudson, Hugh O'Brien, Ann-Margret, Bruce Dern, Penelope Milford, Virginia Madsen and Liz Phair. Ranked #28 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997] Originally a Democrat who campaigned for Presidential candidates Adlai Stevenson and John F. Kennedy, he gradually switched to becoming a conservative Republican during the 1960s. Father of director Fraser Clarke Heston and Holly Heston Rochell. Elected 1st Vice-President of the National Rifle Association of America (1997). Co-chairman of the American Air Museum in Britain. Elected President of the National Rifle Association of America. [June 1998] Was president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1966-1971. Attended Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) prior to serving in WWII. Has stated that he sees no contradiction with his work as a Civil Rights activist in the 1960s and his advocacy for gun ownership rights in the 1990s, insisting that he is simply promoting "freedom in the truest sense." Volunteered his time and effort to the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, and even marched alongside the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on a number of occasions, including the 1963 March on Washington. In the original (uncut) version of King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis, he appears as a narrator. He and his wife, Lydia Clarke, both battled cancer recently; he, prostate cancer and she, breast cancer. Both are now in remission. He was considered, along with English actor Ronnie Barker, for the role of Claudius in the British series I, Claudius, but the role went to the less famous Derek Jacobi instead. Was Billy Wilder's first choice for the role of Sefton in Stalag 17. The role was eventually given to William Holden. On August 9, 2002, he issued a statement in which he advised his physicians have recently told him he may have a neurological disorder whose symptoms are consistent with Alzheimer's disease. Elected as the president of the National Rifle Association, he was re-elected to an unprecedented 4th 3-year term in 2001. After his starring role in the 1968 version of Planet of the Apes, he had an uncredited cameo in the 2001 remake, Planet of the Apes, as Gen. Thade's dying father. His professional name of Charlton Heston came from a combination of his mother's maiden name (Lila Charlton) and his stepfather's last name (Chester Heston). Prior to starring in The Omega Man, a remake of Vincent Price's film The Last Man on Earth, Heston and Price appeared together in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments. Said that Planet of the Apes was the most physically demanding film he had ever done. He and Linda Harrison are the only actors to appear in both the 1968 and 2001 versions of "Planet of the Apes." After their son was born, they decided to adopt their next child so that they could be sure it would be a girl. Heston and his wife felt that one son and one daughter made the perfect family. His wife calls him Charlie, but everyone else calls him Chuck Two grandsons: John (Jack) Alexander Clarke Heston & Ridley Charlton Rochell. His favorite food is peanut butter, and he takes it with him everywhere, even overseas. He was voted the 52nd Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly. Played Ben Hur in both Ben-Hur (live action) and Ben Hur (animated). A frail-looking Heston was presented with a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, at the White House by George W. Bush in July, 2003. Was considered for the role of "Police Chief Brody" in Jaws, but both he and Oliver Reed turned it down. The part eventually went to Roy Scheider. Was the original choice to star in Alexander the Great, but declined so he could play Moses in The Ten Commandments. The part eventually went to Richard Burton. Was asked by some Democrats to run for the California State Senate in 1969, but declined because he wanted to continue acting. First recipient of the American Film Institute's Charlton Heston Award, created in 2003. The second recipient was his close friend Jack Valenti in 2004. He turned down the role of Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell in Steven Spielberg's 1941 because he felt the film was an insult to World War II veterans. While they were starring in a play together in 1960, Laurence Olivier told Heston that he had the potential to become the greatest American actor of the century. When the play received unfavorable notices, Heston said, "I guess you learn to forget bad notices?", to which Olivier replied, "What's more important, laddie, and much harder -- learn to forget good notices." In 1999 he joined Karl Malden in pressing for an honorary Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement to be awarded to veteran director Elia Kazan. Marlon Brando, who never made public appearances, refused to present the award so Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese ultimately did. Was chosen to portray Moses in The Ten Commandments by Cecil B. DeMille because he bore an uncanny resemblance to the statue of Moses carved by Michelangelo. While studying acting early in his career, he made ends meet by posing as a model in New York at The Art Students League, across from Carnegie Hall. The lure to Hollywood and a contract soon ended his modeling days. When his TV series The Colbys was canceled, both he and fellow cast members John James and Emma Samms were offered contracts to continue playing their characters on Dynasty, the series that "The Colbys" was spun off from. Heston ultimately declined because his salary demands could not be met. James and Samms, on the other hand, accepted contracts. Was unable to use his real name, John (Charles) Carter as an actor because it bore too close a resemblance to the name of the hero in Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel "Princess of Mars." Offered to return his entire paycheck to the producers of Major Dundee so that director Sam Peckinpah could film some crucial scenes that were cut due to time and budget constraints. The producers took back Heston's paycheck but still refused to let the scenes be filmed. Heston wrote in his autobiography "In The Arena" (1995) that the main problem with Major Dundee was that everyone had a different idea of what the film was: Heston saw it as a film about life after the Civil War, the producers just wanted a standard cavalry-vs.-Indians film, while Peckinpah, according to Heston, really had his next film, The Wild Bunch, in mind. Heston is a popular actor in Greece, where his name is written as "Charlton Easton" due to "Heston" having scatological connotations in the Greek language. He and The Big Country co-star Gregory Peck both played the infamous Nazi war criminal, Dr. Josef Mengele: Heston in Rua Alguem 5555: My Father and Peck in The Boys from Brazil. John Wayne offered Heston the role of Jim Bowie in The Alamo, but he declined due to the political implications of the film. In 1981, Heston was named co-chairman of President Ronald Reagan's Task Force for the Arts and Humanities. He served on the National Council for the Arts and was elected president of the Screen Actors Guild six times. A World War II U.S. Army veteran, he visited troops fighting during the Vietnam War in 1966. Recipient of Kennedy Center honors in 1997, along with Lauren Bacall, Bob Dylan, Jessye Norman and Edward Villella. On 18 June 1968, Heston appeared on The Joey Bishop Show and, along with Gregory Peck, James Stewart and Kirk Douglas, called for gun controls following the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Ironically, thirty years later, Heston was elected President of the National Rifle Association of America (NRA) and campaigned against gun control. In 2000 he surprised the Oxford Union by reading his address on gun laws from a teleprompter. This later sparked rumors he had known of his Alzheimer's long before he announced it to the world in August 2002. He campaigned for Republican candidates Ronald Reagan in 1984, George Bush in 1988 and George W. Bush in 2000. He is an opponent of abortion and gave the introduction to an anti-abortion documentary by Bernard Nathanson called Eclipse of Reason (1980) which focuses on late-term abortions. Heston served on the Advisory Board of Accuracy in the Media (AIM), a conservative media "watchdog" group founded by the late Reed Irvine. He retired as President of the National Rifle Association in April 2003, citing reasons of ill health. Along with Tony Curtis, Heston admitted to voting for Russell Crowe to win the Best Actor Oscar in 2001, saying before the ceremony, "I hope he gets it. He's very good." Heston's portrayal of William F. Cody in Pony Express, a western from early in his career, inspired the Bills, a Congolese youth cult that idolized American westerns. Accepted the role in Ben-Hur after Burt Lancaster turned it down. Has two films on the American Film Institute's 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time. They are The Ten Commandments at #79 and Ben-Hur at #56. The actors he admired the most were Gary Cooper, Henry Fonda, Clark Gable, Cary Grant and James Stewart. Turned down the role of Livius in _The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)- , which was subsequently played by his _Ben Hur (1959)_ co-star Stephen Boyd. Was considered for the role of Jor-El in Superman. The part went to Marlon Brando instead. Although Heston was a lifelong non-smoker, he did hold a pipe in some early publicity photographs because both Clark Gable and Cary Grant smoked pipes. Turned down the role of Livius in The Fall of the Roman Empire, which was subsequently played by his Ben-Hur co-star Stephen Boyd. He was a friend of the author Patrick O'Brian, who in turn envisaged Heston playing his character Captain Jack Aubrey. His classmates at Northwestern University included Cloris Leachman, Paul Lynde, Charlotte Rae, Martha Hyer, Patricia Neal and Agnes Nixon. Was an avid runner, swimmer and tennis player in his youth. In 1996 Heston attended the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual gathering of conservative movement organizations. There he agreed to pose for a group photo that included Gordon Lee Baumm, the founder of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) and former White Citizens Council organizer. Virginia's conservative Republican Senator George Allen also appears in the photo which was published in the Summer 1996 issue of the CCC's newsletter, the Citizens Informer.