Charlton Heston
Born: 4 October 1924
Where: Evanston, Illinois
Died: 5th April, 2008, Beverly Hills.
Heston, an acting student at the Northwestern University, first appeared in amateur 16mm productions of Peer Gynt and Julius Caesar, both directed by fellow student David Bradley.
After World War II service, he and wife Lydia worked as models in New York and ran a theatre in North Carolina, before Heston found success on Broadway.
He also had a flurry of dashing romantic leads on early TV; by the time he went to Hollywood to act in Dark City (1950), Heston was already a star, listed in the credits ahead of the more established Lizabeth Scott.Over the next four decades he rarely had less than top billing, with a reign - beginning with second film The Greatest Show on Earth - in epics. Heston took on a long line of historical and biblical characters, including Moses in The Ten Commandments; John the Baptist (The Greatest Story Ever Told); Michelangelo (The Agony And The Ecstasy); and Sir Thomas More (A Man For All Seasons).
But it was his Oscar-winning turn in Ben-Hur which made him and earned him the title, from French critic Michel Mourlet, of "axiom of the cinema".
As historical epics gradually became passe, Heston made more Westerns, war sagas and science-fiction films to take up the slack. 1968 brought two landmark roles: the hero of the futuristic Planet Of The Apes and the ageing cowpoke of Will Penny. The Seventies brought the cult classic sci-fi movie Soylent Green.
Heston directed his first feature in 1971 with Antony And Cleopatra and did double duty with Mother Lode (1982), written and produced by his son, Fraser. After a 15-year absence, he returned to the small screen as the star of mini-series Chiefs and later found work as a regular on soap opera The Colbys.
Throughout his career, Heston was active in the industry, serving as president of the Screen Actors' Guild (1966-71) and chairman of the American Film Institute. During the Eighties, he was head of President Reagan's taskforce on the arts and humanities.
He was a staunch Republican and supporter, then president, of the National Rifle Association. In 2002 he announced he had the symptoms of Alzheimer's, a degenerative brain disease.
Heston died with his wife of 64 years, Lydia, by his side.
