Charlton Heston was born on 4th October 1923. His real name was John Charles Carter. He was an actor as well as a political activist. He appeared in more than 100 films with a career span of more than 60 years. There are many famous movies in which he was a part. He did a lot of great work.
Early Life
Charlton was born in Wilmette, Illinois. However, many sources indicate that he was born in Evanston, Illinois. There is no proper proof about it. As per the biography, he was born in Wilmette. He was not that when it came to remembering his address.
He faced a lot of similar problems when he was growing up. He was of Scottish descent (partially) as the majority of his ancestors were English. At the age of 10 years, his mother remarried. There were three kids in total, two boys and one girl.
He received New Trier High School when it came to schooling. Heston was a spiritual man and was very much interesting in knowing more about Christian. He knew a lot of things about it and that’s how he came to know about different traditions. He was described as Episcopalian.
Career and World War
There were various instances where he came across acting and wanted to pursue it. He used to act the characters from the book he read. In high school, he was into various programs. One of the notable drama that he was a part of was New Trier’s drama program. Which was a silent 16 minutes’ film. He got various appreciations from the same thing which is why he went ahead in the field of acting.
He also served in world war II. He joined the Military and also served for much similar activity when the World war was going on. Thereafter, he went to New York which is where he pursued a career as an artist. He was figuring out a way to get into the theatre and was successful in the end.
When he was returning from New York, he was asked for a role in the new movie. The movie was a Broadway revival of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. There are many other roles he played after that television series. He was a part of CBS’s studio one which produced many dramas back in the days.
After so much hard work and patience, he was finally able to make it to Hollywood. That’s where his film career started.
The Film Career
It was not too soon that his film career started. He was 26 years old when a film producer spotted Houston in Wuthering Heights. It all began with that classic television. He was offered a contract and Charlton accepted it. His first film was the movie “Dark City” which was a 1950 film. Thereafter, he was offered many other movies as well.
The break that made him famous was “The Greatest Show on Earth”. It was from Motion Picture Academy and was one of the best films of that time. This was one of the few movies that were popular throughout the entire year. That’s where he was started to be seen.
After that movie, he started getting roles in many movies. Of course, some were a big hit and some were a flop. This was how everything just began and the rest is history. The notable movie that he was part of was The Ten Commandments. He was an iconic character in this movie and was enormously successful after that. There were many award nominations and magazines that were mentioning him after the role. He got a lot of appreciation from a film critic.
Not just movies and films, he also starred in many television series such as The Colbys. Further, he started producing these series. Some of the notable series hr produced include Treasure Island, A man for all seasons, etc. These are some of the notable series that he was a part of.
Due to his awesome voice, he also worked as a narrator in many movies such as Armageddon and Hercules. This continued till he made his final appearance in “The Outer Limits”. The name of the episode was also the final appeal.
Political Activism
Last but not the least, he did many great things. There were a total of 4 stages in which he did many different things.
In the first stage, he endorsed Democratic candidates. The second stage was similar. By the time of the third stage, many neoconservative people were moved from liberal democrat to conservative republican. However, he rejected Liberalism.
In the last stage (4th stage), he created his political action committee. It was a fundraising committee. TH committee was into National Rifle Association and raised a voice for many things such as blaming media and academia for imposing affirmative action.
He continued the film career during his political journey, there were many times when he was not able to campaign for some people due to his busy film schedule. He managed both of the things very well.
Final Days
After this film career, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The treatment was going on. He also announced that he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. In the last meeting, he also got the presidential medal of freedom at the white house. At that time, the president of the United States was George W. Bush.
Later on, people were shocked when they read more about the illness in the newspaper and at many other places. On the morning of 5th April 2008, he died. He was in the home with his wife and children. The name of his wife was Lydia and his son’s name was Fraser. Along with this, he also had a daughter named Ann Heston. The reason for the death was not disclosed by her family. Knowing he had these many diseases, people assumed he might have died due to them. He got many tributes from the film industry as well as from the political heart. George Bush said he was a man with integrity and a big heart.