Charlton Heston, real name John Charles Carter, was an American actor who is most known for his chiseled features and captivating speaking voice, as well as his many performances as historical people and notable literary characters. Heston was born on October 4, 1923.
Charlton Heston, also known as John Charles Carter, was an American actor and political activist who was born on October 4, 1923. Throughout his 60-year career as a Hollywood celebrity, he appeared in nearly 100 films. He starred as Moses in The Ten Commandments (1956), for which he received his first Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, and as Ben-Hur in 1959, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor.
He also appeared in Orson Welles’ films The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), Secret of the Incas (1954), Touch of Evil (1958), The Big Country (1958), El Cid (1961), The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), Khartoum (1966), Planet of the Apes (1968), The Omega Man (1971), and Soylent Green (1973).
He was one of a few Hollywood celebrities in the 1950s and 1960s who spoke out against racism and was a vocal supporter of the civil rights movement. Heston switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party in 1987, forming a conservative political action organization and endorsing Ronald Reagan.
From 1998 to 2003, Heston served as President of the National Rifle Association (NRA) for five terms. He retired from acting and the NRA presidency after revealing he had Alzheimer’s disease in 2002.
Heston got a hip replacement in 1996. In 1998, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The malignancy went into remission after a session of radiation therapy. In May–June of that year, he publicly revealed that he had been treated for alcoholism at a Utah clinic.
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