MARITAL STATUS
Professions Actor , Director , Screenwriter
Birth name John Charles Carter
Nationality American
Birth October 4, 1923 (Evanston, Illinois – United States)
Death April 5, 2008
BIOGRAPHY
Born John Charles Carter, Charlton Heston decided to become an actor after discovering Shakespeare in college. At 17, he made his first film at university, Peer Gynt (1940), which was released on screens in 1965. But the war forced the young actor to put his career on hold: he became a radio operator in the army from 1941 to 1945.
It was only by joining Katherine Cornell’s theater troupe in 1947 that he began working as an actor again, for theater and television, in adaptations of William Shakespeare in particular .
Spotted by film producer Hal Wallis , Charlton Heston was offered a contract in 1950 without having to pass a test. He obtained his first role in The Hand that Venges by William Dieterle and thus began an exceptional career punctuated by more than 80 films. His athletic build and his 93 meter height made him noticed by Cecil B. DeMille who asked him to play in Under the Largest Big Top in the World in 1953.
A series of major roles with a historical dimension began for the actor: Moïse in 1956 in Les Ten Commandments , Ben-Hur in 1959, which earned him the Oscar for best actor, Le Cid in 1963, Commander Malt Lewis in The Fifty-Five Days of Beijing (1963), a knight of the Duke of Normandy in The Lord of war in 1965, General Gordon in Khartoum (1966).
Less well known is his support for “the cursed authors”, these directors ostracized by Hollywood in particular Orson Welles whom he imposed as director on the producers of The Thirst for Evil in 1957 when he learned that he was filming with him in the same film .
After historical characters, Charlton Heston continued his career in more physical roles in the westerns Major Dundee by Sam Peckinpah and Will Penny, the loner by Tom Gries then by playing an astronaut trapped in the trap of belligerent apes in Planet of the Apes (1968) . ), a policeman alone against all in Green Sun (1972) and saviors of humanity in disaster films like 747 in Peril and Earthquake . From the 1980s, the actor experienced a “crossing of the desert” and appeared in television series, TV films and documentaries to which he lent his voice.
Asked in 1993 to appear in Wayne’s World 2(1993), he returned to success and played tailor-made roles in the films Tombstone (1993), True Lies (1994), Hamlet by Kenneth Branagh (1996) and Planet of the Apes by Tim Burton (2001) – where he plays an old monkey, and no longer a human like in the first version of the film.
In 2002, Charlton Heston made a brief appearance in the Michael Moore film , Bowling for Columbine ; he is questioned and mistreated for his positions in favor of carrying firearms. This appearance on screen is the actor’s last: in April 2003, he announced at the age of 78 that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and thus ended his career.
