Washington, Apr.13: Charlton Heston recently got his own postage stamp that was unveiled at a ceremony at the historic Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
The 'Ben Hur' star's image for the stamp has reportedly been taken from a photo that was shot by his widow, Lydia Clarke Heston, the Hollywood Reporter reported.
Ned Vaughn, the founding executive VP of SAG-aftra said that the late actor fundamentally personified a dedication to fight for what he valued, no matter where or when he was needed.
Michael Levine, the actor's publicist for 21 years, who launched his effort to put Heston's image on a stamp, said that.
The 'Ben Hur' star's image for the stamp has reportedly been taken from a photo that was shot by his widow, Lydia Clarke Heston, the Hollywood Reporter reported.
Ned Vaughn, the founding executive VP of SAG-aftra said that the late actor fundamentally personified a dedication to fight for what he valued, no matter where or when he was needed.
Michael Levine, the actor's publicist for 21 years, who launched his effort to put Heston's image on a stamp, said that.
- 4/13/2014
- by Machan Kumar
- RealBollywood.com
Planet of the Apes, The Ten Commandments, and Ben-Hur – all places we can see the late actor Charlton Heston’s face. Now we can add U.S. Postal Service stamps to the list.
Heston’s the most recent star to be honored in the Postal Service’s Legends of Hollywood stamp series, which also includes stamps bearing the images of fellow greats like Audrey Hepburn and James Dean.
“In many ways, a nation’s stamps are a cross-section of a culture, its ideals and icons, in microcosm,” Heston’s son, Fraser C. Heston, said in a statement. “As a fervently patriotic American,...
Heston’s the most recent star to be honored in the Postal Service’s Legends of Hollywood stamp series, which also includes stamps bearing the images of fellow greats like Audrey Hepburn and James Dean.
“In many ways, a nation’s stamps are a cross-section of a culture, its ideals and icons, in microcosm,” Heston’s son, Fraser C. Heston, said in a statement. “As a fervently patriotic American,...
- 4/11/2014
- by Ariana Bacle
- EW.com - PopWatch
Oscar-winning actor Charlton Heston has died. He was 83.
Heston passed away on Saturday night at his home in Beverly Hills, California, after suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
Born John Charles Carter in Evanston, Illinois on 4 October 1924, he was the son of mill operator Russell Whitford Carter and his wife Lilla Charlton.
He would later change his Christian name to Charlton and take on his new stepdad Chester Heston's surname.
Heston studied acting at school and went on to win a drama scholarship to the local Northwestern University, before enrolling in the U.S. Air Force in 1944.
That same year, he married fellow Northwestern student Lydia Marie Clarke.
After three years in the force and rising to the rank of Staff Sergeant, Heston returned home, where he continued to pursue his passion for acting with a stint in theatre.
Heston landed his big-screen break in 1952's The Greatest Show on Earth, and in 1956 appeared as Moses in The Ten Commandments.
His role in the religious epic won him much critical acclaim, and he went on to star in movie classics El Cid, Planet of the Apes, Earthquake and Ben-Hur, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1960. Ben-Hur was awarded a total of 11 Oscars, including Best Picture - a feat only equalled by 1997's Titanic and 2003's The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.
He made his directorial debut with 1972's Antony and Cleopatra, but the film received terrible reviews and, as a result, was not released in cinemas.
In the latter years of his career, Heston moved on to playing a number of supporting roles and cameos, appearing in films like 1993's Wayne's World 2, 1994's True Lies, and Tim Burton's 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes.
His last movie role was in My Father, Rua Alguem 5555, in which he portrayed the infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele.
But Heston was also well-known for his work behind the scenes, serving as the president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1965-1971, and as chairman of the American Film Institute.
Away from Hollywood, Heston became a prolific Civil Rights activist in the 1950s and 60s, and later went on to become the president of the National Rifle Association in the 1990s.
In 1993, Heston was awarded the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the U.S.
He is survived by his wife Lydia, their son Fraser Clarke Heston and their adopted daughter, Holly Ann Heston.
Paying tribute to the screen legend, his family says in a statement: "To his loving friends, colleagues and fans, we appreciate your heartfelt prayers and support.
"Charlton Heston was seen by the world as larger than life. No one could ask for a fuller life than his. No man could have given more to his family, to his profession, and to his country.
"In his own words, 'I have lived such a wonderful life. I've lived enough for two people'."
A private memorial service is to be held later this month.
Heston passed away on Saturday night at his home in Beverly Hills, California, after suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
Born John Charles Carter in Evanston, Illinois on 4 October 1924, he was the son of mill operator Russell Whitford Carter and his wife Lilla Charlton.
He would later change his Christian name to Charlton and take on his new stepdad Chester Heston's surname.
Heston studied acting at school and went on to win a drama scholarship to the local Northwestern University, before enrolling in the U.S. Air Force in 1944.
That same year, he married fellow Northwestern student Lydia Marie Clarke.
After three years in the force and rising to the rank of Staff Sergeant, Heston returned home, where he continued to pursue his passion for acting with a stint in theatre.
Heston landed his big-screen break in 1952's The Greatest Show on Earth, and in 1956 appeared as Moses in The Ten Commandments.
His role in the religious epic won him much critical acclaim, and he went on to star in movie classics El Cid, Planet of the Apes, Earthquake and Ben-Hur, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1960. Ben-Hur was awarded a total of 11 Oscars, including Best Picture - a feat only equalled by 1997's Titanic and 2003's The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.
He made his directorial debut with 1972's Antony and Cleopatra, but the film received terrible reviews and, as a result, was not released in cinemas.
In the latter years of his career, Heston moved on to playing a number of supporting roles and cameos, appearing in films like 1993's Wayne's World 2, 1994's True Lies, and Tim Burton's 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes.
His last movie role was in My Father, Rua Alguem 5555, in which he portrayed the infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele.
But Heston was also well-known for his work behind the scenes, serving as the president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1965-1971, and as chairman of the American Film Institute.
Away from Hollywood, Heston became a prolific Civil Rights activist in the 1950s and 60s, and later went on to become the president of the National Rifle Association in the 1990s.
In 1993, Heston was awarded the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the U.S.
He is survived by his wife Lydia, their son Fraser Clarke Heston and their adopted daughter, Holly Ann Heston.
Paying tribute to the screen legend, his family says in a statement: "To his loving friends, colleagues and fans, we appreciate your heartfelt prayers and support.
"Charlton Heston was seen by the world as larger than life. No one could ask for a fuller life than his. No man could have given more to his family, to his profession, and to his country.
"In his own words, 'I have lived such a wonderful life. I've lived enough for two people'."
A private memorial service is to be held later this month.
- 4/6/2008
- WENN
Charlton Heston, the square-jawed movie star who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Ben-Hur and was famed for a number of other epic films, died Saturday night at the age of 84. Though an official cause of death was not initially released, the actor had announced in 2002 that he was battling Alzheimer's disease, and had withdrawn from professional appearances after the diagnosis. An actor at first well-known for his portrayal of historical figures -- in addition to his role as Ben-Hur, he also played Michelangelo, El Cid, Moses, and John the Baptist -- Heston's fame later in life was highlighted by his polarizing views on gun control, as the actor was elected president of the National Rifle Association in 1998 and vigorously defended the rights of gun owners throughout the country. Indeed the role of political activist, which he embraced throughout his life, almost overshadowed his impressive acting career, which started in theater and television before graduating to the silver screen.
Born in Evanston, IL, Heston was the son of a mill owner who found his life's ambition in acting and found his first big breaks on the Broadway stage and in the nascent medium of television. He made his debut in the 1950 film noir thriller Dark City, and within two years headlined (alongside established stars Betty Hutton and Cornel Wilde) the 1952 Best Picture Oscar winner, The Greatest Show on Earth, directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Though he continued to work in a number of lower-profile films, including Ruby Gentry and The Naked Jungle, it was DeMille who in 1956 gave the actor one of his most iconic roles, that of Moses in the Biblical epic The Ten Commandments, a sweeping, captivating, over-the-top film that pioneered cinematic special effects with its parting of the Red Sea, and in its depiction of the turbulent political lives and love lives of its stars -- Heston, Yul Brynner as the Pharoah and Anne Baxter as the woman torn between them -- became the quintessential studio epic of its time, favored as much for its close-to-camp emotional broadness as well as its impressive scale. Heston did a 180-degree turnaround from that statuesque role with 1958's Touch of Evil, the Orson Welles thriller that remains a classic to this day in which he played a Mexican narcotics officer drawn into a lurid drug ring. Heston won his Best Actor Oscar in 1959 for another lavish, larger-than-life historical epic, Ben-Hur, which with its famed chariot race and story set against the backdrop of ancient Rome won a record 11 Academy Awards, a feat not equalled until Titanic's similar win in 1997.
After Ben-Hur, Heston's status as a star was firmly cemented, and throughout the 1960s roles in such films as El Cid, 55 Days at Peking, The Greatest Story Ever Told (where he played John the Baptist), The Agony and the Ecstasy (his Michelangelo going up against Rex Harrison's Pope Julius II), and Khartoum followed. He found another legendary screen character in 1968's Planet of the Apes, as an astronaut who finds himself on a futuristic Earth now populated by evolved simians who have enslaved the human race. As with his other roles, Heston perfectly balanced the camp aspects of the story with a gravitas that helped ground the sci-fi thriller with a modern-day resonance that helped audiences identify with the hero's plight. (Heston briefly reprised his role in the sequel Beneath the Planet of the Apes). The 1970s saw the actor again in futuristic roles in The Omega Man (based on the same story as last year's I Am Legend) and Soylent Green, as well as the disaster epics Airport 1975 and Earthquake. Heston's later film career was made up primarily of thrillers (Gray Lady Down, Two-Minute Warning, The Awakening), television appearances (most notably in Dynasty and its spinoff, The Colbys), and cameos in a variety of high-profile films (Wayne's World 2, Tombstone, True Lies, Hamlet, Any Given Sunday, and the remake of Planet of the Apes, among others). By 1978, Heston had received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and a lifetime achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild; on the down side, he also regrettably won a Razzie award in 2002 for his supporting performances in Cats & Dogs and Town and Country.
Heston's film career often became overshadowed by his political activities. In the 1960s he was an early, vocal and visible participant in the Civil Rights movement; joining Martin Luther King's march on Washington. In the 1980s and onward, as the former president of the Screen Actors Guild and onetime chairman of the American Film Institute he championed conservative causes and campaigned aggressively against gun control, becoming president of the National Rifle Association in 1998 and speaking out against then-President Bill Clinton on the subject. Becoming yet another icon, Heston found himself revered and reviled by supporters on both sides of the issue and became the surprising center of a highly emotional culture war, using his fame to speak out in favor of a number of conservative issues (he changed his political stance from Democrat to Republican in the late 1980s). Using his position as a Time-Warner stock holder he castigated the company for profiting from the sales of an Ice-T album which included the song "Cop Killer," reading the lyrics to the song aloud at a stockholder meeting. His career as gun-control opponent reached an apotheosis with his appearance in 2000 when he vowed that they could take his guns when they pried the weapons "from my cold, dead hands." Later, in Michael Moore's 2002 Oscar-winning Bowling for Columbine, a visibly diminished Heston refused to answer Moore's barrage of questions regarding gun deaths, particularly for the callousness of Heston attending an NRA meeting in Denver shortly after the nearby Columbine school massacres. A year later, Heston received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and he officially disclosed that he was battling Alzheimer's; he consequently withdrew from public life.
Heston is survived by his wife Lydia Clarke, to whom he was married 64 years, and their two children, Fraser Clarke Heston and Holly Heston Rochell. --Mark Englehart, IMDb staff...
Born in Evanston, IL, Heston was the son of a mill owner who found his life's ambition in acting and found his first big breaks on the Broadway stage and in the nascent medium of television. He made his debut in the 1950 film noir thriller Dark City, and within two years headlined (alongside established stars Betty Hutton and Cornel Wilde) the 1952 Best Picture Oscar winner, The Greatest Show on Earth, directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Though he continued to work in a number of lower-profile films, including Ruby Gentry and The Naked Jungle, it was DeMille who in 1956 gave the actor one of his most iconic roles, that of Moses in the Biblical epic The Ten Commandments, a sweeping, captivating, over-the-top film that pioneered cinematic special effects with its parting of the Red Sea, and in its depiction of the turbulent political lives and love lives of its stars -- Heston, Yul Brynner as the Pharoah and Anne Baxter as the woman torn between them -- became the quintessential studio epic of its time, favored as much for its close-to-camp emotional broadness as well as its impressive scale. Heston did a 180-degree turnaround from that statuesque role with 1958's Touch of Evil, the Orson Welles thriller that remains a classic to this day in which he played a Mexican narcotics officer drawn into a lurid drug ring. Heston won his Best Actor Oscar in 1959 for another lavish, larger-than-life historical epic, Ben-Hur, which with its famed chariot race and story set against the backdrop of ancient Rome won a record 11 Academy Awards, a feat not equalled until Titanic's similar win in 1997.
After Ben-Hur, Heston's status as a star was firmly cemented, and throughout the 1960s roles in such films as El Cid, 55 Days at Peking, The Greatest Story Ever Told (where he played John the Baptist), The Agony and the Ecstasy (his Michelangelo going up against Rex Harrison's Pope Julius II), and Khartoum followed. He found another legendary screen character in 1968's Planet of the Apes, as an astronaut who finds himself on a futuristic Earth now populated by evolved simians who have enslaved the human race. As with his other roles, Heston perfectly balanced the camp aspects of the story with a gravitas that helped ground the sci-fi thriller with a modern-day resonance that helped audiences identify with the hero's plight. (Heston briefly reprised his role in the sequel Beneath the Planet of the Apes). The 1970s saw the actor again in futuristic roles in The Omega Man (based on the same story as last year's I Am Legend) and Soylent Green, as well as the disaster epics Airport 1975 and Earthquake. Heston's later film career was made up primarily of thrillers (Gray Lady Down, Two-Minute Warning, The Awakening), television appearances (most notably in Dynasty and its spinoff, The Colbys), and cameos in a variety of high-profile films (Wayne's World 2, Tombstone, True Lies, Hamlet, Any Given Sunday, and the remake of Planet of the Apes, among others). By 1978, Heston had received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and a lifetime achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild; on the down side, he also regrettably won a Razzie award in 2002 for his supporting performances in Cats & Dogs and Town and Country.
Heston's film career often became overshadowed by his political activities. In the 1960s he was an early, vocal and visible participant in the Civil Rights movement; joining Martin Luther King's march on Washington. In the 1980s and onward, as the former president of the Screen Actors Guild and onetime chairman of the American Film Institute he championed conservative causes and campaigned aggressively against gun control, becoming president of the National Rifle Association in 1998 and speaking out against then-President Bill Clinton on the subject. Becoming yet another icon, Heston found himself revered and reviled by supporters on both sides of the issue and became the surprising center of a highly emotional culture war, using his fame to speak out in favor of a number of conservative issues (he changed his political stance from Democrat to Republican in the late 1980s). Using his position as a Time-Warner stock holder he castigated the company for profiting from the sales of an Ice-T album which included the song "Cop Killer," reading the lyrics to the song aloud at a stockholder meeting. His career as gun-control opponent reached an apotheosis with his appearance in 2000 when he vowed that they could take his guns when they pried the weapons "from my cold, dead hands." Later, in Michael Moore's 2002 Oscar-winning Bowling for Columbine, a visibly diminished Heston refused to answer Moore's barrage of questions regarding gun deaths, particularly for the callousness of Heston attending an NRA meeting in Denver shortly after the nearby Columbine school massacres. A year later, Heston received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and he officially disclosed that he was battling Alzheimer's; he consequently withdrew from public life.
Heston is survived by his wife Lydia Clarke, to whom he was married 64 years, and their two children, Fraser Clarke Heston and Holly Heston Rochell. --Mark Englehart, IMDb staff...
- 4/6/2008
- IMDb News
Related: Remembering Mr. Heston
Corrected 10:31 a.m. Pt April 6, 2008
Updated 6:34 p.m. Pt April 6, 2008
Charlton Heston, whose chiseled-granite looks and commanding manner allowed him to portray some of history's most extraordinary men from Moses and Michelangelo to John the Baptist and El Cid, has died. He was 84.
The actor, who won an Oscar for the title role in 1959's "Ben-Hur," died Saturday night at his home in Beverly Hills with his wife Lydia at his side, said family spokesman Bill Powers, who declined to comment on the cause of death.
In 2002, Heston revealed in a videotaped statement that he had symptoms consistent with Alzheimer's disease. Saying, "I must reconcile courage and surrender in equal measure," he began to exit the public stage, where he was known for his work with SAG and the American Film Institute as well as for political activism that saw him take up causes...
Corrected 10:31 a.m. Pt April 6, 2008
Updated 6:34 p.m. Pt April 6, 2008
Charlton Heston, whose chiseled-granite looks and commanding manner allowed him to portray some of history's most extraordinary men from Moses and Michelangelo to John the Baptist and El Cid, has died. He was 84.
The actor, who won an Oscar for the title role in 1959's "Ben-Hur," died Saturday night at his home in Beverly Hills with his wife Lydia at his side, said family spokesman Bill Powers, who declined to comment on the cause of death.
In 2002, Heston revealed in a videotaped statement that he had symptoms consistent with Alzheimer's disease. Saying, "I must reconcile courage and surrender in equal measure," he began to exit the public stage, where he was known for his work with SAG and the American Film Institute as well as for political activism that saw him take up causes...
- 4/5/2008
- by By Gregg Kilday and Duane Byrge
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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