***Actor Charlton Heston***.

Why do you act like we've never heard of this asshole?

The one where they pried a gun from his cold, dead hands.

[italic]The Omega Man[/italic], OP. I found it very scary when I was a kid.

After you get through the period of [italic]Major Dundee[/italic], check back in. It involves one of my favorite showbiz anecdotes, and I don't know if it's in his biography.

He made his first movie when he was only 17 - "Peer Gynt" was made by an independent film maker and the movie got recognition when Heston became famous.

The one where he died.

If they had added him to the cast of "Airplane" I'd have liked that one.

SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!

People who eat people are the yuckiest people in the world.

He had the luck to appear in Wyler’s magnificent ‘Ben-Hur’.

For a long time he was a Left leaning Liberal and did excellent work with the Screen Actors Guild to protect actors. He also campaigned for Kennedy and marched with King on Washington.

It wasn't until he became older that he became a Conservative and headed the NRA which drew great criticism.

He studied at the William Shatner school of drama. Majored in scenery chewing.

R10 He believed in giving freedom to the individual man and his family and his property.

R4 He got nude many, many times.

R11 You should blame the director for that, not the actor.

Planet of the Apes

Planet of the Apes, in which he appeared in a loincloth for most of the movie, was when I realized I was attracted to men. I was about 6 years old when I saw it, but...I knew. He was dreamy.

He worked endlessly In Ben Hur, training for weeks to drive his own chariot of horses. He became so good at it that the main stunt man only had to double for him twice in the iconic chariot race.

He deserved the Oscar alone for the grueling work he did in Ben Hur that went on for months.

Heston and director William Wyler with their Oscars for Ben Hur.

He was kinda hot back in the day...but his WASP genes meant that he aged poorly. I know a friend of mine on an ocean cruise website I go to who met him on a Silversea cruise that was a Golden Age of Hollywood thing. She said that he wore a bad toupee and fad horrendous denture breath.

Ben Hur is still my favorite movie! I loved the chariot racing.

He became a top star playing Moses in The Ten Commandents which became a huge hit and the last movie that Cecil B. DeMille ever directed.

How did he go from a super liberal to hard right winger?

Heston as young, handsome Moses in the Egyptian court of royalty.

R20 I honestly think it was age. He always had some Conservative values but they didn't become full blown until he became older and more of a crotchety old man.

He had big thighs and a huge chest...a sexy walk...but the booty was flat.

He liked showing his chest.

R23 Charlton relaxing.

Charlton not relaxing.

R20 because someone told him he would land in a higher tax bracket under the Democratic party.

Heston: a graduate of the Copacabana School of Dramatic Arts

NEXT

R20 I grant you that Heston may have had a low intellect (and some private issues) but he didn't actually change "from a super liberal to hard right winger".

I think he was consistent but American Society went through a massive change between the 1960s and 1990s.

I remember the super intellectual BBC Magazine 'The Listener" had a long, serious article saying "Apes" was the first major film showing Pubic Hair. It must have been around March 1968.

His bizarre behavior in his later years was probably due to the onset of Alzheimer's disease. Before that he seemed to be a liberal, marching for civil rights and what not. He didn't become a rabid conservative until he got older.

Anyhow, he was an incredible screen image. That voice, that body. He was really something.

Nice big body in Planet Of The Apes which revived his career at that time.

Would you fall in love with an ape and kiss it?

R3 I'm past the Major Dundee part. What's the story you're talking about?

Heston was the original pick to play 'the Great Leslie' in the 1965 comedy THE GREAT RACE.

Shame he didn't get to play it. I would have liked to have seen him in a comedy. Ultimately Tony Curtis got the role.

Heston stayed married to his wife, Lydia Clarke, for life, one of the few film stars to never get a divorce.

Actually R30 I believe that photo may be from Julius Caesar circa 1970. In Planet of the Apes, he wore a loincloth and his hair was longer

Was he packing heat?

R25 Dayum that boy was hairy!

He looked like he was packing major heat.

I love that photo above, where he’s reading in the nude great body, and I love that he’s hairy.

R35 Yes, you're correct. He made Julius Caesar in 1970 and still had a great body at 47.

He stated, "My waistline is my career" and always kept in shape by exercising and playing tennis. No Marlon Brando flab for him.

Heston became a screw-loose gun nut when he fell from star to has-been. He was dying for attention and adulation, he found both in the NRA.

R36 Here he is with a VPL.

Brando, like Orson Welles, went way past "flab" to morbid obesity. It's a wonder they survived as long as they did.

Will Penny

Heston had a reputation for being very professional on set. On [quote]Major Dundee[/italic], he grew frustrated with Richard Harris not knowing his lines and Sam Peckinpah being his usual asshole self. Peckinpah created some beautiful films, but he drover everyone around him crazy. One day one set, while Heston was in uniform and on horseback, Peckinpah was at it again. I don't remember what exactly he said, but Heston snapped. He drew his saber and on horseback charged Peckinpah, ready to kill him.

I read that in a Peckinpach biography and loved the image. And if you read about Peckinpah, you'll know Heston was not the only person in movies who ever wanted to kill Peckinpah.

R44 In the book about Heston it stated that he was very frustrated that Sam Peckinpah didn't seem to really know what Major Dundee was all about and had a lot of bad habits but Heston supported him anyway in order to get the movie done. And yes, Heston was always very professional on a movie set and well prepared.

Heston intensely disliked working with Sophia Loren in El Cid because she was hours late coming to the set after primping endlessly with her hair and makeup. He felt she was unprofessional.

He was all set to make another movie when he found out that Sophia was asked to be his co-star. He backed out but then signed on the dotted line after Sophia decided not to make the film after all.

I loved his cameo in Wayne's World 2

R47 He had a very commanding, deep voice.

During the making of Ben Hur there was homoerotic undertones between the characters of Ben Hur and Messala (played by Stephen Boyd). Boyd was approached about it and was fine with it but Heston was never told - he walked the straight and narrow path in more ways than one and could be a tad naïve.

Nothing feminine about HESTON. He was all man>

R50 All man Heston in Soylent Green.

Chuck Heston certainly wasn't shy about showing off his body.

Not shy at all.

Like most people he was also somewhat inconsistent in his views. He was very active in equal rights for blacks in the 60s but then he had no use for gays and had occasionally vocalized same.

He and his wife posed nude for life-drawing classes to earn money while in college. Have any drawings every surfaced?

R55 In his early years in New York City as a struggling actor he worked as a nude model for artists but not his wife - she got into various aspects of show business before he did.

Photo not from artist years but pleasant to look at.

R55 Heston worked as a nude model for artists in his struggling years as an actor but not his wife - she got into various aspects of show business before he did.

Photo not from his time as a model but pleasant to look at.

No, I remember an interview in which he discussed he and his wife both posing.

Charlton Heston.

Born 1923. Died in 2008 at 84 years of age.

cannot stand him.

His first movie "Dark City" was not a hit and his contract was sold to someone else.

Although Heston was in 2 religious movies, The Ten Commandments and Ben Hur, he wasn't a church goer and wasn't particularly religious. He believed in a Higher Power and tried to act in a decent, professional manner at all times.

The 2 tablets he used in The Ten Commandments were donated to a Presbyterian Church where they reside to this day.

Worst Toupee of his Generation

My favorite Heston movies are The Three Musketeers and Alaska. In the former, he's Cardinal Richelieu and the latter, a poacher after a polar bear cub.

Moses Moses!

THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH. He's the only one in the cast who doesn't realize they are in a campfest.

R67 Mr Charlton was always very, very earnest. Embarrassingly so.

He appeared in a lot of trash as well as the one magnificent movie. Wyler knew that he could hone Heston's embarrassing earnestness and make the viewers believe that Heston actually was a freedom fighter for 'his Jewish people' in that one, magnificent movie he made.

Wyler's genius made the movie Ben-Hur sensible on three levels.

1. It was a standard epic.

2. It was a movie to appeal to Sunday school Christians.

3. It was a movie to rally the Jewish people (just like 'Exodus' did two year later).

My brother told me that a couple of his friends were walking across Hampstead Heath on a very foggy night when a tall, imposing figure loomed out of the fog up ahead. As the person got nearer they realised it was Heston. That alone should have been reason for a double take but both said what really made their jaws drop was his appalling toupee.

He really had big hammy thighs. Almost womanly. I bet they jiggled when he walked. He was 6'3'

R67 Interesting true story. Charlton's new movie career was not going well and he was going back to his hotel in Hollywood to pack and leave because he had been turned down for an important part.

Driving on his way he saw none other than famed director Cecil B. DeMille (he knew of him but didn't know him) standing on the sidewalk. Heston gave him a big wave and a smile, and DeMille asked his secretary who the man in the car was. "Charlton Heston" she replied. DeMille was looking for the perfect actor (a younger extension of himself) to play the manager of the circus and when he had that vivid glimpse of Heston he knew he had found that man. Heston didn't get top billing in The Greatest Show On Earth but it was a huge hit and really put him on the map.

Soylent Green. He was believably grimey and sweaty. I like the movie for many reasons but reuniting with his Ten Commandments co-star was one of them. It was Edward G. Robinson's last role.

TGSoE.....

Yikes. Look at the Moobs on him.

And the chariot race is on!

I love hearing him say “Yo go, girl” at the beginning of Disney’s HERCULES

Edgar J. Hoover paid a visit to the cast of The Greatest Show On Earth.

With Cornel Wilde doing his best preening.

R77 Cornel Wilde played a trapeze artist in the circus flick and told Cecil B. DeMille that he was not afraid of heights and had some experience with the trapeze. He lied on both counts to get the job and Cecil was not happy with him.

Judah Ben Hur. The chariot scene is a classic. Also like his cross-species kiss in PotA. A

Heston practically erased his sister Lilla from his autobio; she was a distinguished teacher at Northwestern.

Lots of these semi-illiterate actors attach themselves to popular political figures for reasons of good publicity. JFK was a figure that attracted many especially the young... later the elders went nuts over Ronald Reagan, "our governor," a show business figure that "made good." Reagan racked in the older show biz set because they thought he made them look good. Superficial but true.

So no one is going to mention Touch of Evil, huh? Well, that was more of a Orson Welles movie than a Heston movie.

Heston had the look down as a tall, mustachioed Mexican, but didn't take the time to develop an accent.

I liked omegaman

Moses, Moses, he was hot. Too bad about the conservatism and all that

We must view that brilliant opening, r82!

As an eldergay who had a crush on the big lug back in the day (before his "cold dead hands" later years, I'm delighted there were a few gay rumors about the guy. However, I'm afraid those rumors may be more wishful-thinking than reality, since I think both stories (one featuring Sal Mineo and another a handsome black twink) were recounted by Darwin Porter...

I like the film he was in where he plays the bewigged bigoted old asshole who is happy to accept children being shot in their classrooms because their elders can’t accept that a constitutional right to keep a musket in a homestead is different from a constitutional right to keep a semi-automatic 21st century firearm.

This might be of interest from the straight men who have had gay sex in the past thread...

"I recently had a conversation with a friend in Madrid who met Charlton Heston when he was filming there a number of years ago (el Cid?) They developed a friendship that lasted many years. He claims Heston was not the conservative homophobe he became later in life. He also says he was very aware of the gay subtext in Ben Hur, and was in fact gay friendly. I do not know him well enough to pursue how "friendly" they were (I suspect it was very intimate.) I do, however, believe his analysis. Through most of his career Heston stripped off regularly. Ever see those front and rear G-string shots from Julius Caesar? He had to know his audience was not Evangelicals! My friend also thinks the Alzheimer's significantly altered Heston's personality. This is all pure conjecture and interpretation on my part, but it all seems plausible to me.

—PeeBee"

Does anyone remember the 1972 movie Antony and Cleopatra - an adaptation of the Shakespeare play ? It gets several positive reviews on the IMDB. I went to see it in London and I was only one of three people in the audience.

Earthquake

Soylent Green

The Omega Man

As a child, I remember seeing him in El Cid and found him very handsome. Sophia Loren co-starred so it was a real va-va-voom movie to my tiny moviegoing brain.

It would be interesting to watch again.

I've always enjoyed his movies, but have never found him attractive.

I was told he had a long time romance with James Franciscus.(sic)

I find Ben Hur so dull as to be unwatchable.

I love, however, the magnificent campiness of The Ten Commandments. A guilty pleasure which I try to watch every year.

As a child, I remember seeing Planet of the Apes and Soylent Green in the theaters. I liked him then, but his ultra-conservativeness in his later years was a huge turn off.

Soylent Green, though the apartments coming with a woman like a piece of furniture was just weird.

He did not get along with Ava Gardner.

They appeared together in "55 Days at Peking".

Later, he was not happy she was cast in "Earthquake".

[quote]...semi-illiterate actors

He was many things, but he was far from illiterate. Or even semi-illiterate.

Not sure if he was a good actor. An action hunk vin diesel or the rock of his day?

R96 They were very leery of hiring Ava Gardner for the movie because of her reputation. And she did not disappoint - she showed up drunk one day before filming was to start and trashed the script. She continued her drunken spree, including walking off the set, until the director went back to his trailer, had a massive heart attack and died. She was repentant for awhile then went back on the booze again. She wasn't liked on the set, needless to say.

I never wanted to see his films, never.

Seeing him all stripped to a loincloth, as the ships were burning in BEN HUR., turned this little 4 year old into a MASSIVE QUEER.

They had to cast someone with enough dewy-eyed youth to be believable as my daughter, r96.

R82 Heston fought for Orson Welles to direct the movie, his first job in a long time. It was supposed to star Charlton Heston but as time went on he noticed that his role was getting smaller and Welles was getting bigger. The studio was not pleased with Welles director's cut so they went back and shot more scenes with Heston to beef out his part. Heston later said that Welles was a brilliant actor and director but too slow, stubborn, and difficult to work with.

Uh-huh, Heston would have been a much better director than Welles, given half a chance.

Did Ava have him ?

I always liked this costume from Antony and Cleopatra.

Why that there's the smallest apron I have ever done seen, r106!

I can’t look at him because I hate his leg shape and his walk.

Just like Morgan from The Walking Dead. Hate his legs.

[quote] Heston later said that Welles was a brilliant actor and director but too slow, stubborn, and difficult to work with.

Heston kind of hinted at that in this clip from a documentary about Welles. He even said that Touch of Evil wasn't a great movie, but had moments of brilliance in it due to Welles.

I love this clip....I know, I know, Chuckie isn't in it.

He did have womanly thighs

Heston said Vanessa Redgrave was the greatest actress alive. Sorry F. Murray Abraham. He also admired her professionalism and said she always showed up ready to work but took ridiculous chances in her acting.

[R93] I was told he had a long time romance with James Franciscus.(sic) —Anonymous

Wow, so their movie together was actually "In the Closet of the Planet of the Apes."

I loved him in his roles of Stephanie Beacham's husband and Stephanie Forrester's neighbor.

Check out The Naked Jungle where he stars as a rubber plantation owner with Eleanor "The Baroness" Parker as his mail order bride, who battle killer soldier ants in South America. One of my all time favourite guilty pleasure movies.

Planet Of The Apes(1968), The Omega Man(1972), Soylent Green (1973), Earthquake(1974)

I liked him in these movies:

Planet of the Apes

Touch of Evil

Ben-Hur

The Ten Commandments

The Omega Man

Soylent Green

Heston is the perfect example of a man who is handsome, rugged, well-built, and masculine--but who is not the least bit sexy. To me at least.

I agree, R118. There's something "church lady" about him.

In my opinion he is such a bad actor that his performances in Ben-Hur and Ten Commandments are at best camp. I laughed out loud all the way through Planet of the Apes when I saw it as a kid with my best friend Binny at the time. Even then I thought he was a joke.

Chuck relaxing in a big, soapy bath bucket.

Who wants to take me out for a walk today?

His sister was my teacher and academic advisor. She was much more butch than he was. (And a better actor.)

"In my opinion he is such a bad actor that his performances in Ben-Hur and Ten Commandments are at best camp."

Oh for fuck's sake, he wasn't a BAD actor. He was a particular TYPE of actor, like John Wayne or Clint Eastwood. He was born to play roles like Moses and Ben-Hur, roles that required a commanding presence and physical strength and a great body. He was the image of a true movie star. There aren't anymore like that these days. I can't think of any that come close, even action picture stars.

The Big Countrywith Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons & Burl Ives

Ben-Hur; The Naked Jungle; Lucy Gallant; 55 Days at Peking; Khartoum

Agree with R101 - His scene floating on ship wreckage in Ben-Hur is pure masculine physical beauty.

Why is Moses so handsome? For that matter, why is Jesus always depicted as a handsome guy with long hair (wasn't he homely looking?)

R122, he SOOOOO needs to work out (unlike most of his generation)

Ben Hur saves the day and is rewarded by a wealthy Roman.

Oh my, he resembles Shawn Mendez a little bit in r4 s photo.

I always thought he was a one note actor with zero range, sort of like John Wayne or Clint Eastwood. He was good at embodying a certain type of archetype, but that was about it. He was just an "It" Guy.

Bless you r115 for mentioning The Naked Jungle. I always liked movies that had an undertone of repressed sexuality when I was a kid. Weird, I know. Heston plays Lanagan, a sugar cane plantation owner who orders a mail order bride and is turned off because she was married once before. It turns out he's a virgin. He tells her he wants an annulment and tells her to get packing. But before that can happen a giant swarm of angry flesh eating fire ants descend on the plantation. Eating everything in sight and stripping all the vegetation in their path including his sugar cane. He and the villagers take refuge inside the walls of his great house to make their last stand. A thrilling and scary movie with a great ending because it's Lanagan's woman who shows up the cowardly men in the village as she fights by her husbands side.

R132 The Naked Jungle starring Heston and Eleanor Parker.

The ants are coming!!

Another vote for "The Naked Jungle".

Don't fall asleep in your boat as it drifts down the river or you'll be sorry.

Eleanor Parker, my idol

Heston is effective in this creepy thriller about the Russian invasion.

(with Tab Hunter)

Heston wanted his 1967 movie "Will Penny" to put him back on top but it didn't quite do the trick.

He loved making cowboy movies and he stated that this is his favorite film.

Will Penny may not be an all time classic but it is a very good film that still holds up.

I liked him in 'Planet of the Apes' and 'The Omega Man'. His kiss with Rosalind Cash in 'The Omega Man' was sort of a big deal back then: the idea of Moses kissing a black woman upset a lot of people back then. It's a shame he tarnished his reputation later in life with that NRA bullshit.

Everybody evolves over time, R140. You will too.

I asked a great character actor I knew back in the '90s who has since passed away who was about CH's age if he ever met him or worked with him.

He said: "No. We're on the opposite side of a lot of political issues. And also, he's the most CONSTIPATED actor I've ever seen in my life."

R142, Vanessa Redgrave was also on the opposite side of his politics and they not only worked together, he said she was a great friend because they never talked politics.

I remember a scene in the long forgotten film NUMBER ONE in which he played a QB on the way out. In the scene he comes home in a bad mood and finds his wife getting a back massage from her gay male friend and proceeds to bully the guy calling him derogatory names and then physically grabs him and throws him out of the house telling his wife something along the lines of "I can't stand to see that faggot touching you"

[quote]And also, he's the most CONSTIPATED actor I've ever seen in my life."

Apparently he never saw Miss Sada Thompson.

At a graduation ceremony at Pepperdine in Malibu, in 1984, I had a pleasant conversation with the lady sitting next to me before the ceremony began. During the ceremony the emcee, Peter Ueberroth, introduced notable guests, and when he named Charlton Heston's wife Lydia, the lady next to me stood up. I had no idea. She was very sweet and I think she had enjoyed having an ordinary conversation with a non-Hollywood person. One of their kids was graduating that day. Charlton wasn't there because he was filming a move, in Europe, I think.

Charlton Heston, highschool year book.

Heston, young.

Baby Moses floating in the water in The Ten Commandments.

Director William Wyler used Charlton Heston's own newborn son Fraser, only 3 months old, to play the baby in the floating basket.

"I asked a great character actor I knew back in the '90s who has since passed away ..."

Do you mean DIED, reverend?

"I asked a great character actor I knew back in the '90s"

How typical of supporting actors to make bitchy remarks about the star actors!

The shots of a nearly naked Heston in Julius Caesar (way earlier in this thread) don't actually show up in the release print. The sequence (a footrace during Caesar's "triumph," as they're called) was filmed, and the stills became the basis for an After Dark article (of course), but in the finished film you see just one second of it.

Also: does Heston's physique look gymmed up? Could he be naturally rugged? Because the muscles aren't enhanced, really. They're just sort of big in a lumbering way.

Still, his build is impressive for the time.

R141, I realize that. Strangely enough, I've gotten more liberal as I've gotten older. I just hate painting individual people with incredibly broad brushes. So many people despise Heston for his NRA activism, without taking a greater measure of the man. I'm just an advocate for seeing people in all their complexities, without ever really understanding what makes them truly tick. DL is a gossip site, of course, and trying to really paint in the chiaroscuro of a real person's life can be very difficult, but lots of separate stories actually do help.

R140

R150 That was De Mille not Wyler.

Thank you, R124. Charlton Heston was a big old narcissistic hunk who liked to show off his hot body. What's the problem with that?

And I was so glad someone else mentioned him as Cardinal Richelieu in TheThree Musketeers. He was, for once, RESTRAINED. And very funny..

Planet Of The Apes was a real gamble for Heston and the movie studio. He hadn't had a big movie hit in quite some time and they not sure if this movie would be a hit or if it would even be released.

But it was a smash hit, earning millions of dollars, and put Heston back in a credible position again.

The end of the movie where astronaut Heston realizes that he is actually on planet Earth which has been ravaged by war and taken over by intelligent ape species.

He "played tennis" with James Franciscus.

Quite a bit.

"Soylent Green" has become a cult classic. I guess he decided to do more sci-fi pictures because "Planet of the Apes" was so successful. I'm not sure how well it did financially but it still holds up today. And it has one of the most terrifying, moving scenes in the movies: the euthanization of the Edward G. Robinson character. The sadness of the old man wanting to die was bad enough but it was scary as hell to see a giant screen depicting beauties of the world that were long gone, like trees and flowers and wildlife. Robinson knew he was dying of cancer when he made the movie; he died shortly after. His performance merited an Oscar nomination. It was one of his best.

R160 Edward G. Robinson was supposed to be in Planet Of The Apes with Charlton Heston but pulled out the day before filming began. His health was failing and he felt that he wouldn't be able to make it through the movie wearing an ape costume. Roddy McDowell took over for him. Heston and Robinson were friends and appeared in a number of movies together.

An odd side-note to R158:

I saw PLanet Of the Apes way way back when it first came out. I was in Amsterdam. When that last image came up, of Liberty mired in sand and Heston reacting so forcefully, I could tell that the audience I was with didn't understand what had happened. They were all looking at one another quizzically as the lights came up.

In other words, the Statue Of Liberty isn't as well known abroad as we might think. I was shocked. But then, I suppose they don't see its image as often as we do.

No one has mentioned "The Agony and the Ecstasy," where he played Renaissance queen Michelangelo.

Agony and the Ecstasy covered the period in Michelangelo's life before he became the greatest Gay Artist in the world, ever! Charlton Heston played him straight, because Irving Stone wrote his character as a straight man. Talking about revising history.

R164 No one knows how Michelangelo conducted his sex life. The film is primarily about him painting the Pope's ceiling.

Diane Cilento appeared in two short scenes; I don't remember any sex between them.

R163 Heston's period pictures always did well. He expected The Agony And The Ecstasy to be a big hit but it wasn't. It couldn't seems to find an audience and faded.

R165 The author of Heston's book stated that it was obvious by Michelangelo's poetry that he was gay and attracted to men but Heston thought he was straight and played him that way. This was back in the mid 1960's when there was still tremendous homophobia.

R166 Heston belonged in period pictures.

He was so big that he always looked uncomfortable wearing ordinary current-day streetwear collars and ties etc.

As Michelangelo in The Agony And The Ecstasy.

R167 It's not as simplistic as all that. In 1965 Heston was in charge of a multi-million dollar mainstream movie from a best-selling mainstream book marketed to mainstream Mr and Mrs America trying to understand Culture.

The author of that book (Irving Stone Tennenbaum) owned the copyright on this multi-million dollar property and would not allow any tinkering with his best-selling formula to look at Michelangelo's distracting, undramatic sex-jaunts with prostitute-boys.

Before filming began for "The Colbys", Barbara Stanwyck was asked what she thought about getting to work with Charlton Heston. She replied, "Not much".

After the show was in production, a different reporter asked her what it was like working with Charlton Heston. Stanwyck responded, "He still thinks he can part the Red Sea".

I think the only thing I ever saw him in was THE BIG COUNTRY, with Carroll Baker.

He's goodlooking, but I just never was attracted to seeing his movies.

#FansGoingTheirOwnWay

Oh, Moses, Moses, you stubborn, splendid, adorable fool!

Jesus saves.

Shirley Knight from the Actors Studio said, "Hollywood is that place where they give Charlton Heston acting awards."

LOL! At Barbara Stanwyck. When his career hit the skids he did infomercials where he read the Bible and traveled to the Holy Land.

He sure was a fine piece back in the day. He sure was. And he had no problem strutting round letting everyone see how fine he was. And you know, that was kind of cruel for Stephen Boyd because he was Gay and he had to have had the hots for Chuck. Ya know?

Edward G. Robinson was supposed to have been in "The Planet of the Apes" playing the character Roddy McDowell played? That sounds very far-fetched to me. He would have ridiculous in that role. I can see him playing one of the older apes, though.

Has anyone mentioned "DIamond Head?" I saw it on TCM a while back and it's pretty campy. With a "stellar" cast including Yvette Mimieux, France Nuyen and James Darren.

Charlton Heston had high hopes for "Number One", a movie about an aging football champion. But it was a commercial failure and no accolades for his performance which he hoped would happen.

R180 Showing some skin in the shower room.

I get him mixed up with Charles Bickford. And Kirk Douglas.

R178 I stand corrected. After Edward G. Robinson left production he was replaced by English actor Maurice Evans to play the older ape.

R158, R162's clip.

You damn dirty ape!

"Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape?" One of the greatest lines in the movies.

R186- I agree.

R186 I don't know what so great about it. It has adjectives and adverbs, anger and extravagance. I guess it's no more extravagant than 'cold dead hands'.

The Naked Jungle with Eleanor Parker.

R189 Well that makes 4 votes for 'Naked Jungle'.

I've always turned it off half-way through.

Does Chuck strip off? Do ants crawl over Eleanor's body? Was any of it shot outside the Hollywood studio?

Chuck looking swarthy and sexy in The Naked Jungle.

Eleanor and Charlton in his mansion in Brazil, soon to be attacked by army ants. it was a big hit at the box office.

Parker and Heston were kind of similar, in that they were proficient...but not distinctive enough to be mega stars.

No one ever really cared much about either of them.

R193, I would think that Heston was definitely a mega star in an era when they were waning.

R193 Yes he was proficient but not much more. He was a star of the box office for just a decade from the 'Ben-Hur' Oscar until the end of the 60s.

He was having to finance his own vanity productions after that — such as his rather pathetic remake of 'Man for All Seasons' and his two rather pathetic Shakespeare films.

R193 Yes. Although he was not a great actor he did have great presence on screen which propelled him to the top.

R196 was actually meant for R194

Charlton Heston will be forever remembered as Moses parting the Red Sea. One of those once in a lifetime roles as well as Ben Hur for which he won the Oscar.

The base of Heston's cock at R181 looks VERY promising. Beautiful dark, wet bush.

Neither of those are films that have endured with popular appeal.

I've seen most of his movies and "Naked Jungle" found a special place in my heart after I saw it years ago......there was one ass shot that had me drooling (during the ant attack....which I could've cared less about....show me more ass!).

Many of us enjoy watching classic, overwrought movies like 'The Ten Commandments' or 'Ben Hur'. There are so many pallid, fey movies put out today, or all those awful comic book movies which I hate with a passion. I'd rather have the hair on my arms stand up watching the chariot race in 'Ben Hur'. Charlton Heston was a commanding presence in his movies. Tall, handsome, not afraid to show some skin, and with a rich, expressive voice.

[quote]r202 Many of us enjoy watching classic, overwrought movies like 'The Ten Commandments' or 'Ben Hur'. There are so many pallid, fey movies put out today, or all those awful comic book movies which I hate with a passion.

They just sound so cardboard. They're really no different from the superhero movies of their day.

R203 'The Ten Commandments' was cliched cardboard directed by an old-time moron who belonged in the silent era.

But 'Ben-Hur' was quite different— as I explained back in R68.

Both The Ten Commandments and Ben Hur DO stand the test of time. Beautifully made movies by great directors that are still shown at special times on TV every year. I like them both but I'd give the edge to Ben Hur, for which Heston won the Oscar, and so did William Wyler.

I thought Elizabeth Taylor was the last icon.

R200, popular appeal is not about endurance, it's about the moment.

Sadly, CDAN outed Heston as a rapist, when he was picking up those young black boys and taking them home.

Charlton Heston with James Franciscus who small claim he had an affair with.

R209 He did look rather fetching in Beneath The Planet Of The Apes.

The gorillas in The Planet Of The Apes were kinda HOT.

r211=Roseanne Barr

R124, how about Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Daniel Craig, among others. Some, like Cruise and Ford are one note actors- but all more convincing than Heston. Like I said- he makes me laugh out loud- in anything. I would even put him up there with Ali McGraw (a beauty and smart and interesting on chat shows)- also one of the worst ever.

R213 Charlton Heston is a great actor compared to Tom Cruise. Heston has an Oscar and Cruise doesn't even come close. Just the same old formulated crap movies all the time.

"Some, like Cruise and Ford are one note actors- but all more convincing than Heston. "

None of the ones you mentioned ever came close to the presence and charisma and star quality Heston had on the screen. I guess you're just too dense to recognize that.

Wouldn't you have wanted the young Moses?

She tried!

🙊 He Kissed An Ape And He Liked It ?

I think he's handsome, but kind of cut from the same basically shallow cloth as Kirk Douglas....though Douglas was livelier.

Burt Lancaster kind of falls into this catagory, too. All three were professional, but aside from the way they looked nothing about their performances was ever truly eye opening.

I enjoyed the film where he wore a loincloth very much.

R26 He handled himself appropriately with that obese, whining, virtue-signalling, emotional-blackmailer.

R41 I bet that picture of him wearing that little Continental ‘Vee’ was taken in Spain in the early 60s filming ‘El Cid’ or ’55 Days in Peking’.

R49 I don’t believe that scuttlebutt for a minute. Slimy Gore Vidal waited until everyone was dead before concocting that story (you’ll notice he slimily refused to say he was homosexual until the 90s).

R54 Can you quote an instance when Heston vocalized ‘he had no use for gays’?

R60 You sound like someone who’s conversation is locked in the ‘twitterverse’.

R63 Do you know which Presbyterian Church got the ‘Ten Commandments’ tablets? I couldn’t see anything on Google.

R89 It was pathetic; American Heston was hopelessly unskilled at Shakespeare.

R140 Poitier was prettier than Denzel.

R142 Who are you taking about? Who was this bit player who bitched about Heston being ‘constipated’? Did they have flowing bowel’?

R221 Concerning R89 they had problems getting funding to make the movie Anthony And Cleopatra even with Heston's name attached to it. They could not find a director so Heston said that he would direct it himself. They all gave it the old college try but it was not Heston's finest hour. What also didn't help it that he was the only recognizable name in the cast.

Charlton Heston was offered a starring role in the iconic film Deliverance and he was eager to do it. But when the smoke cleared the producers gave the role to the younger Burt Reynolds who was 13 years younger than Heston.

[quote] But when the smoke cleared the producers gave the role to the younger Burt Reynolds who was 13 years younger than Heston.

And then they died.

I wonder if he had an anonymous sugar-daddy named Mr Heston back in 1950 to get him into movies and who told him to change his name from John to ‘Charlton’ and not ‘Charleston’.

He was a little pretentious that he could think he could hire proficient actors like Maximilian Schell, Vanessa, Olivier, Gielgud and Richardson to play in supporting roles to give him credibility and attempt Shakespeare twice and do ‘A Man for All Seasons’.

R221 The sad thing about ‘Antony And Cleopatra’ is that it’s second-rate Shakespeare. The sadder thing is that a quality version of the play was attempted back in 1953.

Michael Redgrave’s biography (by Alan Strachan) says Felippe del Giudice (who produced Oliver’s ‘Henry V’ and ‘Hamlet’) asked him to direct and co-star in a film version based on his successful production at Straftford. Orson Welles would play Enobarbus as a return favour for Redgrave playing in Welles’ ‘Mr Arkadin’.

Del Giudice went looking for funds in Milan when news arrived of a planned rival production by Korda with the Oliviers at Cinecitta.

This caused much ill-feeling between the two rival actor-knights. Redgrave wrote to Del Giudice saying ‘I don’t blame Olivier wanting to restore his position as the leading English classical actor and also make a lot of money. But I do blame him for kicking his friends aside to it’.

What kind of straight man in the '50s- '60s had the pertness of nipple demonstrated in the shot at R216?

I loved Yul Brynner in The Ten Commandments!!! Damn he has some great lines. And Charlton Heston is undeniably sexy. Then there's John Derek, so lots of eye candy. Edward G. Robinson and Vincent Price are unintentionally hilarious, and Debra Paget and Ann Baxter so melodramatic and campy they still make me laugh.

I remember watching Diamond Head. I adored James Darren. I wish he 'd had a better career. All those fucking Gidget movies ruined him. I saw him in a black and white with Shelley Winters and he was damned good. George Chakiris played his brother in Diamond Head. he was supposed to fall in love with the blonde but somehow I was not convinced. Poor Yevette Mimieux. Never could act for shit. Then she played the retarded girl in A Light in the Piazza with George Hamilton and they had a race to the bottom.

"Edward G. Robinson and Vincent Price are unintentionally hilarious"

I kind of doubt that. Of all the cast, they were simply in on the joke.

De Mille was a joke.

He should have retired in 1927 when actors were required to speak.

No-one else would have chosen a Burbank broad to play the Queen of Egypt or that big piece of baloney named Victor Mature to play Samson.

R229 No! Cecil B. DeMille was one of the legendary directors of all time. A perfectionist who saw to every detail.

R225 The esteemed Shakespearean scholar Frank Kermode thinks otherwise. "The play [Antony and Cleopatra] is now quite commonly considered to be among Shakespeare's supreme achievements. An age which has the theatrical conditions necessary to reproduce the rapid flow of scene easily disposes of the objections of [A.C.] Bradley and [Samuel] Johnson. There is now much less to prevent us from sensing, in the theatre or in the study, the sustained interplay of theme and poetry that makes this one of the most highly-wrought of all the tragedies. "

I love Pauline Kael's description of Charlton in "Earthquake": "Rescuing, rescuing, rescuing."

Heston must’ve fucked Shelley Winters - everybody fucked Shelley!

James Franciscus looks like an eager bottom.

I don't know why he chose the name "Charlton," which sounds too close to "charlatan."

He has the face (and hair!) HRH Prince William should have grown into.

He would firmly state that there was no evidence or any indications that Michelsngelo was gay.

R237 He made the movie about Michelangelo back in the mid 1960's when everyone was quite repressed about homosexuality, including him.

Check him out in his 1956 appearance on What's My Line?, promoting the opening of The 10 Commandments. Which Bennett Cerf disparages!

He's incredibly handsome but about as dull and dim as a dirt road. He doesn't even seem to get that's he supposed to disguise his voice.

Ooops. Stinky linky.

Somebody help, please.

R236 That's a toupee on Charlton, so William could still grow in to one of those.

I would have refused to go on that silly show if I were him.

I don't want to play a silly show with silly voices to silly old NY women and effeminate men.

Another vote for "Will Penny."

Plus, admittedly, I enjoyed watching him get his 6'3 frame into that tiny tub to take a bath.

Any love for The President's Lady with Chuck as Andrew Jackson and Susan Hayward as his scandalous wife?

This one was a stalwart on the old Saturday Night at the Movies TV series, one of the first to feature major films on prime time TV, all from the late 1940s.and 1950s 20th Century Fox vault.

[quote] old Saturday Night at the Movies TV series

Yes, R244! I remember those!

Where I learned to love Richard Widmark because they showed so many of his films:

Halls of Montezuma,

Destination Gobi,

Hell and High Water,

The Frogmen,

Red Skies of Montana,

O'Henry's Full House,

Garden of Evil,

and Broken Lance

Sorry to interrupt the Heston thread, but my liking of Widmark began as a kid with all those movies of his on "Saturday Night at the Movies".

I remember watching it as a kid and enjoying it, r244. Now all I really remember is Susie smoking the pipe.

For any other Richard Widmark fans, there is a thread

I discovered Susan Hayward at Saturday Night at the Movies!

Not only The President's Lady but also White Witch Doctor (the tarantula in her bed!), I'll Cry Tomorrow (Red, Red Robin!), My Foolish Love (the title tune!) and the unforgettable With a Song in My Heart (Thelma Ritter AND Rory Calhoun!!).

Hate his politics but amazed how fearless he was in showing his body. Especially in the Ape films. So, for that I am grateful.

The one in which he talked to that chair. (Senile old bastard.)

he rode the Hershey highway to fame

[quote]The one in which he talked to that chair. (Senile old bastard.)

I think that was Clint Eastwood, dear.

Here's the Heston What's My Line. He never looked handsomer.

It's refreshing to see the mystery guest ignoring the tradition of the silly voice. Mrs. Roosevelt did, too, when she was on.

The panel is really dumb. Kilgallen's "Elvis" is incomprehensible. And even after Arlene gets The ten Commandments, Fairbanks is so stupid he goes off on a tangent instead of guessing Heston.

When Heston's hit film Earthquake was released it was shown with Sensurround which greatly enhanced the sound effects. At Grauman's Chinese Theatre the Sensurround caused plaster to fall down from the ceiling and people ran out of the building believing that an earthquake really was taking place.

Was he hired in the 1950s and 1960s for his sex appeal rather than acting talent?

He was hired because he had a god-like larger than life quality.

I worked at this theater when Earthquake opened, r254. I believe there were 8 Sensurround speakers. They were huge and the building had to be inspected before they were installed. We didn't have a falling plaster problem or people running out. I imagine the Los Angeles audiences might have been more likely to be jumpy.

Wardrobe still for Ben Hur.

Costume check.

R254, no plaster fell but they cleverly put up netting on the ceiling to give the impression that it might happen

R253 Epic forehead.

Damn, he liked showing off that body. I saw the silent Ben Hur with Roman Navarro last year. It was a better movie. I was surprised.

R63 R221 When Christies put a pair of those tablets used in the film up for sale in 2001, they indicated that there was actually SIX pairs made for the film. .. They'd previously sold two of them, and somewhat interesting how they've gone down in value over the years.

Are those letters on the tablets a real language or just gobbledy-gook?

"early Canaanite-style script"

Quite stylish too.

I've always liked disaster movies, but Earthquake is really a terrible movie.

Not even funny terrible, just sooo bad.

Not as bad as "The Swarm". but bad.

This article on what alphabet Moses had available at the time is interesting and gives some praise to the film for recognizing this.

Anyone lick his backside when his Forever Stamp was issued?

R266 Yes, "Earthquake" sucked. It needed an emotional Shelley Winters or a touching theme song to give it some heart.

R258 R259 Va Va Voom!

Well, I think Chuck Heston is actually rather adorable in his WML appearance!

Did he actually think he was disguising his voice? Is that what he says to John Daly after the reveal? And he's very forgiving of Bennett in spite of Bennett's rude behavior.

Don't forget it did prominently feature Miss Principal's jugs, r269.

Is that Planet of the Apes doll anatomically correct?

Prime.

Heston made some interesting choices along the way to keep working and bankable. Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green and Omega Man are still good sci-fi films to watch. Think back to when the films were released - each plot was unique (in its day). Make-up and special effects were top notch. Even the casting was surprising for audiences.

Yes, he outlived his popularity and dementia left him looking foolish, which was unfortunate. i love seeing him in just a loincloth... he really did have a beautiful body.

Working out.

Whenever I watch "The Ten Commandments" , I remember a funeral scene in Joe Orton's play "Loot", where Nurse Fay places a copy of the commandments on the casket and says of the deceased, "She was a great believer in some of them." Also, Mel Brooks as Moses dropping one tablet and then cutting the tally from 15 to10. Charlton took it all much more seriously, of course.

I once read and heard that Charlton Heston "allegedly" use to pick up guys on Sunset Strip in the 1980's. The person who said it had no reason to lie. Has anyone else ever heard this? Also, does anyone know if Charlton Heston ever "allegedly" used the casting couch on his way up in Hollywood, etc?

Ben Hur turns the tables on a captive Roman.

R279 Wouldn't surprise me if he picked up guys sometimes. There was a definite ping to him.

Before Hollywood he posed as a nude model to make money. He wasn't prudish.

"I once read and heard that Charlton Heston "allegedly" use to pick up guys on Sunset Strip in the 1980's. The person who said it had no reason to lie."

Sounds like total bullshit to me. And the person you're speaking of also has no reason NOT to lie.

Heston liked his men the way he liked his coffee...black with lots of sugar.

I went out with his nephew a couple of times.. HOT HOT HOT!

Complex character. How can you walk with civil rights’ greatest, and then represent closeted racists in the NRA?

R283 Tell us more!!

Renaissance Queen, Michaelangelo.

I think this might be one of the funniest descriptions I’ve ever heard. I love DL.

r238

He’s around 6’’, dark hair.. very handsome . Very nice.

Watching him in "The Agony and the Ecstasy". He once again is playing a gay character though I am sure he refused to believe Michelangelo was gay. I haven't seen this film in years and am impressed that though he was playing a larger than life character, he did a good job of showing vulnerability and sensitivity.

R288 Yup, in his own memoir he said that he believed that Michelangelo was not gay. He was always fairly conservative but still a fair and decent guy.

It wasn't until his later years that he went into full blow-out Conservative, including with the NRA.

His son stated after his death that he believed that the NRA was using Heston for their own purposes but he (the son) didn't feel it was his place to tell his father what to do.

55 DAYS AT PEKING, now THERE"s a dull movie...but certainly not BEN-HUR or EL CID...and even THE TEN COMMANDMENTS and THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH are superbly entertaining for many reasons, not the least being the incredible color of the cinematography.

In truth, the Wyler chariot race is almost a shot-by-shot recreation of the Navarro silent version.

Agreed, r231. The situations of the play are tremendous, and its poetry is breathtaking. Enobarbus' speech about the royal barge alone would be enough to secure its place in history. I'm looking forward to the Ralph Fiennes/Sophie Okenedo broadcast in a few days.

R290 Heston said that Ava Gardner was terrible to work with on 55 Days At Peking as they expected her to be. She showed up the day before filming was to start, trashed the script, and got drunk - and stayed drunk and surly for most of the shooting.

I never thought Gardner was a good actress. She was pure ham and was the sole weak performer in 55 Days. Nice chemistry between Heston and David Niven. Flora Robson stole the show as the Dowager Empress. Heston looked fine in this flm.

R293, The whole production was a mess. Producer Sam Bronston spent hundreds of thousands meticulously recreating 1900s Peking in Spain and only 1/3 of the set was used. Meanwhile, there was no completed script, resulting in writers being flown in to write on the spot. The actors received pages of dialogue the night before, which unnerved Gardner. And whenever Ava demanded rewrites, Heston demanded rewrites. And whenever, Heston had a big scene written for him, David Niven would demand a big scene written for himself. Director Nicholas Ray, unsure of his ability to helm an epic production, had a nervous breakdown midway through and left the production.

Ava was in a bad place at the time. Her looks were fading, her career had stalled, she was having violent mood swings, and she kept turning to alcohol to chase the troubles away. The stories from Madrid where she was living at the time, about her getting wildy, violently drunk, harrassing waitstaff, salesclerks, shopkeepers, and friends equally, and then sweetly, sincerely, and tearfully apologizing the next day are legion.

This shows what happens when a talentless "personality" is made a movie star. These are people who can function only on a thoroughly stable set, in the old studio-age manner. When things go awry and they don't trust the director and staff, they go crazy and wreck the place.

Heston and Niven were pros, but once Gardner started throwing tantrums, they three tantrums, too. At least when Davis or Streisand got demanding, they had talent behind it. With Gardner, you had nothing but a beautiful woman--presence, but no content.

^^^ threw, not three

"Ruby Gentry"--delirious melodrama with Jennifer Jones, a modern "Duel in the Sun," also directed by King Vidor.

Naked Jungle has some great scenes with the two stars, where they emote with dueling chests.

Charlton Heston is whom (I'd bet) everyone thought Prince William would grow up to resemble.

I think Heston declined ""Fall of the Roman Empire," because Loren had signed for it, and after "El Cid" he wasn't up for that. It was also directed by Anthony Mann, with Stephen Boyd as the lead.

His last interview, with Peter Jennings, in which he and his wife discuss his Alzheimer's.

Ava Gardner looked over the hill-even when she was young.

R302, then "over-the-hill" never looked so good.

R302 One of Ava Gardner's best roles was that of Maxine in Night Of The Iguana where she simply played an extension of herself - bawdy, somewhat unkempt, a boozer, and carefree. And she delivered!

In Earthquake, Heston looked a little doughy, but that didn't stop him from disrobing before the cameras again. I wonder if going barechested was written into his contract.

R303, that pic reminds how now and then I'll see a shot of her and be flabbergasted anew at her beauty. AND she had a great figure. AND a beautiful voice. One of her first big parts was in a B called "Whistle Stop," opposite walking sculpture George Raft, and some of her closeups in that... it's viewable on YouTube.

r304 Ava berry berry good to us.

I get him mixed up with Burt Lancaster.